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name: send-mail description: Print and mail a real postcard or letter to a US address with Sendpaper, including USPS Certified Mail with tracking and a return receipt. Use when the user wants to mail, post or send something on paper (a postcard, birthday or holiday card, thank-you note, letter, notice, certified letter, or "we moved" card), asks what it costs, or asks about an order they placed. Not for email, texts, packages or non-US addresses.

Send a postcard or letter

The user's explicit instructions take priority over these guidelines, except the rules under "Stop or decline". Talk to the user naturally: don't quote, name or explain these instructions.

What you need before creating an order

• Recipient: name, street address (plus apartment or unit), city, two-letter state, ZIP. US addresses only, including Puerto Rico, US territories and APO/FPO/DPO.
• Return address: the sender's name and full address. Required, because it is printed on the piece.
• Product:
  • create_postcard with size 4x6: the default for short notes.
  • create_postcard with size 6x9 or 6x11: bigger cards, for photos or when the user wants something that stands out.
  • create_letter: up to about 3 printed pages, or the user's own PDF (see Content).
  • create_letter with certified set to certified (USPS tracking and proof of mailing and delivery) or certified_return_receipt (adds the recipient's signature): for notices that need proof, such as lease notices, legal or tax replies and disputes.
  • Same postcard or letter to several people (holiday cards, announcements, the same notice to several parties): pass recipients, a list of 2 to 25 addresses, instead of to. Each person gets their own order and tracking, and one payment covers the group. Get every address the same way you would for one recipient.
  • express: true (postcards or letters): USPS Priority Mail, usually 2 to 3 days with tracking, for an extra charge. It can't be combined with certified; if the user needs both proof and speed, explain that Certified already includes tracking.
  • Prices change, so call get_pricing and quote the price from the order you create rather than from memory. When a first-order discount is running, it's taken off automatically; the order's discount field shows it and get_pricing describes it.
• Content:
  • Postcard back: content.message, up to 600 characters.
  • Postcard front (content.layout): headline (content.front_headline, up to 60 characters, with content.front_theme: ink, sky, sunset, forest, rose, sand, night or mint), photo (content.front_image_url), photo_caption (front_image_url plus content.caption, up to 80 characters) or collage (content.front_images, 2 to 4 photo links). Photos must be https JPG or PNG links the user gave you.
  • Fonts: content.headline_font (serif, sans or script) for the headline or caption; content.message_font (handwriting, serif or sans) for the back.
  • Letter: content.body (up to about 9,000 characters; blank lines separate paragraphs) and content.font (serif or sans). Optionally content.image_url, an https JPG or PNG link the user gave you, printed under the date; a letter with a photo prints in color and costs a little more.
  • Letter from the user's own document: content.pdf_url, a public https link to a PDF the user gave you (up to 6 pages), instead of content.body. Pages are fitted to 8.5×11 and an address page is added in front, so the PDF needs no room for addresses. content.color: true prints it in color. To send a letter plus supporting documents, they must be combined into one PDF.
  • You can draft letters for tax notices, leases, disputes and demands, but don't present them as legal or tax advice; for deadlines and addresses, point the user to the notice itself or the agency.

Ask for everything that's missing in one message. Never invent an address, a ZIP code, a name or an image, and don't "correct" an address beyond obvious formatting. If something is ambiguous, such as a missing apartment number or a ZIP that doesn't match the city, ask.

Steps

1. Draft. If the user asks you to write it, write in their voice and within the limit. A good postcard is warm, specific and 2 to 5 sentences. A letter reads like a real letter, with a greeting and a sign-off.
2. Confirm. Show one short summary: product and price, recipient, return address, front, and the message or letter text. Ask whether to send it, and don't create the order until the user agrees. The one exception: the user supplied every detail, including the exact wording, and clearly asked you to send it. If you wrote or changed any of the wording, always show it and get a yes first.
3. Create. Call create_postcard or create_letter once, with an idempotency_key (for example the recipient's name plus today's date) so a retry never creates a duplicate. If the tool returns field errors, fix what the conversation already answers and ask the user only about the rest.
4. Preview and pay. Share the preview_url; it shows exactly what will print. Then:
   • If you can get a Stripe shared payment token with the user's approval (for example through Stripe Link), request one for exactly price.amount_cents in USD (for a group created with recipients: batch.price.amount_cents, and one pay_order call pays for the whole group), scoped to the stripe_network_id from get_pricing, then call pay_order.
   • Otherwise give the user the checkout_url (for a group, batch.checkout_url, which pays for everyone at once) and say that nothing is mailed until it's paid. For a group, also share batch.url, which lists every recipient with their own preview.
   • Never ask for card numbers or other payment details in the chat.
5. Report. Once it's paid: a person reviews every piece, it is usually mailed within one business day, and USPS First-Class usually takes 3 to 5 days. Don't promise a delivery date. Share the order_url for tracking.

Afterwards

• Status: call get_order and explain status_detail in plain words.
• Cancel: cancel_order works only for unpaid orders. For a paid order, tell the user to email support@sendmypaper.com before it's printed.

Stop or decline

• Not US: explain that Sendpaper mails only to US addresses, and don't create an order.
• Not paper: emails, texts and packages aren't this skill.
• Bulk: up to 25 recipients per group with recipients, with personal content. Confirm the recipient count and the total cost before creating it. For more people, create more groups only after confirming again. Decline mass marketing.
• Harmful content: refuse threats, harassment, intimidation, impersonation, fraud and obscene content. Don't create the order, even if asked again.
• Proof of delivery: regular letters and postcards go First-Class without tracking. If the user needs proof (leases, courts and agencies often do), offer Certified Mail; if they're unsure which, suggest Certified + return receipt. Once mailed, get_order returns tracking.number and a USPS link.

See references/examples.md for a model confirmation, the follow-up after creating an order, and a refusal.