Cardly
Cardly helps businesses create great engagement with customers by getting out of inboxes and into mailboxes.
Verdict
Common use cases
- Send thank-you cards after customer calls
- Automate birthday cards for team members
- Schedule direct mail for sales campaigns
- Generate card previews before bulk sends
- Track credit usage across departments
Integration
- Vendor
- Cardly
- Category
- other
- Auth
- API_KEY
- Tools
- 20
- Composio slug
cardly
Tools
- Create Contact List
Tool to add a new contact list. use after defining name and optional custom fields, before populating the list with contacts.
- Create Webhook
Tool to create a new webhook subscription. use when you need cardly to notify your application via http post for specific events.
- Delete Invitation by Emaildestructive
Tool to delete an invitation by email address. use when you need to invalidate an outstanding invitation immediately.
- Delete Webhookdestructive
Tool to delete a webhook. use after confirming the webhook id to immediately cease all activity and event subscriptions for that webhook.
- Generate Preview
Tool to generate a low-quality, watermarked preview document for a card. use after confirming artwork and template details to estimate costs and delivery.
- List Artwork
Tool to retrieve the currently available artwork for your organisation. use when you need to list and paginate artwork items, optionally filtering to only your own artwork.
- List Credit History
Tool to list credit history records. use after checking account balance to review recent credits/debits.
- List Fonts
Tool to list your currently available fonts. use after confirming authentication to explore font options in cardly.
- List Gift Credit History
Tool to list gift credit history records for your organization. use when you need paginated gift credit entries with optional time-based filters.
- List Invitations
Tool to retrieve active invitations for your organisation with optional filters. use when you need to audit invited users and their statuses before sending new invitations or revoking access.
- List Media
Tool to retrieve the currently available media sizes for product artwork. use when you need to explore or validate media options before creating artwork.
- List Orders
Tool to retrieve orders placed by your organisation. use when you need to fetch paginated order history after confirming the endpoint.
- List Templates
Tool to retrieve your currently available templates from cardly. use to list and paginate templates for selection in card sends.
- List Users
Tool to retrieve all users associated with your account. use when you need to list and paginate user accounts.
- List Webhooks
Tool to retrieve any active or disabled webhooks set up for your organisation. use when you need to audit configured webhook endpoints before modifying subscriptions.
- List Writing Styles
Tool to list available writing styles. use when you need to retrieve writing styles available for handwriting personalization.
- Retrieve Account Balance
Tool to retrieve the current account and gift credit balances for your organisation. use after authenticating to verify available credit before placing orders.
- Retrieve Order
Tool to retrieve information on a specific order. use after obtaining an order id to fetch its details.
- Retrieve User
Tool to retrieve detailed information about a specific user. use after obtaining the user id to fetch its details.
- Update Webhook
Tool to update a webhook’s settings, including target url and events. use after retrieving existing webhook to apply configuration changes.
Setup
Setup guide
- 11. In Switchy, open your workspace settings and navigate to the MCP integrations panel. 2. Select 'Add MCP' and choose Cardly from the directory. 3. Log into your Cardly account, go to Settings > API Keys, and generate a new key with full access. 4. Paste the API key into Switchy's connection form and click 'Connect'. 5. Return to any Space and type '@Cardly list artwork' to confirm the connection works — you should see your organization's available card designs. 6. To send a card, first create a contact list with '@Cardly create contact list', then generate a preview to estimate cost and delivery before committing credits.
What teammates see: by default, memories from Cardly are scoped to the Space (PROJECT visibility) - you can mark any memory PRIVATE or share it ORG-wide.
Works well with
Top models
Compatibility data appears once enough Spaces have used this MCP together with a given model.
How Switchy teams use it
Starter prompts
List Available Artwork
@Cardly list artwork available in my account, including any custom designs I've uploaded recently.Open in a Space →
Create Contact List
@Cardly create a contact list named 'Q1 Thank You Campaign' with custom fields for company name and deal size.Open in a Space →
Generate Card Preview
@Cardly generate a preview for the 'Modern Thanks' template using the contact details I just shared.Open in a Space →
Check Credit Balance
@Cardly list my credit history for the past 30 days and show my current balance.Open in a Space →
Set Up Webhook
@Cardly create a webhook that posts to https://myapp.com/cardly-events whenever a card status changes.Open in a Space →
Example outputs
Illustrative - representative of the model's voice and quality, not literal recordings.
@Cardly show me all available card artwork in our account, filtered to only designs our team uploaded.
Found 12 custom artwork items in your Cardly account. The list includes 'Holiday Thank You 2024' (uploaded Jan 15), 'Onboarding Welcome Card' (uploaded Feb 3), and 'Client Anniversary Design' (uploaded Mar 22). Each entry shows the artwork ID, upload date, dimensions, and whether it's approved for production. You can paginate through the full set or filter further by date range if needed.
This example demonstrates read-only access to your organization's artwork library. Requires an API key with artwork:read scope. Useful for auditing available designs before creating a card campaign. The MCP returns metadata only — you'll need to view actual artwork files in Cardly's dashboard.
