---
title: "Emails"
description: "Send custom emails, manage templates, and track delivery - all from Stack Auth."
icon: "envelope"
---

Stack Auth includes a full email system for sending transactional and marketing emails to your users. It handles rendering, delivery, scheduling, notification preferences, and tracking out of the box.

## Email types

There are two categories of email:

- **Transactional** - Required for your app to function (verification, password reset, receipts). Users cannot opt out.
- **Marketing**  - Promotional or informational. Always includes an unsubscribe link. Users can opt out.

<Warning>
  Never send marketing content as transactional emails. Doing so can get your domain blacklisted by spam filters.
</Warning>

## Sending emails

Emails are sent from your server using `stackServerApp.sendEmail()`. You must provide the content (HTML, a template, or a draft) and the recipients.

### Send to specific users

```typescript
await stackServerApp.sendEmail({
  userIds: ['user-id-1', 'user-id-2'],
  subject: 'Welcome to our platform!',
  html: '<h1>Welcome!</h1><p>Thanks for joining us.</p>',
});
```

### Send to all users

```typescript
await stackServerApp.sendEmail({
  allUsers: true,
  templateId: 'your-template-id',
  subject: 'We just shipped a big update',
  variables: {
    featureName: 'Dark mode',
  },
});
```

### Send from a dashboard draft

If you've composed an email in the dashboard's draft editor, you can trigger it programmatically:

```typescript
await stackServerApp.sendEmail({
  userIds: ['user-id'],
  draftId: 'your-draft-id',
});
```

### Full options

```typescript
await stackServerApp.sendEmail({
  // Recipients  - exactly one of these is required:
  userIds: ['user-id-1'],     // specific users
  // allUsers: true,           // or all users in your project

  // Content  - exactly one of these is required:
  html: '<p>Hello!</p>',      // raw HTML
  // templateId: 'template-id', // or a template with variables
  // draftId: 'draft-id',       // or a dashboard draft

  // Optional:
  subject: 'Hello!',
  variables: { key: 'value' },
  themeId: 'theme-id',          // apply a specific theme
  // themeId: null,              // use the default theme
  // themeId: false,             // send with no theme at all
  notificationCategoryName: 'Marketing',
  scheduledAt: new Date('2025-12-25T00:00:00Z'),
});
```

<Info>
  `sendEmail` requires a custom email server (SMTP, Resend, or Managed). It cannot be used with the shared development server.
</Info>

## Scheduling

Pass a `scheduledAt` date to delay delivery. The email enters the pipeline immediately but won't be sent until the scheduled time.

```typescript
await stackServerApp.sendEmail({
  userIds: ['user-id'],
  html: '<p>Happy New Year!</p>',
  subject: 'Happy New Year!',
  scheduledAt: new Date('2026-01-01T00:00:00Z'),
});
```

If `scheduledAt` is omitted, the email is sent as soon as possible.

## Email pipeline

Emails are processed asynchronously through a multi-stage pipeline:

1. **Enqueue**  - The email is saved to the outbox with its template, recipients, and scheduling metadata.
2. **Render**  - The template TSX is compiled into HTML, subject, and plain text.
3. **Queue**  - Rendered emails whose scheduled time has passed are queued for delivery, respecting your project's sending capacity.
4. **Send**  - Emails are delivered, honoring notification preferences and skipping users who have unsubscribed.
5. **Track**  - Delivery events (sent, opened, clicked, bounced, marked as spam) are recorded.

You can monitor every email's status in the dashboard under **Emails → Sent**.

## Templates

Templates are React Email components written in TSX. Each template receives the current `user`, `project`, and any custom `variables` you pass when sending.

```tsx
import { type } from "arktype";
import { Container } from "@react-email/components";
import { Subject, NotificationCategory, Props } from "@stackframe/emails";

export const variablesSchema = type({
  featureName: "string",
});

export function EmailTemplate({
  user,
  project,
  variables,
}: Props<typeof variablesSchema.infer>) {
  return (
    <Container>
      <Subject value={`New feature: ${variables.featureName}`} />
      <NotificationCategory value="Transactional" />
      <p>Hi {user.displayName}, check out {variables.featureName}!</p>
    </Container>
  );
}

EmailTemplate.PreviewVariables = {
  featureName: "Dark mode",
} satisfies typeof variablesSchema.infer;
```

Key concepts:

- **`variablesSchema`**  - Define the shape of your template variables using [arktype](https://arktype.io). Stack Auth validates variables against this schema at render time.
- **`<Subject>`**  - Sets the email subject line from inside the template.
- **`<NotificationCategory>`**  - Declares whether this is a `"Transactional"` or `"Marketing"` email.
- **`PreviewVariables`**  - Sample data used for the live preview in the dashboard editor.

