Pierre-Olivier Mercier
5ccdd8892f
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Add individual reference pages for all domain health checkers (EN/FR), update the homepage feature descriptions in both languages to highlight monitoring, notifications, and domain availability checks.
85 lines
5 KiB
Markdown
85 lines
5 KiB
Markdown
---
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date: 2026-06-11T09:00:00+02:00
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author: nemunaire
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title: Outbound deliverability (happyDeliver)
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description: "Send a real test message from your domain to a happyDeliver instance and grade how well it would be delivered to a real inbox."
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weight: 210
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---
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The **Outbound deliverability** checker (named *Outbound deliverability (via happyDeliver)* in happyDomain) measures how a message sent **from your domain** would actually fare on its way to a recipient's inbox. Rather than inspecting DNS records in isolation, it drives an external [happyDeliver](https://git.nemunai.re/happyDomain/happyDeliver) instance to perform an end-to-end test.
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This checker is **service-level**: it is attached to a service (typically the mail configuration of a subdomain) and needs SMTP credentials to send the test message on your behalf.
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## How it works
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For each run, the checker:
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1. Allocates a fresh recipient address on the configured happyDeliver instance.
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2. Sends a **real test email** from the tested domain to that address, using the SMTP submission server and credentials you provide.
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3. Polls happyDeliver until the message has been received and analysed.
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4. Stores happyDeliver's report and exposes one score per section as a metric.
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happyDeliver grades the message across several sections (DNS, authentication, spam filters, blacklists, headers, content) and computes an overall score. The checker turns each section into a rule.
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{{% notice style="info" title="An external happyDeliver instance is required" %}}
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This checker does nothing on its own: it needs a reachable happyDeliver instance, identified by its API URL and bearer token. Those are usually configured once by the administrator and can be overridden per domain.
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{{% /notice %}}
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## What it checks
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Each section rule compares happyDeliver's score for that section against a configurable minimum. The check is **Critical** when the score falls below the minimum, otherwise **OK**.
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| Rule | What it verifies | Default minimum |
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|---|---|---|
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| `happydeliver.score.overall` | happyDeliver's Overall score | 70 |
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| `happydeliver.score.dns` | DNS configuration score | 70 |
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| `happydeliver.score.authentication` | Authentication score (SPF / DKIM / DMARC) | 80 |
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| `happydeliver.score.spam` | Spam-filter score | 70 |
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| `happydeliver.score.blacklist` | Blacklist score | 90 |
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| `happydeliver.score.header` | Header score | 70 |
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| `happydeliver.score.content` | Content score | 60 |
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A separate `happydeliver.lifecycle` rule reports the outcome of the run itself: **OK** when the message was analysed, **Critical** when the test address could not be allocated, the message could not be sent, or happyDeliver returned a wait/fetch/parse error, and **Warning** when the message was not analysed before the timeout elapsed.
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Each section minimum can be tuned through its own `min_score_<section>` rule option in the happyDomain interface.
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## Options
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### Sending (per domain)
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| Option | Meaning | Default |
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|---|---|---|
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| Sending SMTP host (`smtp_host`) | Hostname or IP of the submission server used to send the test email. **Required.** | (none) |
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| Sending SMTP port (`smtp_port`) | Submission port (587 for STARTTLS, 465 for implicit TLS, 25 for plain). | 587 |
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| SMTP username (`smtp_username`) | Username for the submission server (omit for anonymous submission). | (none) |
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| SMTP password (`smtp_password`) | Password for the submission server. | (none) |
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| TLS mode (`smtp_tls`) | How to negotiate TLS: `starttls`, `tls`, or `none`. | `starttls` |
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| From address (`from_address`) | Address used in the `From` header; must belong to the tested domain. | `no-reply@<domain>` |
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### Message content (per domain)
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| Option | Meaning | Default |
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|---|---|---|
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| Subject (`subject_override`) | Override the default test subject. | (built-in) |
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| Plain-text body (`body_text_override`) | Override the default plain-text body. | (built-in) |
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| HTML body (`body_html_override`) | Override the default HTML body. | (built-in) |
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### Timing (per domain)
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| Option | Meaning | Default |
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|---|---|---|
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| Wait timeout (`wait_timeout`) | Seconds to wait for happyDeliver to receive and analyse the message. | 900 |
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| Poll interval (`poll_interval`) | Seconds between status polls (clamped to the 2–60 range). | 5 |
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### Instance (admin, overridable per domain)
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| Option | Meaning | Default |
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|---|---|---|
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| happyDeliver instance URL (`happydeliver_url`) | Base URL of the happyDeliver API. | (admin) |
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| happyDeliver API token (`happydeliver_token`) | Bearer token for the happyDeliver API. | (admin) |
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## In happyDomain
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Enable this checker from the service's **Checks** tab and provide the SMTP submission details so happyDomain can send the test message. See {{< relref "/pages/checks" >}} for the general workflow of scheduling and reading checks.
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Because deliverability depends heavily on your anti-spoofing posture, pair this checker with a well-configured {{< relref "/reference/services/email" >}} setup (SPF, DKIM and DMARC). For the DNSSEC half of your domain's trust chain, see {{< relref "/reference/checkers/dnssec" >}}.
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