---
title: "Install"
description: "One gem, no runtime dependencies, Ruby 3.2 and up."
url: "https://openemail.uk/docs/ruby/install"
area: "Ruby"
category: "Getting started"
---

# Install

One gem, no runtime dependencies, Ruby 3.2 and up.

## Install

> The current release is `0.0.1`. It has a method for every method of the TypeScript SDK, under the same name in snake_case, and the gem’s parity check fails the build when one goes missing or sends a different request.

**Install**

_Bundler_

```bash
bundle add openemail
```

_gem_

```bash
gem install openemail
```

**send_email.rb**

```
require "openemail"

OpenEmail.init(api_key: ENV.fetch("OPENEMAIL_API_KEY"))

email = OpenEmail.emails.send(
  from: "Acme Billing <billing@acme.com>",
  to: "ada@example.com",
  subject: "Your September invoice",
  html: "<p>Invoice attached.</p>"
)

puts email[:id], email[:status]
```

`OpenEmail.init` configures the shared client once, and from then on `OpenEmail.emails`, `OpenEmail.threads` and every other namespace use it, in every file. Skip it and the first call builds the client from `OPENEMAIL_API_KEY` instead.

A response is the parsed JSON as a Hash with Symbol keys, so `email[:id]` reads the id. The keys keep the API’s names, which is why a field such as `scheduledAt` stays camelCase while the methods and their options are snake_case.

> `send` returning does not mean the message has gone. A scheduled or cancellable send comes back `queued` or `scheduled` and settles later. Read `status`, not the fact that the call returned.

## Where it runs

Ruby 3.2 and up, with no runtime dependencies. The HTTP client is Net::HTTP from the standard library, with a pool of kept-alive connections, so a second request to the API reuses the connection the first one opened.

> One client is safe to share across threads, so a Puma or Sidekiq process needs only one. After a fork, as in Puma’s cluster mode, Unicorn or Resque, the child opens connections of its own rather than reusing the parent’s.

> The client carries a workspace API key that can send mail and read the mailbox, so it belongs on a server, in a job or in a tool that runs on your own machine. Keep the key in `Rails.application.credentials` or an environment variable, never in code.