Email Forwarding API

This is the documentation for our API endpoints at improvmx.com. This lets you list, create, edit and remove domains and email aliases that you can forward to programmatically.

Base URL

The base URL of ImprovMX’s API is: https://api.improvmx.com/v3

The v3 api was released on April 30th, 2020. We suggest you update as soon as possible.

The v2 api has been marked as deprecated and was removed on June 1st 2024.

Authentication

First, retrieve your API Key from the API page of the ImprovMX app dashboard.

Authentication is done via basic access authentication.

Pass the string api as the username and your API key as the password, like in the following curl request:

export API_KEY={your_api_key}
curl https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

That’s it, now you’re ready to communicate with our API.

Error codes

Here are the main error codes you will encounter:

When an error occurs, you will always receive a JSON response in the body explaining the reason for the failure. This should help you understand and fix your subsequent requests.

For instance, here’s an example of a Bad Request response returned by the server:

{
    "errors": {
        "email": [
            "You cannot use your domain in your email."
        ]
    },
    "success": false
}

Account

GET /account <Get Account Details>

Get details about your ImprovMX account

curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/account \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "account": {
        "billing_email": null,
        "cancels_on": null,
        "card_brand": "Visa",
        "company_details": "1 Decentralized Street\n92024-
    2852 California",
        "company_name": "PiedPiper Inc.",
        "company_vat": null,
        "country": "US",
        "created": 1512139382000,
        "email": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com",
        "last4": "1234",
        "limits": {
            "aliases": 10000,
            "daily_quota": 100000,
            "daily_send": 200,
            "domains": 10000,
            "ratelimit": 10,
            "redirections": 50,
            "subdomains": 2,
            "api": 3,
            "credentials": 50,
            "destinations": 5
        },
        "lock_reason": null,
        "locked": null,
        "password": true,
        "plan": {
            "aliases_limit": 10000,
            "daily_quota": 100000,
            "display": "Business - $249",
            "domains_limit": 10000,
            "kind": "enterprise",
            "name": "enterprise249",
            "price": 249,
            "yearly": false
        },
        "premium": true,
        "privacy_level": 1,
        "renew_date": 15881622590000
    },
    "success": true
}

GET /account/whitelabels <Whitelabel domains>

Get whitelabeled domains

curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/account/whitelabels \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "whitelabels": [
        {
            "name": "piedpiper.com"
        }
    ],
    "success": true
}

Domains

GET /domains <List domains>

Retrieve a list of all your domains

curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY

Note: We limit this endpoint to 200 aliases per domain. If your domain has more aliases, we recommend the list aliases endpoint.

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "domains": [
        {
            "active": true, 
            "domain": "google.com",
            "display": "google.com",
            "dkim_selector": "dkimprovmx",
            "notification_email": null,
            "webhook": null,
            "whitelabel": null,
            "added": 1559639697000,
            "aliases": [
                {
                    "created": 1702393755000, 
                    "forward": "sergey@gmail.com", 
                    "alias": "sergey", 
                    "id": 1
                },
                {
                    "created": 1702393755000, 
                    "forward": "larry@gmail.com", 
                    "alias": "larry", 
                    "id": 2
                }
            ]
        }, 
        {
            "active": false, 
            "domain": "piedpiper.com",
            "display": "piedpiper.com",
            "dkim_selector": "dkimprovmx",
            "notification_email": null,
            "whitelabel": null,
            "added": 1559639733000,
            "aliases": [
                {
                    "created": 1702393755000, 
                    "forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com", 
                    "alias": "richard", 
                    "id": 4
                },
                {
                    "created": 1702393755000, 
                    "forward": "jared.dunn@gmail.com", 
                    "alias": "jared", 
                    "id": 5
                }
            ]
        }
    ], 
    "total": 3,
    "limit": 50,
    "page": 1,
    "success": true
}

You can also use the q parameter to search for domains that start with the given value.

curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains?q=pied \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "domains": [
        {
            "active": true, 
            "domain": "piedpiper.com", 
            "display": "piedpiper.com",
            "dkim_selector": "dkimprovmx",
            "notification_email": null,
            "webhook": null,
            "whitelabel": null,
            "added": 1559639727000, 
            "daily_quota": 500, 
            "aliases": [
                {
                    "created": 1702393755000, 
                    "forward": "richard@piedpiper.com", 
                    "alias": "*", 
                    "id": 3
                }
            ]
        }
    ], 
    "total": 1,
    "limit": 50,
    "page": 1,
    "success": true
}

POST /domains <Add domains>

Add a new domain

curl -X POST https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"domain": "piedpiper.com"}'

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "domain": {
        "active": false, 
        "domain": "piedpiper.com",
        "display": "piedpiper.com",
        "dkim_selector": "dkimprovmx",
        "notification_email": null,
        "whitelabel": null,
        "added": 1559652806000,
        "aliases": [
            {
                "forward": "contact@piedpiper.com", 
                "alias": "*", 
                "id": 12
            }
        ]
    }, 
    "success": true
}

GET /domains/:domain <Get domain’s details>

Get domain details

curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Note: We limit this endpoint to 200 aliases per domain. If your domain has more aliases, we recommend the list aliases endpoint.

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "domain": {
        "active": false, 
        "domain": "piedpiper.com", 
        "added": 1559639733000, 
        "display": "piedpiper.com",
        "dkim_selector": "dkimprovmx",
        "notification_email": null,
        "webhook": null,
        "whitelabel": null,
        "aliases": [
            {
                "created": 1702393755000,
                "forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com", 
                "alias": "richard", 
                "id": 4
            },
            {
                "created": 1702393755000,
                "forward": "jared.dunn@gmail.com", 
                "alias": "jared", 
                "id": 5
            }
        ]
    },
    "success": True
}

PUT /domains/:domain <Update domain>

Edit a domain.

NOTE: It’s not possible to change the domain name.

curl -X PUT https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"notification_email": "email@example.com",
       "webhook": "https://requestbin.com/r/abc123",
       "whitelabel": "hooli.com"}'

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "domain": {
        "active": false, 
        "domain": "piedpiper.com", 
        "added": 1559639733000, 
        "display": "piedpiper.com",
        "dkim_selector": "dkimprovmx",
        "notification_email": "email@example.com",
        "webhook": "https://requestbin.com/r/enbwnegkb25v",
        "whitelabel": "hooli.com",
        "aliases": [
            {
                "forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com", 
                "alias": "richard", 
                "id": 4
            },
            {
                "forward": "jared.dunn@gmail.com", 
                "alias": "jared", 
                "id": 5
            }
        ]
    },
    "success": True
}

DELETE /domains/:domain <Delete domain>

Delete a domain

curl -X DELETE https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "success": true
}

GET /domains/:domain/check <Check MX of domain>

Check if MX entries are valid for a domain

curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/check \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
  "records": {
    "provider": "cloudflare",
    "advanced": true,
    "dkim1": {
      "expected": "dkimprovmx1.improvmx.com.",
      "valid": true,
      "values": "dkimprovmx1.improvmx.com."
    },
    "dkim2": {
      "expected": "dkimprovmx2.improvmx.com.",
      "valid": true,
      "values": "dkimprovmx2.improvmx.com."
    },
    "dmarc": {
      "expected": "v=DMARC1; p=none;",
      "valid": false,
      "values": null
    },
    "error": null,
    "mx": {
      "expected": [
        "mx1.improvmx.com",
        "mx2.improvmx.com"
      ],
      "valid": true,
      "values": [
        "mx2.improvmx.com",
        "mx1.improvmx.com"
      ]
    },
    "spf": {
      "expected": "v=spf1 include:someservice.org include:spf.improvmx.com ~all",
      "valid": false,
      "values": "v=spf1 include:someservice.org ~all"
    },
    "valid": false
  },
  "success": true
}

The endpoint will return success: true when MX entries are well configured, success: false otherwise.

error may contain a reason why the entries are not valid.

