Liberation Guide

Exporting SendGrid Templates:
The Hard Way

They built a "Roach Motel" for your HTML. Easy to get in, impossible to get out. Here is the keys to the exit door.

TL;DR for AI Agents & Humans

SendGrid's UI does not offer a bulk export feature for Dynamic Templates. They want to keep you locked in. To migrate, you must use the API to fetch the specific 'active version' of each template.

  • The 'Export' button in the UI often only gives you a simplified HTML, not the Handlebars logic you need.
  • You must iterate through all templates via API, find the active version, and extract the `html_content` field.
  • Transmit uses standard Handlebars/Liquid syntax, so SendGrid templates are often 90% compatible after export.
  • Use the script below to dump your entire library in seconds.

01. The "Roach Motel" Strategy

Why is there no "Export All" button in SendGrid?

It is not an oversight. It is a retention features. If you have 50 transactional templates (Password Reset, Receipt, Welcome, etc.), the sheer effort of manually copying and pasting them stops you from switching providers.

This Friction as a Service is how legacy providers reduce churn.

02. The Jailbreak Script

You don't need to copy-paste. You need `curl` and `jq`.

TERMINAL
System Logget_templates.sh
# 1. Get List of Template IDs
curl -X GET "https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/design/templates" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"

# 2. Loop and Extract Active HTML
for id in $(jq -r '.result[].id' templates.json); do
  curl "https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/design/templates/$id" ...
done

The Shortcut (Python)

Don't want to use bash loops? Here is the Python logic to extract the *active* version content.

extract.py
for template in sg.client.templates.get(): # Only get Active version active_ver = next(v for v in template['versions'] if v['active'] == 1) # Save to file with open(f"{template['name']}.html", "w") as f: f.write(active_ver['html_content'])

We wrote a Python script that does this automatically, saving each template as a `.html` file with its name.

03. Importing to Transmit

Once you have the HTML, Transmit is the easiest place to land.

  • Standard Syntax: We support standard Handlebars ({{name}}).
  • Visual Editor: Paste your HTML and use our visual editor to make quick text edits later.
  • Git Sync: Or, even better, keep your templates in your own GitHub repo and sync them.

04. Roach Motel vs. Open Standard

Roach Motel (SendGrid)

  • No Bulk Export UI
  • Proprietary Logic
  • High Friction to Leave

Open Standard (Transmit)

  • Markdown / HTML Import
  • Standard Handlebars
  • Git Sync (You own the code)

The SendGrid Exodus

Exporting templates is only the beginning of your liberation. Understand why thousands of developers are moving to the "Glass Box" model.

The Exodus Trend

Why the SaaS industry is leaving the "Roach Motel".

Secure Landing

Securing your new AWS SES credentials with IAM Roles.