API Reference Guide
This is the documentation for ImprovMX HTTP REST API endpoints, which let you fully programmatically manage your domains and aliases for email forwarding.
Base URL
The base URL is: https://api.improvmx.com/v3
The v3
api was released on April 30th, 2020.
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_here"
curl https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"
Error codes
Here are the main error codes you will encounter:
When an error occurs, you will always receive a JSON response in the body explaining the reason for the failure. This should help you understand and fix your subsequent requests.
For instance, here’s an example of a Bad Request
response returned by the server:
{
"errors": {
"email": [
"You cannot use your domain in your email."
]
},
"success": false
}
Account
Get account details
GET /account
curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/account \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$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 - $249",
"domains_limit": 10000,
"kind": "enterprise",
"name": "enterprise249",
"price": 249,
"yearly": false
},
"premium": true,
"privacy_level": 1,
"renew_date": 15881622590000
},
"success": true
}
List whitelabel domains
GET /account/whitelabels
Retrieves the list of whitelabels for your domain.
curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/account/whitelabels \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"
Returns JSON like the following:
{
"whitelabels": [
{
"name": "piedpiper.com"
}
],
"success": true
}
Domains
List domains
GET /domains
curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY
1
) or inactive (0
) domains.Note: We limit this endpoint to 200 aliases per domain. If your domain has more aliases, we recommend the list aliases endpoint.
Returns JSON like the following:
{
"domains": [
{
"active": true,
"domain": "google.com",
"display": "google.com",
"dkim_selector": "dkimprovmx",
"notification_email": null,
"webhook": null,
"whitelabel": null,
"added": 1559639697000,
"aliases": [
{
"created": 1702393755000,
"forward": "sergey@gmail.com",
"alias": "sergey",
"id": 1
},
{
"created": 1702393755000,
"forward": "larry@gmail.com",
"alias": "larry",
"id": 2
}
]
},
{
"active": false,
"domain": "piedpiper.com",
"display": "piedpiper.com",
"dkim_selector": "dkimprovmx",
"notification_email": null,
"whitelabel": null,
"added": 1559639733000,
"aliases": [
{
"created": 1702393755000,
"forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com",
"alias": "richard",
"id": 4
},
{
"created": 1702393755000,
"forward": "jared.dunn@gmail.com",
"alias": "jared",
"id": 5
}
]
}
],
"total": 3,
"limit": 50,
"page": 1,
"success": true
}
You can also use the q
parameter to search for domains that start with the given value.
curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains?q=pied \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$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
}
Add domain
POST /domains
curl -X POST https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"domain": "piedpiper.com"}'
Returns JSON like the following:
{
"domain": {
"active": false,
"domain": "piedpiper.com",
"display": "piedpiper.com",
"dkim_selector": "dkimprovmx",
"notification_email": null,
"whitelabel": null,
"added": 1559652806000,
"aliases": [
{
"forward": "contact@piedpiper.com",
"alias": "*",
"id": 12
}
]
},
"success": true
}
Get domain details
GET /domains/:domain
curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$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
}
Update domain
PUT /domains/: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:$API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"notification_email": "email@example.com",
"webhook": "https://requestbin.com/r/abc123",
"whitelabel": "hooli.com"}'
Returns JSON like the following:
{
"domain": {
"active": false,
"domain": "piedpiper.com",
"added": 1559639733000,
"display": "piedpiper.com",
"dkim_selector": "dkimprovmx",
"notification_email": "email@example.com",
"webhook": "https://requestbin.com/r/enbwnegkb25v",
"whitelabel": "hooli.com",
"aliases": [
{
"forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com",
"alias": "richard",
"id": 4
},
{
"forward": "jared.dunn@gmail.com",
"alias": "jared",
"id": 5
}
]
},
"success": True
}
Delete domain
DELETE /domains/:domain
curl -X DELETE https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"
Returns JSON like the following:
{
"success": true
}
Check MX of domain
GET /domains/:domain/check
curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/check \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"
Returns JSON like the following:
{
"records": {
"provider": "cloudflare",
"advanced": true,
"dkim1": {
"expected": "dkimprovmx1.improvmx.com.",
"valid": true,
"values": "dkimprovmx1.improvmx.com."