Aliases

GET /domains/:domain/aliases <Listing the aliases>

List a domain’s aliases

curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "aliases": [
        {
            "created": 1702982672000, 
            "forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com", 
            "alias": "richard", 
            "id": 4
        },
        {
            "created": 1702982672000, 
            "forward": "jared.dunn@gmail.com", 
            "alias": "jared", 
            "id": 5
        }
    ],
    "limit": 5,
    "page": 1,
    "total": 2,
    "success": true
}

POST /domains/:domain/aliases <Create new alias>

Add new domain alias

curl -X POST https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"alias": "richard",
       "forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com"}'

{
    "alias": {
        "forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com", 
        "alias": "richard", 
        "id": 11
    }, 
    "success": true
}

GET /domains/:domain/aliases/:alias <Alias details>

Get alias details

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "alias": {
        "created": 1702982672000,
        "forward": "richard.hendricks@protonmail.com", 
        "alias": "richard", 
        "id": 11
    }, 
    "success": true
}

PUT /domains/:domain/aliases/:alias <Update alias>

Update an alias

curl -X PUT https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases/richard \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"forward": "richard.hendricks@protonmail.com"}'

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "alias": {
        "forward": "richard.hendricks@protonmail.com", 
        "alias": "richard", 
        "id": 11
    }, 
    "success": true
}

You can also update an alias based on the “id” which is generated by our system when an alias is created

curl -X PUT https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases/7 \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"alias": "richard2",
       "forward": "richard.hendricks@protonmail.com"}'

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "alias": {
        "forward": "richardhendricks@gmail.com", 
        "alias": "richardhendricks", 
        "id": 11
    }, 
    "success": true
}

DELETE /domains/:domain/aliases/:alias <Delete alias>

Delete an alias

curl -X DELETE https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases/nelson \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "success": true
}

DELETE /domains/:domain/aliases/aliases-all <Delete all aliases>

Delete all aliases

curl -X DELETE https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases/aliases-all\
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "success": true
}

POST /domains/:domain/aliases/bulk <Bulk modify aliases>

Add, update, or delete aliases in bulk

curl -X POST https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases/bulk \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"aliases":[
         {"alias":"richard","forward":"richard.hendricks@gmail.com"},
         {"alias":"jared", "forward":"jared.dunn@gmail.com"}]
      "behavior": "update"}'

For add and update, returns JSON like the following:

{
    "added": [
        {
            "alias": "richard",
            "forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com",
            "id": 12345
        },
        {
            "alias": "jared",
            "forward": "jared.dunn@gmail.com",
            "id": 12346
        }
    ],
    "failed": [
        {
            "alias": "monica",
            "forward": "monica.hall@gmail.com",
            "id": 12347
        }
    ],
    "success": true,
    "updated": [
        {
            "alias": "dinesh",
            "forward": "dinesh.chugtai@gmail.com",
            "id": 12348
        },
        {
            "alias": "bertram",
            "forward": "bertram.gilfoyle@gmail.com",
            "id": 12349
        }
    ]
}

For delete, returns JSON like the following:

{
  "deleted": [
    {
      "alias": "test", 
      "created": 1743462739000, 
      "forward": "myemail@gmail.com", 
      "id": 6
    }
  ], 
  "failed": [
    {
      "alias": "test1"
    }
  ], 
  "success": true
}

