How onboarding works

Onboarding proves two different things depending on who you are: a founding admin proves they actually control the mailbox they say they're sending from; an invited member proves they received the invitation email at all. Both end with the same result — an active relay that the gateway will route mail through — but they get there differently.

Founding admin — a send/reply round trip

1. Sign up. You create your account and organization at checkout, authenticating with a passkey (no password, ever — see how member verification works for what that account actually protects).
2. Configure SMTP. You enter your own outgoing mail server's host and port — see SMTP settings, explained for what these are. Your relay is created at this point, but it's inactive: nothing routes through it yet.
3. Verify by replying. You get an email at a special, token-bearing address. Point your mail client at the gateway (again, see the settings page) and hit Reply — no message content needed. That reply physically transits your new relay, which is exactly what proves it's real.
4. Active. The reply lands back at the gateway, which activates your relay. From here on, your outgoing mail is protected.

If the verification email is lost or the round trip doesn't go through, you can request a fresh one — the previous token stops working the moment a new one is issued.

Invited member — no round trip needed

If an admin invites you to an existing organization, you skip the send/reply step entirely:

1. Admin invites you. They enter your email address and your SMTP host/port together — your relay is provisioned (inactive) at the same moment the invitation is created.
2. You accept. Clicking the unique link in your invitation email and registering a passkey is the whole process — no separate SMTP form, no reply-to-verify step.
3. Active immediately. Possessing that one-time link, sent only to your address, is itself the proof that you can receive mail there. Your relay activates the moment you accept.