Set up your sending domain

Your emails go out from a domain you own. Nobody can take that away from you, which is the whole point of being here. To make it work, one thing has to be added to your domain's settings.

DNS is the address book of the internet. It is where you tell the world which computers answer for your domain. You change it in whichever panel you bought the domain from — Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap and so on.

What you are adding

On setup screen three, under the heading "The one thing to add to your DNS", you will see a card with:

• A type, shown as a small chip: NS
• A name, usually mail.yourbrand.com
• Two values, usually ns1.aminoengine.com and ns2.aminoengine.com

Each one has a copy button next to it.

That is two records — the same name, the same type, two different values. It is one form, filled in twice, on one screen. Once it is in, we handle everything else for your email forever: the signing keys, the bounce address, the click tracking, and the keys again on the day they have to be replaced. You never touch your DNS for email again.

Your From address becomes something like hello@mail.yourbrand.com rather than hello@yourbrand.com. That is normal and it is what the big senders do. It also means a marketing email that upsets somebody can never slow down your order receipts, because they go out under a different name.

What to do, by DNS host

We look at your domain and tell you who your DNS is at, on the card itself: "Your DNS is at Cloudflare", and so on. Follow whichever of these matches.

Cloudflare

"Your DNS is at Cloudflare. Adding this takes about a minute."

1. Sign in to Cloudflare and pick this domain.
2. Open DNS → Records.
3. Press "Add record" and choose the type NS.
4. Paste the name and the value below, then save.
5. Add the second value the same way — same name, same type.

Warning we show on this one: on Cloudflare every record for email must be set to "DNS only" — the grey cloud, not the orange one. An orange-cloud record makes Cloudflare answer instead of us and your email arrives unsigned, which shows up nowhere except a slow slide into spam.

GoDaddy

"Your DNS is at GoDaddy."

1. Sign in to GoDaddy and open My Products.
2. Find this domain and press DNS.
3. Scroll to Nameservers → "Add" a record of type NS.
4. Paste the name and the value below, then save.
5. Add the second value the same way — same name, same type.

Namecheap

"Your DNS is at Namecheap."

1. Sign in to Namecheap and open Domain List.
2. Press Manage next to this domain, then Advanced DNS.
3. Under Host Records press "Add New Record" and choose NS Record.
4. Paste the name and the value below, then save with the green tick.
5. Add the second value the same way — same host, same type.

Warning we show on this one: Namecheap wants just the first part in the Host box. If the name below is "mail.yourbrand.com", type only "mail".

Google Domains (now Squarespace)

Google sold its domain business to Squarespace, so you may see either panel.

1. Sign in wherever you manage this domain (Squarespace, or Google Domains if it has not moved yet).
2. Open the DNS or Custom Records section for this domain.
3. Add a record of type NS with the name and value below.
4. Add the second value the same way.

Warning we show on this one: if you cannot find a record type called NS, use "I'll add the records myself" at the bottom of the screen — that path works on every provider.

Squarespace

Squarespace's DNS editor does not offer the NS record type at all, so the one-step path is not possible there. We say so on the card and send you straight to the longer path instead:

1. Sign in to Squarespace and open Settings → Domains.
2. Pick this domain and open DNS Settings.
3. Add each of the records shown using "Add preset" or "Add record".

Anyone else

We also recognise IONOS, Amazon Route 53, DreamHost, Bluehost, HostGator, Wix, Shopify, WordPress.com, DigitalOcean, Vercel, Netlify, Gandi, Hover, Porkbun, Name.com, Network Solutions, Enom and OVH, and show the steps for each. If we cannot tell who your DNS is at, we show general instructions that work anywhere.

The three buttons on the card

• Add it for me — appears only where your provider supports one-click changes. It opens your provider's own approval page and does the whole thing for you.
• Email this to your web person — opens an email, already written, with the record in the body of the message. Most small brands do not manage their own DNS; this is for the person who does. The record is in the text, not attached, so they can read it on a phone.
• Check now — looks straight away instead of waiting.

What happens after you add it

We check every 10 minutes. You can leave the page, close the tab, go to bed. The pill at the top of the card says Waiting until we find it, then Verified ✓. When it verifies the screen tells you: "Verified. Emails can go out from your domain."

DNS changes usually show up within a few minutes, sometimes up to an hour.

Before it is verified

Be clear about this: nothing can be sent until it is verified. We do not send your marketing email from an aminoengine.com address in the meantime, not even temporarily.

The reason is not fussiness. Google counts every subdomain of one registered name against a single 5,000-messages-a-day bulk-sender line. If every brand here sent from our name, one brand's big send would mark the whole platform as a bulk sender permanently, and everybody's mail would suffer. So we refuse it, always, including for ourselves.

Until it verifies you can do everything else: build campaigns, build flows, import your list, design emails, send tests to your own team. When you try to send a campaign for real, the review panel will say "Connect a sending address in Settings first."

The longer path (six records)

At the bottom of the screen there is a small link: "I'll add the records myself". It goes to Reputation → Domains, where you get the individual records instead — two for the signing keys, one for click tracking, one for bounces, one for the sending policy, one for DMARC. Six in total.

Use it if:

• your DNS panel has no NS record type (Squarespace, Wix, Shopify's managed domains), or
• you want your From address on your main domain rather than on mail.yourbrand.com, or
• you would just rather see everything.

It is not a downgrade and it is not going away. The one difference is that a change to your signing keys later will need you to edit DNS again, where the one-step path does it for you.

If it didn't work

• Still says Waiting after an hour. Press Check now. If it is still waiting, check the name in your panel. On Namecheap the Host box wants only "mail", not the whole "mail.yourbrand.com" — pasting the whole thing creates a record for mail.yourbrand.com.yourbrand.com, which points at nothing.
• You only added one value. There are two, on purpose. One nameserver means your email stops the first time that machine reboots. Add the second the same way — same name, same type.
• Your panel has no "NS" option. It genuinely does not exist on some providers. Use "I'll add the records myself" instead.
• On Cloudflare it verified but mail looks unsigned. Something is set to the orange cloud. Every email record must be "DNS only" — the grey cloud.
• The screen says your domain is under a domain we own. You typed an aminoengine.com address. It has to be a domain you registered yourself.
• The screen says "Your record is being prepared." The record does not exist yet. Press Continue — it will be waiting here when you come back, and Home will tell you when it is time.
• You already run a mail server on mail.yourbrand.com. Do not add this there or your staff email will stop. Tell us and we will move you to send.yourbrand.com or email.yourbrand.com instead.
• Your main domain requires strict DKIM alignment. We will warn you on the screen. Keep your From address on mail.yourbrand.com and everything works.

Still stuck? Email support@aminoengine.com — we answer within one business day.