},
"dkim2": {
"expected": "dkimprovmx2.improvmx.com.",
"valid": true,
"values": "dkimprovmx2.improvmx.com."
},
"dmarc": {
"expected": "v=DMARC1; p=none;",
"valid": false,
"values": null
},
"error": null,
"mx": {
"expected": [
"mx1.improvmx.com",
"mx2.improvmx.com"
],
"valid": true,
"values": [
"mx2.improvmx.com",
"mx1.improvmx.com"
]
},
"spf": {
"expected": "v=spf1 include:someservice.org include:spf.improvmx.com ~all",
"valid": false,
"values": "v=spf1 include:someservice.org ~all"
},
"valid": false
},
"success": true
}
The endpoint will return success: true
when MX entries are well configured, success: false
otherwise.
error
may contain a reason why the entries are not valid.
Aliases
List aliases
GET /domains/:domain/aliases
curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$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
}
Add alias
POST /domains/:domain/aliases
curl -X POST https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"alias": "richard",
"forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com"}'
{
"alias": {
"forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com",
"alias": "richard",
"id": 11
},
"success": true
}
Get alias details
GET /domains/:domain/aliases/:alias
curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases/richard \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"
Returns JSON like the following:
{
"alias": {
"created": 1702982672000,
"forward": "richard.hendricks@protonmail.com",
"alias": "richard",
"id": 11
},
"success": true
}
Update alias
PUT /domains/:domain/aliases/: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 alias
DELETE /domains/:domain/aliases/:alias
curl -X DELETE https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases/nelson \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"
Returns JSON like the following:
{
"success": true
}
Delete all aliases
DELETE /domains/:domain/aliases/aliases-all
curl -X DELETE https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases/aliases-all\
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"
Returns JSON like the following:
{
"success": true
}
Bulk modify aliases
POST /domains/:domain/aliases/bulk
curl -X POST https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/aliases/bulk \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"aliases":[
{"alias":"richard","forward":"richard.hendricks@gmail.com"},
{"alias":"jared", "forward":"jared.dunn@gmail.com"}]
"behavior": "update"}'
For add and update, returns JSON like the following:
{
"added": [
{
"alias": "richard",
"forward": "richard.hendricks@gmail.com",
"id": 12345
},
{
"alias": "jared",
"forward": "jared.dunn@gmail.com",
"id": 12346
}
],
"failed": [
{
"alias": "monica",
"forward": "monica.hall@gmail.com",
"id": 12347
}
],
"success": true,
"updated": [
{
"alias": "dinesh",
"forward": "dinesh.chugtai@gmail.com",
"id": 12348
},
{
"alias": "bertram",
"forward": "bertram.gilfoyle@gmail.com",
"id": 12349
}
]
}
For delete, returns JSON like the following:
{
"deleted": [
{
"alias": "test",
"created": 1743462739000,
"forward": "myemail@gmail.com",
"id": 6
}
],
"failed": [
{
"alias": "test1"
}
],
"success": true
}
Logs
List domain logs
GET /domains/:domain/logs
curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/logs \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"
20201002014128.7ea8ee5b46
)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:
List alias logs
GET /domains/:domain/logs/:alias
curl -X GET https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/logs/richard \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY"
This behaves similarly to the general logs endpoint, but only returns results for the requested alias.
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:
20201002014128.15a6659c5b46
)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.
List credentials
GET /domains/:domain/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
}
Add credential
POST /domains/:domain/credentials
curl -X POST https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/credentials \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"username": "bighead", "password": "abc123"}'
bighead
for the email bighead@piedpiper.com
Returns JSON like the following:
{
"credential": {
"created": 1588236952000,
"usage": 0,
"username": "bighead"
},
"requires_new_mx_check": false,
"success": true
}
The response field requires_new_mx_check
will be True
when creating your first SMTP credential.
NOTE: When setting up SMTP for the first time, we require two new DKIM CNAME
entries and a new DMARC TXT entry in your DNS settings. Your domain will be unable to send SMTP until these are added.
Update credential
PUT /domains/:domain/credentials/:username
curl -X PUT https://api.improvmx.com/v3/domains/piedpiper.com/credentials/bighead \
-H "Authorization: Basic api:$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 credential
DELETE /domains/:domain/credentials/:username
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
}