Getting Started

Quickstart

From account creation to your first delivered email in under 5 minutes. This guide uses the BYOC path (your own SES) which works immediately - no approval required.

Prefer not to manage AWS? Skip to Shared SES setup instead - zero AWS required, just domain DNS records and manual account approval.

Prerequisites

For the BYOC path you need:

→ An AWS account with SES approved for production access (out of sandbox mode)
→ A domain you control (to add DNS records)
→ Access to create IAM roles in your AWS account

Create a SendFleet account

Register at sendfleet.net/register. Email verification is required before you can send. The Starter plan is free with 50 BYOC emails/month - no credit card needed.

Create an IAM role in AWS

In your AWS console, go to IAM → Roles → Create role. Choose Custom trust policy and paste the trust policy shown in your account settings → BYOC section. It will include your unique ExternalId automatically. Attach the required SES permissions (also listed in settings). See the full guide in BYOC Setup →

Connect your IAM role

Go to Dashboard → Settings. Paste your IAM Role ARN and select your SES region. Click Validate & save. We'll verify that we can assume the role and that your SES account is out of sandbox mode.

Example Role ARN

arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/SendFleet-BYOC-Role

Add and verify a sending domain

Go to Dashboard → Domains → Add BYOC domain. Enter your root domain (e.g. acme.com). We'll register the identity in your SES and show you the DNS records to add. Once the TXT ownership record propagates, click Verify ownership - then Verify DKIM. DKIM verification is required before any email can be sent.

Generate an API key

Go to Dashboard → API Keys → New key. Give it a name (e.g. "Production"). The full secret key is shown exactly once - copy it and store it in your environment variables or secrets manager. We only store the SHA-512 hash.

Send your first email

Replace YOUR_API_KEY and hello@acme.com with your key and verified domain.

curl -X POST https://sendfleet.net/api/send/ \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "user@example.com",
    "from_email": "hello@acme.com",
    "from_name": "Acme",
    "subject": "Welcome aboard",
    "message": "Thanks for signing up!"
  }'

Successful response

A 200 OK means your email has been accepted and queued. Delivery happens asynchronously.

200 OK

{
  "success":    true,
  "message":    "Email queued for delivery via your SES account.",
  "message_id": "1a2b3c4d-5e6f-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
  "mode":       "byoc"
}

Next steps

Topic	Description
Send Email reference	All request parameters, HTML support, reply-to.
DNS records	Add SPF, DKIM, MAIL FROM, DMARC for maximum deliverability.
Error codes	Understand and handle every possible error response.
Plans & limits	Rate limits, monthly quotas, and upgrade paths.

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