SMTP relay

The SMTP relay lets existing apps, frameworks and tools (WordPress, Laravel, Django, nodemailer, monitoring tools, ...) send email through TickOS without using the REST API. Messages go out through the same infrastructure and rules as POST /v1/emails, and every send is logged in the dashboard (Settings > SMTP).

Connection settings

Any active API key of the workspace works as the password; the key determines which workspace the message is sent from and is charged to. Create a dedicated key for SMTP in Settings > API Keys so you can revoke it independently. A revoked or deactivated key stops working immediately (535).

Sending rules

Each message is checked before delivery with the same rules as the Emails API:

• Sender: both the envelope sender (MAIL FROM) and the From header must be on a verified sending domain of the workspace (Settings > Domains). The domain must match exactly; a subdomain needs its own verification.
• Recipients: at most 50 unique recipients per message (To, Cc and Bcc combined).
• Plan limits: monthly email quota plus the daily and hourly sending limits of your plan. Each accepted message counts as 1 email toward the monthly quota.
• Suppressed recipients (previous hard bounces or undeliverable addresses) are skipped silently; the rest of the message is delivered. If every recipient is suppressed, the message is rejected.
• Workspaces whose email sending is suspended cannot send.
• A null sender (MAIL FROM:<>) is not allowed.

Open and click tracking

Tracking is off by default. Add these headers to the message to enable it. They are removed before delivery and only apply to messages with an HTML part.

Tracked messages are stored as outbound emails in the workspace so their opens and clicks can be reported.

SMTP response codes

Rejections are returned as standard SMTP replies during the session, so your client or library surfaces them as send errors. 4xx codes are temporary (retry later); 5xx are permanent (do not retry without fixing the cause).

Examples

Node.js (nodemailer)

01import nodemailer from 'nodemailer'
02 
03const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
04  host: 'smtp.tickos.dev',
05  port: 587,
06  secure: false, // STARTTLS
07  auth: {
08    user: 'tickos_user',
09    pass: process.env.TICKOS_API_KEY, // sk_...
10  },
11})
12 
13await transporter.sendMail({
14  from: '"Acme Support" <support@yourdomain.com>',
15  to: 'jane@example.com',
16  subject: 'Your invoice is ready',
17  html: '<p>Hi Jane, <a href="https://yourdomain.com/invoices/42">view your invoice</a>.</p>',
18  headers: { 'X-Track-Opens': 'true', 'X-Track-Clicks': 'true' },
19})

Python (smtplib)

01import os
02import smtplib
03from email.message import EmailMessage
04 
05msg = EmailMessage()
06msg['From'] = 'Acme Support <support@yourdomain.com>'
07msg['To'] = 'jane@example.com'
08msg['Subject'] = 'Your invoice is ready'
09msg['X-Track-Opens'] = 'true'
10msg.set_content('Hi Jane, your invoice is ready.')
11msg.add_alternative('<p>Hi Jane, your invoice is ready.</p>', subtype='html')
12 
13with smtplib.SMTP('smtp.tickos.dev', 587) as server:
14    server.starttls()
15    server.login('tickos_user', os.environ['TICKOS_API_KEY'])
16    server.send_message(msg)

Command line (swaks)

01swaks --server smtp.tickos.dev --port 587 --tls \
02  --auth-user tickos_user --auth-password "$TICKOS_API_KEY" \
03  --from support@yourdomain.com --to jane@example.com \
04  --header "Subject: SMTP test from TickOS" \
05  --body "It works."

Framework settings (e.g. Laravel .env)

01MAIL_MAILER=smtp
02MAIL_HOST=smtp.tickos.dev
03MAIL_PORT=587
04MAIL_USERNAME=tickos_user
05MAIL_PASSWORD=sk_your_api_key
06MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
07MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=support@yourdomain.com