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Domain email (trycodev.com)

CoDev’s public site is trycodev.com (and www.trycodev.com). The domain is registered with Vercel, uses Vercel nameservers, and is attached to the codev Vercel project. Email on this domain is two separate systems: Resend for outbound product mail, and ImprovMX for inbound operator mailboxes.

There is no hosted mailbox (no IMAP, no Google Workspace). Receiving is free forwarding. Sending product mail does not use ImprovMX.

What is live

Address Role
noreply@trycodev.com Product From address (password resets, waitlist receipts, invites) via Resend
yousef@trycodev.com Operator inbox. ImprovMX forwards it to the Gmail configured in the ImprovMX dashboard
*@trycodev.com Catch-all. Same ImprovMX destination as yousef@

ImprovMX is on the free plan. Do not upgrade to Premium unless you need SMTP to send from yousef@trycodev.com. Receiving does not require it.

Outbound (Resend)

The website sends mail with RESEND_API_KEY through https://api.resend.com/emails.

  • From: AUTH_EMAIL_FROM, defaulting to CoDev <noreply@trycodev.com>
  • Used by apps/web/lib/auth/password-reset-mail.ts and apps/web/lib/admin/access-request-mail.ts

Resend is verified on trycodev.com. Its DNS lives on the send subdomain and resend._domainkey, so it does not conflict with apex MX used for receiving.

Name Type Value
resend._domainkey TXT Resend DKIM public key
send TXT v=spf1 include:amazonses.com ~all
send MX 10 feedback-smtp.us-east-1.amazonses.com.

Keep the From address on @trycodev.com. Changing it to an unrelated domain will fail Resend domain checks.

Inbound (ImprovMX)

Set up 2026-08-30:

  1. Create a free ImprovMX account at app.improvmx.com.
  2. Add domain trycodev.com (not codev.com — that domain is not ours).
  3. Add alias yousef → the operator Gmail. A catch-all * was also added.
  4. Add apex MX and SPF on Vercel DNS (below).
  5. In ImprovMX, wait until trycodev.com shows Active.

To add another address later (hello@trycodev.com, and so on), create another alias in ImprovMX. Apex MX does not need to change.

Vercel DNS for receiving

Added with the Vercel CLI while nameservers were ns1.vercel-dns.com / ns2.vercel-dns.com:

vercel dns add trycodev.com @ MX mx1.improvmx.com 10
vercel dns add trycodev.com @ MX mx2.improvmx.com 20
vercel dns add trycodev.com @ TXT "v=spf1 include:spf.improvmx.com ~all"
Name Type Value
@ MX 10 mx1.improvmx.com.
@ MX 20 mx2.improvmx.com.
@ TXT v=spf1 include:spf.improvmx.com ~all

There must be only one apex SPF TXT record. If another sender later needs apex SPF (Gmail “Send mail as”, Google Workspace, and so on), merge the include: mechanisms into that single record. Do not add a second SPF TXT. Resend’s SPF stays on send and does not need to be merged today.

Vercel also has an ImprovMX DNS preset that writes the same MX/SPF records.

App environment

Documented in .env.example. Local values live in .env.local and apps/web/.env.local (gitignored).

Variable Purpose
RESEND_API_KEY Required in production to actually send mail
RESEND_EMAIL_DOMAIN Present on the Vercel project; unused by app code
AUTH_EMAIL_FROM Optional From header. Default CoDev <noreply@trycodev.com>
ACCESS_REQUEST_NOTIFY_EMAIL Optional. Waitlist requests are forwarded here
SIGNUP_ALLOWLIST Optional comma-separated emails that may register without an invite

ACCESS_REQUEST_NOTIFY_EMAIL and SIGNUP_ALLOWLIST are set locally to yousef@trycodev.com. Production Vercel still needs the same keys if waitlist pings and allowlisted signup should work on trycodev.com.

Do not put yousef@trycodev.com in AUTH_EMAIL_FROM. That variable is the Resend From address for product mail, not the operator inbox.

Checks

vercel domains inspect trycodev.com
vercel dns ls trycodev.com
dig +short MX trycodev.com
dig +short TXT trycodev.com

MX should be ImprovMX. Apex TXT should be the ImprovMX SPF record. Then send a message to yousef@trycodev.com from a different account and confirm it lands in the ImprovMX destination Gmail.

Do not

  • Point nameservers away from Vercel without re-creating both Resend and ImprovMX records at the new DNS host. The website aliases depend on Vercel nameservers today.
  • Add a second apex MX provider (Google, Zoho, Cloudflare Email Routing) while ImprovMX is active. One set of apex MX records wins.
  • Pay ImprovMX Premium only to receive mail.