### Built-in templates

Stack Auth ships with templates for common auth flows. These are used automatically by the built-in authentication components:

| Template | Trigger |
|---|---|
| **Email Verification** | User signs up or changes their email |
| **Password Reset** | User requests a password reset |
| **Magic Link / OTP** | User signs in with magic link or one-time password |
| **Team Invitation** | User is invited to join a team |
| **Sign-in Invitation** | User is invited to create an account |
| **Payment Receipt** | A payment succeeds (one-time or subscription) |
| **Payment Failed** | A payment fails |

You can customize any built-in template from the dashboard under **Emails → Templates**.

## Themes

Themes wrap your email content in a consistent layout  - header, footer, background, branding. Stack Auth includes three built-in themes:

- **Default Light**  - Clean white background with subtle shadow
- **Default Dark**  - Dark background with light text
- **Default Colorful**  - Light purple background with an accent border

You can create custom themes in the dashboard under **Emails → Email Settings → Themes**. Themes are also TSX components:

```tsx
import { Html, Head, Tailwind, Body, Container } from "@react-email/components";
import { ThemeProps, ProjectLogo } from "@stackframe/emails";

export function EmailTheme({ children, unsubscribeLink, projectLogos }: ThemeProps) {
  return (
    <Html>
      <Head />
      <Tailwind>
        <Body className="bg-white font-sans m-0 p-0">
          <Container className="max-w-[600px] mx-auto p-8">
            <ProjectLogo data={projectLogos} mode="light" />
            {children}
          </Container>
          {unsubscribeLink && (
            <p className="text-center text-xs opacity-60">
              <a href={unsubscribeLink}>Unsubscribe</a>
            </p>
          )}
        </Body>
      </Tailwind>
    </Html>
  );
}
```

Set a default theme for your project in the dashboard. You can also override the theme per-email with the `themeId` option, or pass `themeId: false` to send without any theme.

## Notification preferences

Emails are categorized as either **Transactional** or **Marketing**. Users can opt out of Marketing emails but not Transactional ones.

When sending, specify the category:

```typescript
await stackServerApp.sendEmail({
  userIds: ['user-id'],
  html: '<p>Check out our new feature!</p>',
  subject: 'Product Updates',
  notificationCategoryName: 'Marketing',
});
```

If a user has unsubscribed from Marketing emails, the email will be automatically skipped during delivery. Marketing emails always include an unsubscribe link.

## Email server configuration

Configure your email server in the dashboard under **Emails → Email Settings**. There are four options:

### Shared (development only)

The default for new projects. Emails are sent from `noreply@stackframe.co` using Stack Auth's shared infrastructure. Good for development  - not suitable for production.

### Custom SMTP

Connect any SMTP provider. Configure:

- **Host**  - e.g. `smtp.sendgrid.net`
- **Port**  - typically 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (implicit TLS)
- **Username** and **Password**
- **Sender email** and **Sender name**

### Resend

Connect your [Resend](https://resend.com) account by entering your API key. Stack Auth configures the SMTP connection automatically.

### Managed

Let Stack Auth manage your email domain. Stack Auth handles DNS configuration and deliverability for you. Set up requires:

1. Choose a subdomain (e.g. `mail.yourapp.com`)
2. Add the DNS records Stack Auth provides
3. Verify the domain in the dashboard

<Info>
  The dashboard tests your email configuration automatically when you save it by sending a test email.
</Info>

## Delivery stats

Stack Auth tracks delivery metrics across multiple time windows (hour, day, week, month):

- **Sent**  - Successfully delivered
- **Bounced**  - Rejected by the recipient's mail server
- **Marked as spam**  - Recipient flagged the email

Access these programmatically:

```typescript
const info = await stackServerApp.getEmailDeliveryStats();
// info.stats.day.sent, info.stats.day.bounced, etc.
// info.capacity.rate_per_second, info.capacity.is_boost_active, etc.
```

Delivery capacity is managed automatically based on your sending reputation. If you need to temporarily increase throughput, you can activate a capacity boost:

```typescript
await stackServerApp.activateEmailCapacityBoost();
```

## Drafts

The dashboard includes a full draft editor where you can compose emails visually before sending. Drafts support:

- TSX source editing with live preview
- Theme selection
- Recipient picker (specific users or all users)
- Scheduling
- Send history per draft

Once a draft is sent, it's marked as sent and its delivery can be tracked in the outbox.
