Waitlister: waitlists and hosted landing pages via API

Waitlister is waitlist software for product launches: hosted signup pages, a referral program with fraud detection, email automation. Signups get a queue position and a referral link; referrals move them up.

Prereq (one human step, free, ~1 minute): an account API key (wl_acct_…) from https://waitlister.me → Settings → API keys, in the WAITLISTER_API_KEY env var. Account keys work on every plan including free and can create waitlists, so no dashboard steps are needed after that. (A per-waitlist wl_… key also works for an existing waitlist, but needs the Growth plan for most endpoints. Prefer the account key.)

API base https://waitlister.me/api/v1 · auth header X-Api-Key (NOT Authorization: Bearer) · full spec: https://waitlister.me/openapi.json · full agent guide: https://waitlister.me/skill.md

Golden path: live waitlist + landing page in two calls

0. Check the key first (no side effects, every plan):

curl "https://waitlister.me/api/v1/me" -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY"
# → plan, waitlists.can_create (a dry run of step 1), ai_credits.remaining
# 401 = key missing, wrong type, or revoked: ask the user, don't probe other endpoints

1. Create the waitlist WITH a landing page (draft):

curl -X POST "https://waitlister.me/api/v1/waitlists" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"name":"My Product","landing_page":{"headline":"Join the beta","description":"Early access for founders.","button_text":"Join the waitlist","theme":"dark"}}'
# → 201: data.waitlist.key (use everywhere below), data.waitlist.form_action_url

2. Publish it:

curl -X POST "https://waitlister.me/api/v1/waitlist/WAITLIST_KEY/landing-page/publish" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY"
# → hosted_page_url, live at https://waitlister.me/p/{slug}

Pages are drafts until you publish. {"unpublish": true} in the publish body takes the page offline again (status becomes "unpublished"). One page per waitlist (creating a second → 409).

Once published, edits are live. There is no separate draft copy: a PATCH shows on the public page right away, and so does a generate edit when the AI version is the one published. Confirm with the user before changing a published page.

Everything else

# Add a signup (works on free plan with an account key; idempotent per email)
curl -X POST ".../api/v1/waitlist/WAITLIST_KEY/sign-up" -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"email":"user@example.com"}'

# Stats for "X people waiting" widgets
curl ".../api/v1/waitlist/WAITLIST_KEY/stats" -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY"

# Read the page (status, copy, hosted_page_url, analytics)
curl ".../api/v1/waitlist/WAITLIST_KEY/landing-page" -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY"

# Update copy/theme/SEO (any subset; unknown keys → 400 that lists the allowed keys)
curl -X PATCH ".../api/v1/waitlist/WAITLIST_KEY/landing-page" -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"headline":"New headline","seo":{"title":"…"}}'

# AI-designed page (costs 1 AI credit, takes under a minute; edit later with "is_edit": true)
curl -X POST ".../api/v1/waitlist/WAITLIST_KEY/landing-page/generate" -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"prompt":"dark, bold, dev-tool aesthetic"}'

# Remove a subscriber by email or id (Growth+ plan, e.g. cleaning up a test signup)
curl -X DELETE ".../api/v1/waitlist/WAITLIST_KEY/subscribers/user@example.com" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY"

# Tags (Growth+): list with subscriber counts; tag a subscriber; list one tag's subscribers
curl ".../api/v1/waitlist/WAITLIST_KEY/tags" -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY"
curl -X PUT ".../api/v1/waitlist/WAITLIST_KEY/subscribers/user@example.com" -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"add_tags":["beta"]}'
curl ".../api/v1/waitlist/WAITLIST_KEY/subscribers?tag=beta" -H "X-Api-Key: $WAITLISTER_API_KEY"

Node SDK (optional): npm install waitlister reads WAITLISTER_API_KEY automatically; waitlister-js/waitlister-sdk/waitlister-node/@waitlister/sdk are deprecated aliases of the same package. No Python SDK: use the REST API from Python.

MCP server (optional): if your runtime supports MCP servers, @waitlister/mcp (registry io.github.ilpr/waitlister) exposes these operations as native tools with the same account key.

Facts that prevent wrong guesses

• AI-built pages return 409 on copy-field PATCHes, because their copy lives inside the generated HTML. Edit them via …/landing-page/generate with "is_edit": true (theme and seo PATCH fine on both page types).
• AI generation costs 1 credit per call (shared with the dashboard AI builder; free plans include a few one-time credits). Out of credits → 402 with the balance. Never auto-retry a generate call.
• Plan gating: account keys allow create/sign-up/stats/landing-page on every plan (low rate limits: 5/min writes, 10/min sign-up/stats on free). Listing/getting/ updating/deleting subscribers, tags included, requires Growth+. Don't retry gated endpoints expecting different results.
• Tags: add_tags / remove_tags take tag names or ids, and a new name creates the tag; tags replaces the whole set. Sending tags together with add_tags/remove_tags →
  400. Max 20 tags per waitlist, names up to 30 characters, matched case-insensitively.
• Plan-gated page levers (custom domain, branding removal, tracking IDs) are not in the API at any plan; unknown keys 400. Don't try.
• Publish returns 422 with the reason when the page lacks an email input and a submit button (on AI pages the button must sit inside a <form>), or when a standard page's headline is under 3 characters. API publishes skip the social-share OG image (a dashboard publish backfills it).
• No image/asset uploads via the API.
• Rate-limit headers: X-RateLimit-Limit / -Remaining / -Reset on every response.
• Signup email validation rejects fake/test addresses.

Verify before telling the user it's done

1. GET the landing page: status: "published" and a hosted_page_url.
2. Fetch the hosted_page_url: the headline renders.
3. Optional test signup, only with the user's OK. It creates a real subscriber, and any signup emails the waitlist has switched on go to that address. Use a real address the user controls: expect success: true + a queue position, then a higher subscribers_total in stats. On Growth+, delete it afterwards with the DELETE call above.

Docs: https://waitlister.me/docs/overview (append .md to any /docs/ URL for raw markdown) · Plans and limits: https://waitlister.me/pricing.md