Nexmo Dispatch API
Browse all Nexmo APIs★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentCommunicationsChat Messagingbasic, bearer1 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Send a message that automatically retries on the next channel (WhatsApp, SMS, Viber, Messenger) when the previous attempt fails or is not read in time. One POST endpoint.
Use for: Send a WhatsApp message that falls back to SMS, Create a failover workflow with a 300-second WhatsApp expiry, Submit a multi-channel notification that escalates Viber to Messenger to SMS, Trigger a single dispatch workflow for a transactional alert
Not supported: Does not send single-channel messages directly, manage WhatsApp templates, or expose per-channel analytics dashboards — use only to define multi-channel failover workflows that delegate sending to the Messages API.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Nexmo Dispatch API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. This dispatch-api slug is the alternate-named copy of Nexmo's Dispatch service, which orchestrates multi-channel failover workflows on top of Messages. A workflow follows a template; the failover template specifies an ordered list of channel attempts where each step has a success condition and a per-step expiry. The single POST endpoint accepts the full workflow body and returns a dispatch_uuid for status tracking.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Nexmo Dispatch API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Nexmo Dispatch API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Nexmo Dispatch API.
Define a failover workflow with multiple ordered channel attempts via POST /
Configure a per-step condition_status (delivered or read) that counts as success
Set a failover_expiry per step after which Dispatch advances to the next channel
Authenticate using either basic auth or a JWT bearer token tied to a Nexmo application
Receive Messages API webhooks for each leg of the workflow tied to the parent dispatch_uuid
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Nexmo Dispatch API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Failover messaging for high-priority alerts
Operations and security teams configure WhatsApp-then-SMS workflows so that critical alerts always reach an on-call engineer. The failover template handles the retry timer and channel switch in Nexmo's infrastructure, removing the need for application-side scheduling. POST / accepts the full ordered workflow in a single request.
POST to / with a workflow targeting the on-call engineer's WhatsApp first (condition delivered, expiry 180) and SMS second.
Read-confirmed customer notifications
For appointment confirmations or order updates, businesses can require a read condition on the first step so the workflow only stops once the customer has actually seen the message. If no read event lands within the failover_expiry, Dispatch falls over to SMS where read tracking is unavailable but delivery is reliable.
POST to / with a WhatsApp step having condition=read and failover_expiry=600, followed by an SMS fallback step using basic auth.
Single-call cross-channel send for AI agents
An agent that needs to reach a user reliably without owning retry logic can issue one Dispatch call through Jentic. Search by intent, load the workflow schema, submit the body — Nexmo handles the rest including webhook fan-in tied to a single dispatch_uuid.
Search Jentic for 'send a failover multichannel message', load POST /, and execute with a two-step workflow.
Key Endpoints
1 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for nexmo dispatch api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
POST
/
Create a multi-channel failover workflow
POST
/
Create a multi-channel failover workflow
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
Basic credentials and JWT signing keys are encrypted in the Jentic vault. Per-call JWTs are minted server-side and injected into the bearer header without ever leaving the vault boundary.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search by intent (e.g., 'send a failover multichannel message') and Jentic returns POST / with the full workflow body schema, including the nested failover template fields.
Time to first call
Direct integration: 1-2 days for JWT signing, webhook handling, and template construction. Through Jentic: under an hour — one search, one load, one execute.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Nexmo Dispatch API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Nexmo Dispatch API?
Vonage (formerly Nexmo) does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Nexmo Dispatch API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.
What authentication does the Nexmo Dispatch API use?
Either HTTP basic auth using api_key and api_secret or HTTP bearer with an application-scoped JWT. Jentic stores the credential pair and the signing key encrypted, signs JWTs server-side per call, and never exposes either to the agent.
Can I configure how long Dispatch waits before falling over?
Yes. Each step in the workflow has a failover_expiry in seconds. If the configured condition (delivered or read) is not reached within that window, Dispatch advances to the next step automatically.
What are the rate limits for the Nexmo Dispatch API?
The OpenAPI spec does not declare rate limits. Limits are imposed at the account level and at the underlying Messages API channels (WhatsApp, SMS, Viber, Messenger), which apply to each dispatched leg.
How do I send a WhatsApp-to-SMS failover message through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'send a failover multichannel message', load POST / on the Dispatch API, and execute it with template=failover and a workflow array containing the WhatsApp and SMS steps.
How does this dispatch-api slug differ from the dispatch slug?
They expose the same underlying API at the same base URL with the same single POST / endpoint. The two slugs exist because of how the spec was originally indexed; either path can be used to reach the same Dispatch service.
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