Setting up email (Resend)
BlnkSpace sends order confirmations, campaigns, and Domain Inbox replies through your own Resend account — you bring the API key, so there’s no platform email fee and you control your own sender reputation. This page walks through the whole thing end to end: connecting Resend, verifying a sending domain, and (optionally) turning on the Domain Inbox so customer replies don’t vanish.
Two separate things: sending and receiving
It’s easy to conflate these, so before anything else:
| What it does | |
|---|---|
| Sending | Lets your account send order confirmations, campaigns, and replies from your domain. This is the part everyone needs. |
| Receiving | Lets customers reply back to an address on your domain and have it show up in the Domain Inbox tab. Optional, and off by default — a domain can send without ever receiving. |
you@yourdomain.comthat you check in Gmail or Outlook, that’s a separate DNS setup (mail forwarding) entirely outside BlnkSpace.Before you start
- A free or paid Resend account and an API key (Resend dashboard → API Keys → create one with full access, not send-only).
- Access to your domain’s DNS settings — wherever you manage records for the domain you want to send from (your registrar, or Vercel if that’s where your nameservers point).
- DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to propagate, depending on your DNS host.
Connecting Resend
In your Resend dashboard, go to API Keys → Create API Key. Give it full access. Copy the key — it starts with re_ and is only shown once.
Settings → Email. Paste the key into the API key field. Once it’s recognized as valid, the rest of the connect form appears.
Display name is what recipients see in their inbox (e.g. Acme Store instead of just an email address). The from-email is split into a prefix you choose (hello, support, orders — anything) and a domain, picked from the dropdown.
The domain dropdown only lists verified domains — on a brand-new Resend account that list starts empty. You don’t need to leave the app for this: the same screen has a “Domains on this account” section with its own + Add button. See the next section for what happens after you add one.
Once a verified domain is selected, the button activates. This is exactly the step that returns an empty dropdown and feels like a dead end if the domain hasn’t been verified yet — that’s expected, not a bug. Verify the domain first (below), then come back here.
Adding and verifying a sending domain
Whether you’re adding your first domain during connect, or a second one later from the Domains section, the flow is the same:
Use the root domain itself — yourdomain.com, not a subdomain like mail.yourdomain.com (that’s a different DNS object and isn’t needed here). It expands automatically and shows the records Resend needs.
Typically an SPF and a DKIM record — both usually TXT or CNAME, using names specific to your domain. Use the copy button next to each one rather than retyping.
Exact names and values are fetched live for your domain — always use what’s shown in the panel, not the example above.
Paste each record into your registrar’s (or DNS host’s) DNS settings exactly as shown. If more than one already-existing record has the same purpose (see the SPF conflict warning below), merge instead of adding a duplicate.
Propagation time varies — seconds to minutes if your DNS is hosted on Vercel, up to a few hours on some registrars. “Partially verified” just means some records landed and others haven’t yet; click Verify again after a few minutes rather than assuming something’s broken.
include:resend.net alongside whatever’s already there, e.g. v=spf1 include:resend.net include:_spf.google.com ~all.Enabling receiving (optional)
Turns on the Domain Inbox for a domain — customer replies to your order/campaign emails land in BlnkSpace instead of bouncing, and you can compose new messages too.
In the Domains section, expand a verified domain and click Enable receiving. A new MX record appears in the record list, same place as the sending records.
Same process as the sending records — copy it into your DNS host, click Verify. This does not remove or replace your existing sending records.
Using the Domain Inbox
Once receiving is verified, replies show up under the Domain Inbox tab in the email client (separate from the Inboxtab, which is a personal Gmail mailbox view and unrelated to Resend). Threads are grouped automatically; replying from BlnkSpace threads correctly in the customer’s mail client too.
Multiple addresses
If your domain receives at more than one address — customer@yourdomain.com and support@yourdomain.com, for example — both appear as filter pills above the thread list automatically. There’s nothing to configure ahead of time; an address shows up the first time something is sent to it.
Auto-reply
Click the settings icon in the Domain Inbox toolbar to turn on an automatic acknowledgment for new conversations — sent once per new thread, not on every message, and skipped automatically for addresses that look like noreply/automated senders so it can’t get caught in a bounce loop.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | What it means |
|---|---|
| From-email dropdown says "no verified domain yet" | Expected on a fresh key with zero verified domains. Add and verify one via the Domains section on the same screen, then come back — no need to leave the app. |
| Domain stuck on "partially verified" | Some records verified, others haven't propagated yet. Expand the domain to see which record is still pending, then Verify again after a few minutes. |
| Verify keeps failing for one record | Usually an SPF conflict (see the callout above) — check whether an existing record needs merging instead of a new one being added. |
| Customer replies aren't showing up in the Domain Inbox | Confirm receiving (not just sending) is enabled and verified for that domain — they're independent toggles. |
| "founder@yourdomain.com" typed as "founder.yourdomain.com" | Mixing up an email address with a subdomain. Add the domain itself (yourdomain.com) — the prefix before the @ is set separately in the From email field, not as part of the domain. |