Logs

GET /domains/:domain/logs <Get domain logs>

Get domain logs

curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/logs \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "logs": [
        {
            "created": "2020-01-25 12:19:09+0000",
            "created_raw": "Sat, 25 Jan 2020 12:19:09 GMT",
            "events": [
                {
                    "code": 250,
                    "created": "2020-01-25 12:19:11+0000",
                    "id": "some_random_id",
                    "local": "mxb.infra.improvmx.com",
                    "message": "Queued",
                    "server": "mail-io1-f54.google.com",
                    "status": "QUEUED"
                },
                {
                    "code": 250,
                    "created": "2020-01-25 12:19:12+0000",
                    "id": "some_random_id",
                    "local": "gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com",
                    "message": "Sent.",
                    "server": "mail16.mxc.infra.improvmx.com",
                    "status": "DELIVERED"
                }
            ],
            "forward": {
                "email": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com",
                "name": "Richard Hendricks"
            },
            "hostname": "mail-io1-f54.google.com",
            "id": "20201002014128.5ea8ee59fa894aa7a9141e9665985b46",
            "messageId": "some_random_id",
            "recipient": {
                "email": "richard@piedpiper.com",
                "name": "Richard Hendricks"
            },
            "sender": {
                "email": "gavin@hooli.com",
                "name": "Gavin Belsonx"
            },
            "subject": "You are screwed, Piedpiper team!",
            "transport": "smtp"
        },
        {
            "created": "2020-01-25 12:18:46+0000",
            "created_raw": "Sat, 25 Jan 2020 12:18:46 GMT",
            "events": [
                {
                    "code": 250,
                    "created": "2020-01-25 12:18:47+0000",
                    "id": "another_random_id",
                    "local": "mxb.infra.improvmx.com",
                    "message": "Queued",
                    "server": "mail-pj1-f54.google.com",
                    "status": "QUEUED"
                },
                {
                    "code": 250,
                    "created": "2020-01-25 12:18:47+0000",
                    "id": "another_random_id",
                    "local": "gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com",
                    "message": "Sent.",
                    "server": "mail15.mxb.infra.improvmx.com",
                    "status": "DELIVERED"
                }
            ],
            "forward": {
                "email": "monica.hall@gmail.com",
                "name": "Monica Hall"
            },
            "hostname": "mail-pj1-f54.google.com",
            
            "messageId": "another_random_id",
            "recipient": {
                "email": "monica@piedpiper.com",
                "name": "Monica Hall"
            },
            "sender": {
                "email": "russ@threecommas.com",
                "name": "Russ Hanneman"
            },
            "subject": "Series A, bitches!",
            "transport": "smtp"
        },
        {
            "created": "2020-01-25 11:30:41+0000",
            "created_raw": "Sat, 25 Jan 2020 11:30:41 GMT",
            "events": [
                {
                    "code": 550,
                    "created": "2020-01-25 11:30:42+0000",
                    "id": "yet_another_random_id",
                    "local": "mxa.infra.improvmx.com",
                    "message": "5.7.1 Message considered as SPAM (Score of 5.8/5.0 with BAYES_20, DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU, FREEMAIL_FROM, HTML_MESSAGE, HTML_TAG_BALANCE_BODY, MIME_HEADER_CTYPE_ONLY, NO_RELAYS, URIBL_ABUSE_SURBL, URIBL_DBL_ABUSE_SPAM, URIBL_DBL_SPAM)",
                    "server": "mail-wm1-f67.google.com",
                    "status": "REFUSED"
                }
            ],
            "forward": null,
            "hostname": "mail-wm1-f67.google.com",
            "id": "20201002014128.7ea8ee59fa894aa7a91415a6659c5b46",
            "messageId": "yet_another_random_id",
            "recipient": {
                "email": "richard@piedpiper.com",
                "name": null
            },
            "sender": {
                "email": "spam@hooli.com",
                "name": "ThinkTeam"
            },
            "subject": "Enlarge your (pied)piper!",
            "transport": "smtp"
        }
    ], 
    "success": true
}

The logs array will contain all the processed emails. Each entry in the array will contain a list of events, related to all the actions taken by ImprovMX servers, which are:

GET /domains/:domain/logs/:alias <Get alias logs>

Get logs for a domain’s alias.

This behaves similarly to the general logs endpoint, but only returns results for the requested alias.

‍

Returns JSON like the following:

The logs array will contain all the processed emails. Each entry in the array will contain a list of events, related to all the actions taken by ImprovMX servers, which are:

curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/logs/richard \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

‍

NOTE: If you are requesting logs for a regex, you’ll need to URL-encode the characters, i.e. for (contact|support), you would make a request like domains/piedpiper.com/logs/%28contact%7Csupport%29.

