Email

Configure invitation and notification emails over SMTP, Cloudflare Email Service, or a mail server on the same host.

Vectana sends invitation and notification emails. Choose how with MAIL_BACKEND.

SMTP

Use the SMTP endpoint of an email service (SendGrid, Resend, Amazon SES, Google Workspace…) or your own mail server.

MAIL_BACKEND=smtp
MAIL_FROM=Vectana <no-reply@example.com>
SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USERNAME=(username)
SMTP_PASSWORD=(password)
SMTP_START_TLS=true
SMTP_USE_TLS=false

For port 465 (SMTPS), set SMTP_PORT=465, SMTP_USE_TLS=true and SMTP_START_TLS=false.

Cloudflare Email Service

If your domain is on Cloudflare, you can send with Cloudflare Email Service.

MAIL_BACKEND=cloudflare
MAIL_FROM=no-reply@example.com
CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID=(account ID)
CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN=(API token with email sending permission)

A mail server on the same host

If you run docker-mailserver or similar in Docker on the same server, connect Vectana to its network and send without authentication (provided the mail server accepts mail from Docker networks).

Create compose.override.yaml next to compose.yaml. Replace mail-network with the network your mail server is on.

services:
  app:
    networks: [default, mail-network]
  worker:
    networks: [default, mail-network]

networks:
  mail-network:
    external: true

MAIL_BACKEND=smtp
MAIL_FROM=Vectana <no-reply@example.com>
SMTP_HOST=mailserver   # the mail server's container name
SMTP_PORT=25
SMTP_START_TLS=false

If mail doesn’t arrive

• Check docker compose logs app worker for sending errors
• Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for the sending domain. Without them, mail may land in spam or be rejected
• Failed notifications are retried on later scheduled checks (for 7 days after the finding)