Delivery reports

An accepted API response means Fabric owns the work — not that the handset received the message. Delivery is asynchronous and reported after the request returns, through webhooks and the SDK’s retrieve methods.

Direct SMS lifecycle

A direct SMS moves through the message pipeline:

accepted → queued → sending → sent → delivered

It can instead reach a terminal undelivered, failed, or expired. sent means the carrier accepted it; delivered means the network confirmed handset receipt.

Managed delivery lifecycle

A managed delivery has no pre-dispatch queue states — its lifecycle is:

accepted → processing → sent → delivered

with terminal undelivered, failed, or expired. Each provider attempt is recorded in the delivery’s attempts[] timeline with its own status, cost, and errorCode.

What a delivery report can and cannot tell you

Delivery receipts (DLRs) come from mobile networks, and their honesty varies by operator and route.

• sent is not delivered. Treat carrier acceptance as in-flight, not done.
• Some routes never confirm. On a few networks a message that truly arrived may sit at sent because the operator returns no positive DLR. Do not treat the absence of delivered as failure.
• Reports can arrive late or out of order. Design consumers so a later event never regresses a terminal state, and so a duplicate is a no-op.
• failed carries an errorCode. Branch on the stable code, not the human message.

Sandbox is deterministic

Sandbox uses the virtual delivery path, so states resolve immediately and predictably — ideal for wiring up your webhook consumer before you touch a live route.

Follow the terminal state

const delivery = await fabric.messages.retrieveDelivery(id);
if (delivery.data.status === "delivered") {
  // safe to mark your workflow complete
}

Retrieve is a snapshot; webhooks are the push. In production, advance your workflow from the signed terminal webhook event and use retrieve for reconciliation and support.