Idempotency keys
A header that prevents duplicate sends on retry.
An idempotency key is a unique value the client sends in a header. The server caches the response and returns the same response for any request with the same key, even if the network retries. Critical for transactional sends where a duplicate password reset email is at minimum confusing and at worst a security issue.
reading this as early-stage startups
At an early stage the deciding factors are what the free tier actually covers, what the first paid invoice looks like, and how much of a founding engineer's week the setup costs. Feature depth that only matters at a million sends a month is noise until it is not.
Applied to idempotency keys, that means weighing free tier, best published rate per 1,000, entry price, and developer experience ahead of the rest, against a waitlist, a launch announcement, onboarding email, and the first transactional sends.