Merge Tags Cheat Sheet | MailChimp Killer Documentation

Templates are plain HTML. Everything dynamic goes through a merge tag written {{name}}, resolved per recipient at send time.

One syntax only. Templates use {{name}}. Mailchimp's *|TAG|* syntax is converted when you save a pasted template — it is never a second syntax to maintain.

Supported merge tags

These five are the entire vocabulary. Anything else is reported as unknown.

Tag	Resolves to	Example output
`{{firstName}}`	Contact's first name	Camille
`{{lastName}}`	Contact's last name	Dubois
`{{email}}`	Contact's email address	camille@exemple.fr
`{{unsubscribeUrl}}`	Unique unsubscribe link for this recipient	https://app/u/a1b2c3
`{{currentYear}}`	Year at the moment of rendering	2026

{{currentYear}} is computed at render time, in Europe/Paris. It is the © {{currentYear}} of a footer: a template written in 2026 still shows the right year in 2027, without touching it. A value passed for it in an API call is ignored — like {{unsubscribeUrl}}, it is decided by the server, never by the caller.

Whitespace inside the braces is allowed — {{ firstName }} works like {{firstName}}. Merge tags are resolved in both the subject line and the HTML body.

{{unsubscribeUrl}} is mandatory. A template whose rendered HTML does not contain the unsubscribe link is refused at render time, with an explicit error. No footer is silently appended to your HTML — the link must be somewhere in your template.

Mailchimp tags converted on save

Paste a Mailchimp template and save it: these are rewritten automatically.

Mailchimp tag	Becomes
`\|UNSUB\|`	`{{unsubscribeUrl}}`
`\|FNAME\|`	`{{firstName}}`
`\|LNAME\|`	`{{lastName}}`
`\|EMAIL\|`	`{{email}}`
`\|CURRENT_YEAR\|`	`{{currentYear}}`

Not supported

Any other *|TAG|* is left untouched in the HTML and reported in the editor when you save. It is never silently shipped to recipients.

Mailchimp tag	Why it is not supported
`\|DATE:d F Y\|`	Formats a value. Merge tags substitute, they do not format. Only the bare year, `\|CURRENT_YEAR\|`, is supported.
`\|IF:…\|` etc.	Conditional blocks require a template engine, not substitution.
`\|ARCHIVE\|`	No web archive of sent campaigns yet.
`\|LIST:NAME\|`	List and account metadata are not exposed to templates.
`\|MERGE1\|`, …	No custom contact fields — the vocabulary above is closed.

If you paste a template using one of these, fix it in the editor: replace the tag with static text, or drop it.

Behaviour rules

A known tag with no value renders empty. If a contact has no first name, Salut {{firstName}}, renders as Salut ,. Write around it, or keep the tag out of a sentence that breaks without it. An unknown tag is left visible and reported. {{fistName}} (typo) stays in the output as {{fistName}} and is listed as an unknown variable in the preview panel — so you catch it before sending, not after. The preview uses sample data. The preview panel renders your template with example values and a placeholder unsubscribe URL, so what you see is what the pipeline actually produces at send time.

Example

<td>Salut {{firstName}}, voici les nouvelles du mois.</td>
<!-- … -->
<a href="{{unsubscribeUrl}}">Se désinscrire</a>

Rendered for a contact named Camille:

<td>Salut Camille, voici les nouvelles du mois.</td>
<!-- … -->
<a href="https://app.example.com/unsubscribe/a1b2c3">Se désinscrire</a>