Novu

Adding an in-app notification center to a SaaS product

Create a workflow with an In-App step, install @novu/react and render the Inbox with the application identifier and the signed-in user's ID as subscriber ID. Trigger the workflow from the backend with a secret API key, never from browser code. Check that the bell count updates in real time over the WebSocket service, that action buttons route through the routerPush handler, and that HMAC subscriber verification is enabled before production so one user cannot read another user's feed.

Routing transactional messages across email and SMS

Connect an email provider such as Amazon SES or Postmark and an SMS provider such as Twilio, then build a workflow with an email step followed by a conditional SMS step. Use step conditions so the SMS only runs when the email was not read or the subscriber has no email address. Review the activity feed for each test run, confirm the provider message IDs, and set up a fallback provider before relying on a single vendor for password resets or one-time codes.

Reducing notification noise with digests

Insert a digest step before the email channel so that comment, mention or alert events collect for a fixed window, for example one hour, and arrive as one message. Group by subscriber and, if needed, by a payload key such as a project ID. Render the digested event list in the email template. Check the plan's maximum digest window and test what happens when a single event arrives, so the template still reads correctly with one item.

Defining workflows in code next to the application

Teams that prefer version-controlled templates can write workflows with @novu/framework, expose them on a bridge route in Next.js, NestJS or Express, and sync them to Novu with the CLI or a GitHub Action. Step controls let product staff edit approved fields such as subject lines in the dashboard without changing code. Validate payload schemas with Zod or JSON Schema and run the sync in CI so production workflows match the reviewed branch.

Putting an existing agent into Slack, Teams or WhatsApp

Register the agent in Novu, connect the channel through the dashboard or npx novu@latest connect, and point Novu at the agent endpoint or a Claude Managed Agent. Novu delivers each inbound message in a normalised format and sends the reply back with channel-aware formatting. Test threading, reactions and tool approval in each target channel, and review which user identities the agent can see before exposing it to customers.

Self-hosting for data control

Run the setup script on a host with Docker, keep the generated secrets, set HOST_NAME, and confirm the API health check at /v1/health-check. Move MongoDB and Redis to managed or dedicated instances, enable Redis AOF for queues, and attach S3-compatible storage. Set NOVU_TELEMETRY=false if usage statistics should not leave the network, and note that the hourly keep-alive beacon is still sent.