Email Overview

Forge includes a full email platform that runs alongside your deployments. Add a project email domain, verify ownership, create sender identities, publish DKIM, and start sending through your SMTP server — all from your own VPS.

Why Forge Email?

Most email products lock you into a monthly fee per send or require a third-party API. Forge Email is different:

• No monthly email bill. You provide the SMTP server (Gmail, Postfix, Mailcow, or any provider). Forge is the orchestration layer.
• Your data stays on your server. Email logs, recipient lists, and automation state live in your Forge SQLite database.
• Zero vendor lock-in. Swap SMTP providers anytime. Export your lists and automations.
• Detachable. Forge Email can run as a standalone service without the deployment features.

What You Can Do

Feature	Use Case
Transactional Send	Signup confirmations, password resets, receipts, notifications — single emails triggered by your app
Automations	Drip sequences: “signup → welcome email → 2 days later tips → 7 days later upgrade”
Broadcasting	Newsletters, product updates, announcements to subscriber lists with unsubscribe management
Forwarding	Receive email @yourdomain.com and forward to Gmail — custom domain email addresses

How It Works

Your App                    Forge                       SMTP Server
   │                          │                             │
   │  POST /api/v1/email/send │                             │
   ├─────────────────────────►│                             │
   │                          │  nodemailer (raw SMTP)      │
   │                          ├────────────────────────────►│
   │                          │                             │  delivers to
   │                          │                             │  recipient inbox
   │                          │◄────────────────────────────┤
   │◄─────────────────────────┤                             │
   │  { "status": "sent" }    │                             │

Forge is the API and orchestration layer. It authenticates requests, enforces quotas, renders templates, manages lists, schedules automations, and logs everything. Your SMTP server does the actual delivery. This separation means Forge never touches your SMTP credentials in plaintext (they are encrypted at rest) and you can change SMTP providers without changing your application code.

Quick Start

1. Add an email domain inside the project
2. Verify domain ownership with the DNS TXT record Forge shows
3. Create a sender identity on that verified domain
4. Publish and verify the sender DKIM TXT record
5. Create an API key
6. Send your first transactional email
7. Explore automations, broadcasting, or forwarding

Enabling Email

Email features are off by default. Set in your Forge .env:

FORGE_EMAIL_ENABLED=true
FORGE_EMAIL_DEFAULT_SMTP_HOST=mail.example.com
FORGE_EMAIL_DEFAULT_SMTP_PORT=587
FORGE_EMAIL_DEFAULT_SMTP_SECURE=false
FORGE_EMAIL_SMTP_REQUIRE_TLS=true

Restart Forge after changing these. The Email section appears in System Settings.