@Cardly create a new contact list called 'Q1 Client Appreciation' with custom fields for account tier and renewal date.
Successfully created contact list 'Q1 Client Appreciation' with ID cl_8x3k9m2p. Added two custom fields: 'account_tier' (text) and 'renewal_date' (date). The list is now empty and ready to receive contacts. You can populate it by uploading a CSV via Cardly's dashboard or by using the Add Contact tool with individual entries. Custom fields will appear as merge tags when designing card templates.
This write operation creates a reusable contact list structure in your Cardly account. Requires contacts:write scope. The list persists across sessions — deleting it later requires a separate API call. Custom fields enable personalized card content but must match your template's merge tag syntax exactly.
@Cardly generate a preview of our 'Holiday Thank You 2024' card with the recipient name 'Jordan Smith' and estimate the cost for 50 units.
Generated a watermarked preview PDF for 'Holiday Thank You 2024' with 'Jordan Smith' as the recipient. The preview shows the final card layout with your custom artwork and selected font. Estimated cost for 50 units: $147.50 USD (includes printing, envelopes, and standard domestic postage). Preview link expires in 24 hours. Note: actual production costs may vary slightly based on final recipient addresses and any rush delivery requests.
This synthesis example pairs Cardly's preview generation with cost estimation logic. Requires artwork:read and orders:estimate scopes. The watermarked preview helps validate design choices before committing budget. Be aware that previews consume API quota — avoid generating hundreds in quick succession to stay within rate limits.
Use-case deep-dives
When Cardly wins for recurring customer appreciation programs
A 6-person sales team sends 200+ handwritten thank-you cards per quarter to new enterprise customers. Cardly's contact list and webhook tools let you pipe CRM close-won events directly into card fulfillment without manual data entry. The preview tool confirms artwork and cost before each batch ships. This works when your card volume justifies the API overhead and you already maintain structured contact data in Salesforce or HubSpot. If you're sending fewer than 50 cards per month or your contact data lives in spreadsheets, the 20-tool surface is overkill—just use Cardly's web UI. The buying call: your team saves 4+ hours per quarter and eliminates the risk of forgetting a high-value customer.
When webhook-driven invitation tracking beats manual follow-up
A 3-person event ops team manages 12 quarterly customer dinners with 30-seat caps. They use Cardly's invitation and webhook tools to send physical invites, then trigger Slack alerts when RSVPs arrive or invitations expire. The delete-invitation-by-email tool handles last-minute cancellations without touching the Cardly dashboard. This scenario wins when your event cadence is predictable and you need audit trails for who received what. If you're running one-off events or your guest list changes hourly, the webhook setup cost outweighs the benefit—stick with email invites and a shared spreadsheet. The buying call: your team catches RSVP changes in real time and never oversells a venue.
When font and artwork APIs matter for design consistency
A 10-person agency manages greeting card campaigns for 8 retail clients, each with strict brand guidelines. Cardly's list-artwork and list-fonts tools let you programmatically validate that every card batch uses client-approved assets before generation. The credit-history tool tracks per-client spend for accurate invoicing. This works when you're juggling multiple brand identities and need to prevent costly reprints from wrong-font mistakes. If you're a single-brand team or your card designs rarely change, the 20-tool API is more complexity than you need—Cardly's template library in the web UI is faster. The buying call: your agency eliminates brand-compliance errors and bills clients with line-item transparency.
Frequently asked
What does the Cardly MCP let me do in Switchy?
The Cardly MCP lets your AI agents create and manage physical greeting cards at scale. Agents can build contact lists, generate card previews, select artwork and fonts, and trigger webhook notifications when cards are sent. It's designed for teams automating direct mail campaigns or customer appreciation workflows without leaving Switchy.
Do I need a Cardly API key to connect this MCP?
Yes. The Cardly MCP uses API key authentication, so you'll need to generate a key from your Cardly account settings before connecting. Any team member with a Cardly API key can connect the integration — you don't need admin access to Switchy, but you do need permission to create API keys in Cardly.
Can the Cardly MCP actually send physical cards, or just previews?
The MCP can generate watermarked previews to estimate costs and delivery, but the tools exposed here focus on setup and orchestration — contact lists, webhooks, artwork selection. To trigger a full card send, you'll likely need to use Cardly's web dashboard or a separate API call outside the MCP's current 20 tools.
How is this different from using Cardly's API directly?
The MCP wraps Cardly's API into natural-language tools your AI agents can call without writing code. Instead of scripting HTTP requests to list fonts or delete webhooks, you describe what you want in plain English and the agent picks the right tool. It's faster for ad-hoc workflows but less flexible than a custom integration.
Who on my team should connect the Cardly MCP?
Whoever manages your direct mail campaigns or customer outreach. Marketing ops, customer success, or a founder wearing multiple hats. They'll need a Cardly API key and enough context to map contact lists and artwork to your existing Cardly account. Once connected, any Switchy user in your workspace can invoke the tools through agents.