Draft, Preview, Quote, and Send

If you are sending postcards through the Handwrite API or through MCP, the best workflow is not to send immediately.

The safest path is:

1. draft
2. preview
3. quote
4. send

That gives you a chance to catch formatting issues, personalization problems, or pricing surprises before anything becomes a real order.

1. Draft

Start by creating a draft with your message, handwriting style, and recipient data.

At this stage, you are building the order structure, not committing it.

Use the draft step to:

• confirm the right card type and style
• add recipients cleanly
• check personalization variables
• make sure the message content is final

2. Preview

Next, preview a single resolved recipient.

This is where you check how the order will look when the placeholders are filled and the text is laid out on the card.

Previewing helps you catch issues such as:

• names or placeholders resolving incorrectly
• text being too long for the chosen style
• address formatting that needs cleanup
• a message tone that feels right in theory but not in the rendered proof

Previewing does not spend credits.

3. Quote

Once the draft looks right, request a quote.

A quote gives you the current price for the exact draft and acts as the checkpoint before sending.

It is useful because it lets you:

• confirm the order total
• see warnings before send
• verify that the current balance is sufficient

A quote still does not create the order and does not deduct credits.

4. Send

Only after review should you send the draft.

At send time, Handwrite creates the real order and deducts the required credits from your company balance.

If the quoted draft has changed or the quote is no longer valid, the send is rejected instead of quietly creating the wrong order.

Why this workflow is safer than direct send

Direct send is possible, but it removes the review checkpoint.

The draft-first workflow gives you better control over:

• personalization quality
• layout confidence
• approval before spend
• team review for larger campaigns

This is especially important when you are sending to many recipients at once.

Best practices

• preview at least one realistic recipient before quoting
• quote shortly before you plan to send
• avoid editing the draft after quote unless you intend to re-quote
• use clear recipient data and consistent placeholder names
• treat send as the final commit step

When to use direct send instead

Direct send makes sense when:

• your payload is already validated upstream
• your workflow is fully automated
• you are comfortable relying on idempotent programmatic sends

Even then, many teams still keep preview and quote in the loop during rollout or before large campaigns.

If you are using Claude or another MCP client, this same workflow still applies because MCP uses the same Handwrite API underneath.