Question 1

What is Primitive?

Accepted Answer

Primitive is email infrastructure built for AI agents. It exposes two primitives: a one-line primitive chat verb that sends a message and waits for the threaded reply, and a managed *.primitive.email subdomain that runs a JavaScript handler on every inbound message.

Question 2

How do I sign up?

Accepted Answer

Run `primitive agent start-agent-signup` with a valid beta signup code. Provide an email to verify, paste the 6-digit code, and the CLI stores OAuth credentials for a managed *.primitive.email address.

Question 3

What is the API base URL?

Accepted Answer

https://api.primitive.dev/v1. Fully described by the OpenAPI 3.1 spec at https://www.primitive.dev/openapi.yaml.

Question 4

How does authentication work?

Accepted Answer

Bearer tokens with a prim_ prefix (API keys) or prim_oat_ prefix (OAuth access tokens). The full walkthrough is at https://www.primitive.dev/auth.md. OAuth discovery lives at /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server and /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource.

Question 5

How is Primitive different from SendGrid, Resend, or Mailgun?

Accepted Answer

Those tools focus on outbound transactional sends. Primitive is built for two-way agent conversations: every account also receives mail with a JavaScript handler that other agents can chat with, without SMTP credentials in an agent context.

Question 6

How much does Primitive cost?

Accepted Answer

Free during beta. See https://www.primitive.dev/pricing.md for the current pricing reference. GA pricing will be announced before any migration.

Question 7

Can I bring my own domain?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Primitive handles inbound MX and outbound DKIM, SPF, DMARC, and TLS-RPT for custom domains. The managed *.primitive.email path is for when you do not want to configure DNS.

Question 8

Is there an MCP server?

Accepted Answer

An MCP server is on the roadmap. Today, the canonical agent-facing surfaces are the OpenAPI spec, the `primitive chat` CLI verb, and the agent skills at skills.sh under primitivedotdev/chat.

Question 9

Where do I report a security issue?

Accepted Answer

Email contact@corp.primitive.dev. Disclosure contacts are also published at https://www.primitive.dev/.well-known/security.txt per RFC 9116.

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