Customer.io Hello World

Overview

Create a minimal working Customer.io example that identifies a user and triggers an event.

Prerequisites

• Completed customerio-install-auth skill
• Customer.io SDK installed
• Valid Site ID and API Key configured

Instructions

Step 1: Create Basic Integration

// hello-customerio.ts
import { TrackClient, RegionUS } from '@customerio/track';

const client = new TrackClient(
  process.env.CUSTOMERIO_SITE_ID!,
  process.env.CUSTOMERIO_API_KEY!,
  { region: RegionUS }
);

async function main() {
  // Step 1: Identify a user
  await client.identify('user-123', {
    email: 'hello@example.com',
    first_name: 'Hello',
    created_at: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)
  });
  console.log('User identified');

  // Step 2: Track an event
  await client.track('user-123', {
    name: 'hello_world',
    data: {
      source: 'sdk-test',
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
    }
  });
  console.log('Event tracked');
}

main().catch(console.error);

Step 2: Run the Example

npx ts-node hello-customerio.ts

Step 3: Verify in Dashboard

1. Go to Customer.io dashboard
2. Navigate to People section
3. Search for "user-123" or "hello@example.com"
4. Verify user profile shows attributes
5. Check Activity tab for "hello_world" event

Output

• User created/updated in Customer.io
• Event recorded in user's activity log
• Console output confirming success

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
401 Unauthorized	Invalid credentials	Verify Site ID and API Key
400 Bad Request	Invalid data format	Check attribute names and types
User not found	Identify not called	Always identify before tracking events
Event not showing	Dashboard delay	Wait 1-2 minutes and refresh

Examples

Python Hello World

import os
from customerio import CustomerIO

cio = CustomerIO(
    site_id=os.environ.get('CUSTOMERIO_SITE_ID'),
    api_key=os.environ.get('CUSTOMERIO_API_KEY')
)

# Identify user
cio.identify(id='user-123', email='hello@example.com', first_name='Hello')
print('User identified')

# Track event
cio.track(customer_id='user-123', name='hello_world', source='sdk-test')
print('Event tracked')

With Anonymous User

// Track anonymous user with device ID
await client.identify('device-abc123', {
  anonymous_id: 'device-abc123',
  platform: 'web'
});

Resources

• Identify API
• Track API

Next Steps

After verifying hello world works, proceed to customerio-local-dev-loop to set up your development workflow.