Getting started with Code

You will learn

Learn about Code, and how to create custom functions that are executed directly by Klaviyo.

Code requires custom development and Klaviyo’s support team is unable to offer hands-on assistance. If you don't have a developer on your team and are not comfortable writing code yourself, consider reaching out to a Klaviyo Partner for assistance.

Before you begin

Code is a part of Klaviyo’s customer data platform (CDP). 

What is Code?

Code enables you to execute custom functions in response to events captured in Klaviyo. You can write your own Javascript or Python functions in the Code editor, and they are then executed directly in the platform.

With Code, you can send data to your external systems without having to set up a public HTTP endpoint to receive webhooks, and build custom functionality that is triggered in response to an event’s occurrence. You can also access many popular prebuilt modules to facilitate creating custom solutions.

Topics

Code allows you to execute custom functions in response to any event that can be queried for via the Get Events API.

These include:

• Email events (e.g., Clicked email, Marked email as spam )
• SMS events (e.g., Sent SMS, Received SMS)
• Push notification events (e.g., Received push, Bounced push)
• Events from integrations ( i.e., events from first-party integrations created by Klaviyo)
• API events (i.e., events synced through Klaviyo’s APIs)

Code interface

To access Code, navigate to the Code tab under CDP > Data Management > Code. 

To create a custom function, select the Create a function button:

You will be brought to the Recipes page, where you can either select a prebuilt solution to execute, or a blank Python or Node.js function.

If you select an existing recipe, you'll see the code editor with the code for the solution, along with a description of the functionality. 

If you select a blank function so you can create your own custom solutions, the Details modal will appear where you can:

• Name your function
  A name to identify your function.
• Select a topic for your function
  The event that will trigger your code’s execution .
• Select a runtime
  The runtime environment in which the code is executed (i.e., Python or Node.js).

After making the required selections and selecting the Create function button, you will be brought to an interface with the following tabs: 

• Editor 
• Test output 
• Logs

Editor

On the Editor page in Code, you’ll the page split into 3 tabs:

• Code
  The code tab has an editor where you can write Python or Javascript functions.
• Modules
  Modules are 3rd party packages that add functionality to your functions.
• Environment Variables
  Environment variables are the key-value pairs that your function accesses when it runs. 

Code

On the Code tab, you’ll see an editor you can use to write Python or Javascript functions that are executed in response to the selected topic.

Handler function parameters

Below are examples of the event and context parameters that are passed to the handler function.

Example event format

{
    {
  "data": {
    "type": "event",
    "id": "7S2q9haejYG",
    "attributes": {
      "timestamp": 1694435729,
      "event_properties": {
        "MfaEnabled": false,
        "IpAddress": "000.00.0.0",
        "UserAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/116.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
        "UserRole": "Owner",
        "SessionId": "34sh0a9nh8ngnk2nfacjxmt592yx40ib",
        "LoginType": "Username_password",
        "current_company_id": "XXXXX",
        "$event_id": "1694435729"
      },
      "datetime": "2023-09-11 12:35:29+00:00",
      "uuid": "b0b8fe80-509f-11ee-8001-278cc529fcd3"
    },
    "relationships": {
      "profile": {
        "data": {
          "type": "profile",
          "id": "123456"
        },
        "links": {
          "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/events/7S2q9haejYG/relationships/profile/",
          "related": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/events/7S2q9haejYG/profile/"
        }
      },
      "metric": {
        "data": {
          "type": "metric",
          "id": "4Tdup6"
        },
        "links": {
          "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/events/7S2q9haejYG/relationships/metric/",
          "related": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/events/7S2q9haejYG/metric/"
        }
      }
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/events/7S2q9haejYG/"
    }
  }
}

Example context format 

{
    "company_id": "XXXXX",
    "trigger": {"type": "event", "uid": "123456"},
    "function_id": "123456",
}

Modules

On the Modules tab, you can select from the most popular prebuilt modules (i.e., 3rd-party packages that add capabilities to your functions). 

To add an external module to use in your code, select the Add module button:

On the modal that appears, you can search and select the module you’d like to add: 

Once added, you can use the module with the code you write in Klaviyo.

Environment variables 

The Environment variables tab allows you to set key-value pairs that your code in Klaviyo can reference when it runs. These can be used to store information like credentials and secret keys so your functions can access them as they run. 

To add an environment variable, select the Add a variable button: 

On the modal that appears, you can set a key-value pair for your environment variable. 

Once created, the environment variables will be listed on the page and can be used in your code. 

Test output

The Test output tab in Code allows you to test your code with recent events to confirm that the output is behaving as expected. 

To test your function:

1. Select the Run test button:
   
2. On the modal that appears, select an event to test with. You can select from the 10 most recent events captured in Klaviyo.
   
3. After selecting an event to test with, the test output will be shown:

Logs

The Logs tab shows the health of your ongoing Code functions. You’ll see:

• Status
  The progress of a function’s execution. 
• Response time
  The amount of time it takes for your code to execute in response to an event.
• Date
  A timestamp for when the function was executed. 

Deploying code 

To deploy the code that you write in the editor, toggle the status dropdown to Live. 

Once set to live, the code you write will execute each time the topic event is captured in Klaviyo.

Example solution

Below is an example of a custom solution being implemented with Code.

In the example, event data is set as a profile property so it can be used in targeted emails and in segmentation. The Booked shoot custom event is captured in Klaviyo when customers book a shoot with the brand, and data about the booking city and associated URL is set as a profile property on the respective profile.

A property called Recent bookings is also created, which stores data from the 5 most recent Booked shoot events so it can be looped through and accessed in an email templates.

Code

The Python code for this solution is written in the Code editor and is executed directly by Klaviyo.

Example code

Modules

In this example, the klaviyo-api module is used, allowing the user to more easily work with Klaviyo APIs through prebuilt methods.

Environment variables

Environment variables can be used to store information like credentials and secret keys so your functions can access them as they run. For this example, the following key-value pairs are set:

• KLAVIYO_PRIVATE_KEY
  An environment variable to store the private key associated with the Klaviyo account making API requests.
• MAX_PROPERTIES_TO_STORE
  An environment variable used to define the maximum number of properties to store for the example function.

Testing

While creating the function to set event data as profile properties, the Test output tab is used to verify the expected output.

Logs

Once the function has been created and tested, the Logs tab shows the health status of the function as it is executed in response to Booked shoot events. 

Outcome

With this Code function in place, as customers sign up for shoots and trigger the custom Booked shoot event, the event data will be stored on the customer profile for use in segmentation and targeted campaigns. 

Implementing Recipes  

Recipes in Code allow you to implement prebuilt solutions without the need for custom development.

To implement a Recipe in your Klaviyo account:

1. Select the Create function button on the Code page.
2. Choose the Recipe you’d like to implement in your account. You’ll be brought to the editor where you can see the code for the selected Recipe, along with a description of what the function does.
3. Click the Select button to continue.
   
4. Choose a name for the function and the trigger that will cause it to execute. The runtime is automatically set based on the code for the Recipe.
5. Select the Create function button.
6. Once the function has been created, set the relevant environment variables so the function has the data it needs to run.
7. The Recipe can now be tested and set to Live.

Additional resources 

Getting started with Klaviyo's CDP
Understand the different webhooks available in Klaviyo