---
title: "Author message templates"
section: "build-a-backend/add-aws-services/notifications"
platforms: ["javascript", "react-native", "swift", "android", "flutter", "angular", "nextjs", "react", "vue"]
gen: 2
last-updated: "2026-07-30T16:47:07.000Z"
url: "https://docs.amplify.aws/react/build-a-backend/add-aws-services/notifications/author-message-templates/"
---

Amplify provisions the delivery path for your notifications, but not the message content. The text your users receive comes from a **push message template** stored in an Amazon Q in Connect knowledge base.

> **Warning:** **The Amazon Q in Connect console does not support authoring PUSH-channel message templates.** You create and publish push templates with the `qconnect` AWS CLI (or the underlying Amazon Q in Connect API), against the knowledge base that `defineNotifications` provisions. Amplify does not create the templates themselves, and a journey that has no matching template falls back to default placeholder copy.

## Name the template to match your journey

A push template's name is the only way Amplify links it to a journey: give the template the exact same name as the custom action block in your Amazon Connect journey.

## Find your knowledge base ID

In create mode, `defineNotifications` provisions an empty `MESSAGE_TEMPLATES` knowledge base and associates it with your Amazon Connect instance through the `Q_MESSAGE_TEMPLATES` integration. In attach mode, associate a `MESSAGE_TEMPLATES` knowledge base with your existing Connect instance yourself so this lookup resolves.

Either way, look up the knowledge base ID with the AWS CLI:

```bash title="Terminal" showLineNumbers={false}
aws connect list-integration-associations \
  --instance-id <INSTANCE_ID> \
  --integration-type Q_MESSAGE_TEMPLATES
```

The knowledge base ID is the last segment of the returned `IntegrationArn`, which ends in `knowledge-base/<KB_ID>`.

## Create the message template

Create the template with `qconnect create-message-template`, using the same name you will give the journey's custom action block:

```bash title="Terminal" showLineNumbers={false}
aws qconnect create-message-template \
  --knowledge-base-id <KB_ID> \
  --name 'Push Notification' \
  --channel-subtype PUSH \
  --content '{"push":{"apns":{"title":"Hello {{Attributes.firstName}}","body":{"content":"Your order shipped."}},"fcm":{"title":"Hello {{Attributes.firstName}}","body":{"content":"Your order shipped."}}}}'
```

Per-platform content maps to channels as `push.apns` (Apple Push Notification service, including the sandbox channel) and `push.fcm` (Firebase Cloud Messaging). A platform entry needs both a title and a body to be used; a platform you leave out falls back to default copy for that platform.

Publish a version after every copy change:

```bash title="Terminal" showLineNumbers={false}
aws qconnect create-message-template-version \
  --knowledge-base-id <KB_ID> \
  --message-template-id <TEMPLATE_ID>
```

## Personalize the message

Templates support `{{Attributes.<key>}}` variables, which resolve to the target Customer Profile's fields, including custom attributes set on the profile:

```handlebars
Hello {{Attributes.firstName}}, your order is on the way.
```

A variable with no matching profile value stays literal in the rendered copy, so use variables only for fields you populate consistently, and prefer copy that reads correctly when a value is absent.

See the [Amazon Q in Connect message template API reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazon-q-connect/latest/APIReference/API_CreateMessageTemplate.html) for the full content schema.

## Add the custom action to your journey

Building the journey itself is done in the Amazon Connect console; only template authoring is CLI-only:

1. In the Amazon Connect console, navigate to **Journeys** and open or create a journey.
2. Add a **custom action** block and point it at the push-delivery Lambda function that Amplify deployed.
3. Set the block name to the exact `--name` value you gave the template above, including capitalization.
4. Publish the journey.