web dev//DNS//email records

The mail of a domain is configured entirely in its zone, through three kinds of record that answer three different questions. They are easy to ignore while building a website and they are the first thing that breaks when the DNS is touched carelessly.

The mail of a domain is configured entirely in its zone, through three kinds of record that answer three different questions. They are easy to ignore while building a website and they are the first thing that breaks when the DNS is touched carelessly.

MX says which servers the mail for the domain is delivered to. It is the receiving side.

SPF says who is authorised to send mail in the name of the domain. It is a TXT record listing the permitted senders.

DKIM is a signature that proves a message is authentic, checked against a key published in the zone.

SPF and DKIM decide whether outgoing mail lands in the inbox or in spam: a domain that sends without them is filtered as a matter of course. Cloudflare's Email Routing covers only the receiving half, since it receives and forwards and does not send outgoing mail.