Configure Email

Configure email delivery so the platform can send team invitation emails and password reset links. Without email configured, these features degrade gracefully — invitation links are shown directly in the UI and password reset is disabled.

Note

For a feature overview of invitations and password reset, see Access Control.

How It Works

The email system uses a priority-based transport selection:

Priority	Transport	When used
1	Resend	`RESEND_API_KEY` is set
2	Generic SMTP	`SMTP_HOST` is set (and no Resend key)
3	Disabled	Neither is set — email features are turned off

Both transports require SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS to be set. If the from address is missing, email is disabled even when a transport is configured.

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
`SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS`	Yes	Sender email address (e.g., `noreply@example.com`)
`SMTP_FROM_NAME`	No	Sender display name (e.g., `Inkeep`). Defaults to the address.
`SMTP_REPLY_TO`	No	Reply-to address. Defaults to the from address.

Option A: Resend (Recommended for Production)

Resend provides a managed email delivery service with high deliverability.

Variable	Required	Description
`RESEND_API_KEY`	Yes	Your Resend API key

.env

RESEND_API_KEY=re_your_api_key
SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS=notifications@yourdomain.com
SMTP_FROM_NAME=Inkeep

Tip

When using Resend, you don't need to configure any SMTP host or port variables — the system connects to Resend's SMTP relay automatically.

Option B: Generic SMTP

Use any SMTP server (Amazon SES, SendGrid, Gmail, self-hosted Postfix, etc.).

Variable	Required	Description
`SMTP_HOST`	Yes	SMTP server hostname
`SMTP_PORT`	No	Server port. Default: `587`
`SMTP_SECURE`	No	Use TLS/SSL. Auto-detected from port if not set (`true` for port 465).
`SMTP_USER`	No	SMTP authentication username
`SMTP_PASSWORD`	No	SMTP authentication password

.env

SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_SECURE=false
SMTP_USER=apikey
SMTP_PASSWORD=your-smtp-password
SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS=noreply@example.com
SMTP_FROM_NAME=Inkeep

Local Development with Mailpit

Mailpit captures outgoing email locally without sending it to real recipients. This is the recommended setup for development and testing.

Mailpit is included in the default Docker Compose configuration. Configure the SMTP environment variables to point to it:

Configure environment variables

.env

SMTP_HOST=localhost
SMTP_PORT=1025
SMTP_SECURE=false
SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS=noreply@inkeep.local
SMTP_FROM_NAME=Inkeep

Start services and verify

docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8025 to view the Mailpit inbox. Any emails sent by the platform (invitations, password resets) will appear here.

What Happens Without Email

When email is not configured, the platform adjusts its behavior:

Feature	With email	Without email
Team invitations	Invitation email sent to the recipient	Invitation link shown directly in the UI
Password reset	Reset link emailed to the user	"Forgot password?" link hidden from the sign-in page

No errors are thrown — the UI adapts automatically based on whether email is available.

Verifying Email Configuration

After configuring your environment variables, restart services and test:

Go to Settings in the sidebar
Click Invite and send a test invitation
Verify the email arrives (in Mailpit for local dev, or the real inbox for production)

If using Mailpit, open http://localhost:8025 to see the captured email.

Troubleshooting

Emails not being sent

Verify SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS is set — this is required for all transports
Check the API server logs for [email] warnings about missing configuration
For Resend: confirm your API key is valid and the from address domain is verified in Resend
For generic SMTP: verify the host, port, and credentials are correct

Invitation link shown instead of email

This is expected behavior when email is not configured. Set up SMTP or Resend to enable email delivery.

"Password reset unavailable" message

The forgot-password page shows this when email is not configured. Configure email to enable self-service password resets.

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