# Introduction

## The Team → Project → Route Hierarchy

Lettermint organizes your email infrastructure in a three-level hierarchy:

```
Team (Organization)
└── Project 1 (Production)
│   ├── API Token: lm_abc123...
│   ├── Route: Transactional
│   ├── Route: Newsletter (Broadcast)
│   └── Route: Support Inbox (Inbound)
└── Project 2 (Staging)
    ├── API Token: lm_def456...
    └── Routes...
```

- **Teams** are your organization—billing, reputation scoring, and team members live here
- **Projects** are isolated API endpoints with unique tokens—think of them as environments or apps
- **Routes** define how emails are processed—transactional, broadcast, or inbound

## Why This Structure?

### Projects Provide Isolation

Each project has its own:
- **API token** — Separate credentials for production vs staging, or different applications
- **Message history** — Analytics isolated per project
- **Domain associations** — Control which domains can send from each project
- **Team member access** — Restrict who can view or manage specific projects

**When to create multiple projects:**
- Separate environments (production, staging, development)
- Different applications that shouldn't share credentials
- Isolating analytics and message history

### Routes Define Email Behavior

Routes within a project handle different types of email traffic:

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Transactional" icon="receipt" href="https://lettermint.co/features/transactional-emails">
    Critical one-to-one emails triggered by user actions
  </Card>
  <Card title="Broadcast" icon="bullhorn" href="https://lettermint.co/features/broadcast-emails">
    One-to-many campaigns with unsubscribe handling
  </Card>
  <Card title="Inbound" icon="inbox" href="https://lettermint.co/features/inbound-emails">
    Receive and process incoming emails via webhooks
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

**When to create multiple routes:**
- Separate transactional from marketing emails (required for deliverability)
- Different webhook endpoints for different email types
- Separate suppression list management

:::info
When you create a new project, Lettermint automatically creates a transactional route called "outgoing" and sets it as the default. You can add more routes as needed.
:::

See [Routes](/platform/projects-and-routes/routes) for detailed configuration options.

## Finding Your API Token

### Navigate to Projects

Open your team dashboard and click **Projects** in the sidebar.
  ### Select your project

Click on the project you want to use.
  ### Copy the API Token

Go to the **API Token** section and copy your token (starts with `lm_`).
  <Frame>
  <img src="/docs/images/project-list.png" alt="Project list in dashboard" />
</Frame>

:::warning
Keep your API tokens secure. Never commit them to version control or expose them in client-side code.
:::

## Access Control

Control which team members can access specific projects:

| Role | Access |
|------|--------|
| Team Owner | All projects automatically |
| Team Member | Only projects explicitly granted |
| No restrictions set | All members can access |

## Next Steps

- [**Routes**](/platform/projects-and-routes/routes) — Configure route types and settings
- [**Inbound Mail**](/platform/projects-and-routes/inbound-mail) — Receive emails with webhooks
- [**Webhooks**](/platform/webhooks/introduction) — Get real-time delivery notifications