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Set up in 5 minutes

A hands-on walkthrough from empty account to a delivered request. You need nothing but a terminal with curl — the first test uses EchoRelay's built-in mock reply, so there's no backend to stand up.

If you'd rather read the concepts first, start with Getting started and come back.

Minute 1 — account and project

  1. Sign up at echorelay.dev and confirm your email.
  2. The guided setup walks you through securing your account and creating your first project — your isolated workspace with its own address, keys, and credits.

When you land on your project, note its address on the overview page. Every call you relay goes to:

https://<your-project>.echorelay.cloud/<line>/<endpoint>

Minute 2 — grab your key

Open API keys in the project menu and generate a live key (er_live_…). Copy it now — it's shown once. On the free tier the live key relays at the free rate without spending anything, so it's the right key to start with (see Getting started for the live/test split).

export ECHORELAY_KEY='er_live_…'

API keys vs MCP keys

API keys authenticate calls into your relay address — this is the one you want now. MCP keys (one menu item down) let AI agents and scripts manage the project. They're different credentials on purpose.

Minute 3 — create an endpoint with a mock reply

  1. Open Lines. A line is a version container for your endpoints — v1 today, v2 when you evolve without breaking callers. Use the line the setup created (or add one named v1).
  2. Add an endpoint — say path /orders, method POST.
  3. Turn on Mock mode. The endpoint answers with the response body you configure, instantly, without forwarding anywhere — perfect for wiring up your senders before the real target exists.

Save it. New configuration reaches the relay in seconds.

Minute 4 — send your first request

curl -sS -X POST "https://<your-project>.echorelay.cloud/v1/orders" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ECHORELAY_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"order": 1042, "status": "created"}'

You get the mock reply back — straight from the relay. Your address, your key, and your endpoint all work. If you get an error code instead, When calls fail decodes every status you might see.

Minute 5 — point it somewhere real

  1. Edit the endpoint: switch Mock mode off and add a target — the URL you want the data delivered to. Add several and EchoRelay delivers to all of them.
  2. Send the same curl again. This time the relay answers quickly with {"status": "queued", …} and delivers in the background, retrying any target that's temporarily down.
  3. Open Request log in the project menu: there's your call, its delivery attempts, and the outcome per target.

That's the whole loop: caller → your relay address → targets, with authentication, validation, fan-out, and retries handled for you.

Prefer to let an agent do this?

Everything above is scriptable. Generate an MCP key in the project menu and your AI agent can create lines, endpoints, and keys through the MCP server at mcp.echorelay.dev — the same setup, hands-off. The API reference covers the MCP and REST surfaces.

Next

  • Attach validation rules so malformed calls are rejected before they cost you anything — see the API reference.
  • Credits & billing — how funding works when you grow past the free tier.
  • Rate limits — what the limits are and how to raise them.