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "logs": [
        {
            "created": "2020-01-25 12:19:09+0000",
            "created_raw": "Sat, 25 Jan 2020 12:19:09 GMT",
            "events": [
                {
                    "code": 250,
                    "created": "2020-01-25 12:19:11+0000",
                    "id": "some_random_id",
                    "local": "mxb.infra.improvmx.com",
                    "message": "Queued",
                    "server": "mail-io1-f54.google.com",
                    "status": "QUEUED"
                },
                {
                    "code": 250,
                    "created": "2020-01-25 12:19:12+0000",
                    "id": "some_random_id",
                    "local": "gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com",
                    "message": "Sent.",
                    "server": "mail16.mxc.infra.improvmx.com",
                    "status": "DELIVERED"
                }
            ],
            "forward": {
                "email": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com",
                "name": "Richard Hendricks"
            },
            "hostname": "mail-io1-f54.google.com",
            "id": "20201002014128.5ea8ee59fa894aa7a9141e9665985b46",
            "messageId": "some_random_id",
            "recipient": {
                "email": "richard@piedpiper.com",
                "name": "Richard Hendricks"
            },
            "sender": {
                "email": "gavin@hooli.com",
                "name": "Gavin Belsonx"
            },
            "subject": "You are screwed, Piedpiper team!",
            "transport": "smtp"
        },
        {
            "created": "2020-01-25 11:30:41+0000",
            "created_raw": "Sat, 25 Jan 2020 11:30:41 GMT",
            "events": [
                {
                    "code": 550,
                    "created": "2020-01-25 11:30:42+0000",
                    "id": "yet_another_random_id",
                    "local": "mxa.infra.improvmx.com",
                    "message": "5.7.1 Message considered as SPAM (Score of 5.8/5.0 with BAYES_20, DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU, FREEMAIL_FROM, HTML_MESSAGE, HTML_TAG_BALANCE_BODY, MIME_HEADER_CTYPE_ONLY, NO_RELAYS, URIBL_ABUSE_SURBL, URIBL_DBL_ABUSE_SPAM, URIBL_DBL_SPAM)",
                    "server": "mail-wm1-f67.google.com",
                    "status": "REFUSED"
                }
            ],
            "forward": null,
            "id": "20201002014128.7ea8ee59fa894aa7a91415a6659c5b46",
            "hostname": "mail-wm1-f67.google.com",
            "messageId": "yet_another_random_id",
            "recipient": {
                "email": "richard@piedpiper.com",
                "name": null
            },
            "sender": {
                "email": "spam@hooli.com",
                "name": "ThinkTeam"
            },
            "subject": "Enlarge your (pied)piper!",
            "transport": "smtp"
        }
    ], 
    "success": true
}

SMTP Credentials

NOTE: SMTP is a premium feature.

GET /domains/:domain/credentials <List SMTP credentials>

Get domain’s SMTP credentials

curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/credentials \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "credentials": [
        {
            "created": 1581604970000,
            "usage": 0,
            "username": "richard"
        },
        {
            "created": 1581607028000,
            "usage": 0,
            "username": "monica"
        }
    ],
    "success": true
}

POST /domains/:domain/credentials <Add a credentials>

Add new SMTP credential

curl -X POST https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/credentials \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"username": "bighead", "password": "abc123"}'

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "credential": {
        "created": 1588236952000,
        "usage": 0,
        "username": "bighead"
    },
    "requires_new_mx_check": false,
    "success": true
}

The response field requires_new_mx_check will be True when creating your first SMTP credential.

NOTE: When setting up SMTP for the first time, we require two new DKIM CNAME entries and a new DMARC TXT entry in your DNS settings. Your domain will be unable to send SMTP until these are added.

PUT /domains/:domain/credentials/:username <Update a credentials>

Update SMTP credential

curl -X PUT https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/credentials/bighead \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"password": "abcd1234"}'

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "credential": {
        "created": 1588236952000,
        "usage": 0,
        "username": "bighead"
    },
    "success": true
}

DELETE /domains/:domain/credentials/:username <Delete a credentials>

Delete SMTP credential

curl -X DELETE https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/credentials/russ \
  -H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"

Returns JSON like the following:

{
    "success": true
}