Send your first message through the relay

Four steps from a blank domain to a message received, plus a command-line check that separates wrong settings from wrong software configuration.

The goal of this page is one real message received. Four steps, in order — each one blocks the next.

The four steps

#	Step	Guide
1	Verify domain ownership	Verify domain ownership
2	Add the sending domain and publish its records	Publish the relay sending domain records
3	Create an SMTP key	Create an SMTP key
4	Point your software at the relay	Point your software at the relay

The order cannot be swapped. Without an activated domain you cannot create a key; without a key you cannot authenticate.

Test from the command line before touching your software

After step 3 you can test without changing anything in your software. It is worth doing: it separates "wrong settings" from "wrong software configuration" — two problems with identical symptoms.

Replace cfr_... with your SMTP key and example.com with an activated domain:

swaks --server smtp.cloudfly.vn:587 --tls \
  --auth-user apikey --auth-password 'cfr_xxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' \
  --from no-reply@example.com --to you@example.net \
  --header 'Subject: First test message' --body 'The relay is working.'

The SMTP configuration page: the connection settings block listing host, port 587 with STARTTLS, alternative port 465, the fixed username apikey and the SMTP key as password, each with a copy button

If that command goes through, the domain, the key and the network path are all correct. Anything that still fails afterwards is in your software's own configuration.

No swaks available? Skip this section and test with your software at step 4.

Three values people get wrong

Field	Correct	Commonly mistyped as
Username	`apikey`	your email address
Password	the SMTP key `cfr_...`	your console login password
From	an address on an activated domain	a Gmail address or an inactive domain

The first row is the most common of the three.

Check your work

Done when all three are true:

The command or your software reports a successful send
The message is in the receiving mailbox, junk folder included
Email Relay → Stats & logs → Logs tab has a matching row

Point 3 is the easiest to skip and the most important: if the message arrives but the log is empty, the software is still sending the old way. The configuration has had no effect.

Landing in junk still counts as sent. To improve where messages land, start with the _dmarc record on the sending domain page.

Next steps

Goal	Page
Understand addresses that never arrive however often you send	Read and manage the suppression list
Messages send but do not arrive	Troubleshoot Email Relay
You need to send over HTTP instead of SMTP	What Email API is and when to use it