Connect Amazon SES

Prerequisites

• A Amazon SES account and a domain you control (you'll add DNS records).
• Owner or admin access to the Dextel agency or sub-account.
• Credentials you'll enter in Dextel: Access key ID, Secret access key, Region, Configuration set (for delivery events).

1. Create the API credentials

1. In IAM create a user with a policy allowing ses:SendEmail, ses:GetAccount and ses:GetEmailIdentity (add s3:GetObject if you'll store inbound mail in S3).
2. Open the user → Security credentials → Create access key.
3. Enter the key pair, the SES region and — after the events step — the configuration set name in Dextel.

Amazon SES docs: API keys

2. Verify your sending domain

1. In SES open Identities → Create identity → Domain.
2. Add the three Easy DKIM CNAME records to your DNS and wait for Verified.
3. If the account is in the SES sandbox, request production access from the Account dashboard.

Then in Dextel enter a From email on that domain (for example hello@yourdomain.com) and a From name, and click Validate & Connect. Dextel checks the credentials against Amazon SES before saving.

Amazon SES docs: domains

3. Delivery events

Delivered, opened, clicked, bounced and spam events feed the Email Event workflow trigger and automatically unsubscribe contacts after a hard bounce or complaint. Copy the Webhook URL from the Delivery events tab in Dextel, then:

1. Open Configuration sets → Create set (enter its name in Dextel's Configuration set field).
2. Open the set → Event destinations → Add destination. Tick Sends, Deliveries, Delivery delays, Bounces, Complaints, Opens and Clicks and choose Amazon SNS with a new topic.
3. In SNS open the topic → Create subscription → Protocol HTTPS → Endpoint <your delivery-events webhook URL>.
4. Dextel confirms the subscription automatically; it should show Confirmed within seconds.

Use Send a test email in the same tab to confirm outbound works; the events pill turns green once the first event arrives.

Amazon SES docs: webhooks

4. Inbound email (sub-accounts only)

Inbound turns contact replies into Inbox conversations and fires the Contact Replied — Email trigger. Mail is received at your saved From address, so when a contact hits Reply the message comes back through Amazon SES to Dextel. The MX record routes all mail for that domain to Amazon SES: if you already receive mail on the domain, send from an address on a subdomain (for example hello@mail.yourdomain.com).

DNS records

Steps

1. Add an MX record for yourdomain.com pointing to inbound-smtp.<region>.amazonaws.com (priority 10). Email receiving is only offered in some regions.
2. Open Email receiving → Create rule set → Create rule and add yourdomain.com as a recipient condition.
3. Add the action Publish to Amazon SNS topic (Base64 encoding) with a new topic, then set the rule set Active.
4. In SNS open that topic → Create subscription → HTTPS → <your inbound webhook URL>. Dextel confirms it automatically.

Amazon SES docs: inbound

Troubleshooting

• Subscription stuck on Pending confirmation — the endpoint URL must include the ?token= exactly as copied from Dextel.
• MessageRejected on send — the from domain is not verified in this region, or the account is still sandboxed.
• Still stuck? Compare with another provider on the Email Providers overview.