Email Forwarding

Email forwarding is one of mailiam’s three core features, allowing you to route emails with sophisticated custom rules and patterns.

Overview

Transform your domain into a complete email infrastructure without managing mail servers. mailiam’s email forwarding supports:

• Catch-all forwarding (*@domain.com)
• Plus addressing (user+tag@domain.com)
• Custom routing rules with pattern matching
• Multi-destination forwarding
• Zero-downtime migration from existing email providers

Basic Configuration

Simple Catch-All Setup

Route all emails to your main inbox:

mailiam.config.yaml

domains:
  mysite.com:
    forwarding:
      "*@mysite.com": "me@gmail.com"

Specific Address Routing

Route specific addresses to different destinations:

domains:
  mysite.com:
    forwarding:
      "support@mysite.com": "support-team@company.com"
      "billing@mysite.com": "billing@company.com"
      "sales@mysite.com": "sales-team@company.com"
      "*@mysite.com": "me@gmail.com"  # Catch remaining

Multi-Destination Forwarding

Send emails to multiple recipients:

domains:
  mysite.com:
    forwarding:
      "alerts@mysite.com":
        - "admin@company.com"
        - "alerts@slack.com"
        - "monitoring@pagerduty.com"

Advanced Routing Patterns

Plus Addressing Support

mailiam automatically supports plus addressing (also called sub-addressing):

domains:
  mysite.com:
    forwarding:
      "*@mysite.com": "me@gmail.com"

This configuration automatically handles:

• me+newsletter@mysite.com → me+newsletter@gmail.com
• me+shopping@mysite.com → me+shopping@gmail.com
• me+github@mysite.com → me+github@gmail.com

Department Routing

Create department-based email routing:

domains:
  company.com:
    forwarding:
      # Sales team
      "sales@company.com": "sales-team@company.com"
      "demo@company.com": "sales-team@company.com"
      "partnership@company.com": "sales-team@company.com"

      # Support team
      "support@company.com": "support-team@company.com"
      "help@company.com": "support-team@company.com"
      "bugs@company.com": "support-team@company.com"

      # Executive team
      "ceo@company.com": "chief@company.com"
      "founder@company.com": "chief@company.com"

      # Catch-all for employees
      "*@company.com": "general@company.com"

Migration from Email Providers

From Google Workspace

1. Set up forwarding rules in your mailiam config:

domains:
  mycompany.com:
    forwarding:
      "admin@mycompany.com": "admin@gmail.com"
      "team@mycompany.com": "team@gmail.com"
      "*@mycompany.com": "info@gmail.com"

2. Deploy the configuration:

mailiam push

3. Update MX records when ready:
   • mailiam provides the MX records after deployment
   • Update DNS gradually or all at once
   • Zero-downtime migration possible

From Other Providers

mailiam works with any email provider as the destination:

domains:
  mysite.com:
    forwarding:
      # To Outlook/Office365
      "team@mysite.com": "team@outlook.com"

      # To ProtonMail
      "secure@mysite.com": "secure@protonmail.com"

      # To custom domains
      "support@mysite.com": "help@internal.company.com"

Routing Rules and Patterns

Priority Order

mailiam processes routing rules in order of specificity:

1. Exact matches (user@domain.com)
2. Wildcard matches (*@domain.com)

domains:
  mysite.com:
    forwarding:
      "admin@mysite.com": "admin@gmail.com"      # Processed first
      "support@mysite.com": "help@company.com"   # Processed second
      "*@mysite.com": "catchall@gmail.com"       # Processed last

Pattern Matching

Use wildcards for flexible routing:

domains:
  company.com:
    forwarding:
      # Department patterns
      "sales-*@company.com": "sales@company.com"
      "support-*@company.com": "support@company.com"

      # Regional routing
      "eu-*@company.com": "europe@company.com"
      "us-*@company.com": "americas@company.com"

CLI Commands

View Current Forwarding

# List all domains and their forwarding rules
mailiam domains list

# Show specific domain configuration
mailiam domains show mysite.com

Add Forwarding Rules

# Add a single forwarding rule
mailiam domains add-forwarding mysite.com "new@mysite.com" "destination@gmail.com"

# Add multiple destinations
mailiam domains add-forwarding mysite.com "alerts@mysite.com" "admin@gmail.com,ops@company.com"

Test Forwarding

# Test email routing (shows where email would be forwarded)
mailiam domains test mysite.com test@mysite.com

# Test multiple addresses
mailiam domains test mysite.com support@mysite.com sales@mysite.com

Spam Protection

All forwarded emails include mailiam’s spam protection:

• SPF/DKIM validation on incoming emails
• Rate limiting per sending domain
• Blacklist filtering of known spam sources
• Content filtering for obvious spam patterns

Configure spam protection levels:

domains:
  mysite.com:
    forwarding:
      "*@mysite.com": "me@gmail.com"
    security:
      spamProtection: "strict"  # strict, normal, or lenient
      rateLimit: 100            # emails per hour per sender
      blacklistEnabled: true

Performance & Reliability

• Sub-100ms processing times for email routing
• 99.9% uptime SLA for email forwarding
• Global redundancy across multiple regions
• Real-time monitoring and alerting
• Automatic failover for high availability

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Emails not forwarding:

1. Check MX records point to mailiam
2. Verify domain ownership in mailiam dashboard
3. Check spam folders at destination

Forwarding rules not working:

1. Check rule syntax in mailiam.config.yaml
2. Run mailiam config validate to check for errors
3. Verify deployment with mailiam status

Performance issues:

# Check forwarding performance
mailiam domains performance mysite.com

# View recent forwarding logs
mailiam logs forwarding mysite.com --last 24h

Best Practices

1. Use specific rules first: Place exact matches before wildcards
2. Test thoroughly: Use mailiam domains test before going live
3. Monitor forwarding: Set up alerts for failed forwards
4. Document your setup: Keep routing rules documented for team
5. Regular backups: Version control your mailiam.config.yaml

Integration with Forms

Email forwarding works seamlessly with mailiam’s forms and projects:

domains:
  mysite.com:
    forwarding:
      "*@mysite.com": "me@gmail.com"
    forms:
      contact:
        replies: true  # Enables replies@mysite.com
        template: "professional"
    projects:
      marketing:
        replyTo: "marketing@mysite.com"  # Uses forwarding

This creates a complete email ecosystem where form submissions, replies, and general email all work together seamlessly.