# Set up a sending domain

Verify your sending domain with DNS records so Kirora can send email under your brand.

Verify a domain you own before sending campaign, journey or transactional email. Add the domain, publish the DNS records Kirora provides and wait for verification. Authentication helps receiving mail servers check that your sends are authorised.

Only an admin or the owner can add a sending domain.

## Choose a domain

Use a domain whose DNS settings you can change. We recommend a subdomain such as `mail.juniperkitchen.com`, which keeps your email's reputation separate from your main domain.

You can't use:

- a free email domain such as gmail.com
- an address managed by a website builder or store host, such as a myshopify.com or wixsite.com address
- a `www.` address (use the domain without `www.`, or a subdomain such as `mail.`)

A domain can be verified in only one workspace at a time.

## Add the domain

1. Open **Settings**, then **Email sending**. This opens **Sending domains**.
2. Choose **Add domain**.
3. Enter the hostname only, without `https://`, for example `mail.juniperkitchen.com`.
4. Choose **Add domain**.

The domain's page opens with the DNS records to publish.

## Publish the DNS records

The domain's page lists every record with its type, name and value. Add each one, exactly as shown, at the company that hosts your domain's DNS (often where you bought the domain).

- **DKIM record**: signs your messages. It also proves you own the domain.
- **MAIL FROM records**: an MX record and an SPF record on a bounce subdomain, so bounces come back to you. Add one MX record at the MAIL FROM name, and don't add a second SPF record at your root domain.
- **DMARC record**: needed before you can send marketing email. Gmail and Yahoo require one. The record Kirora suggests only asks for reports, so it doesn't change how your mail is delivered.

If your DNS host adds your domain to record names automatically, enter each name without it.

Someone else manages your DNS? Use any of these:

- **Copy all records**, then paste them into a message.
- **Download zone file**, for DNS hosts that can import one.
- **Share the DNS records**, which creates a link to the records you can send to a teammate or your web agency. You can stop the link working at any time.

## Verification

Once the records are published, the check usually takes seconds to minutes. We check every few minutes, and notify admins when the domain is verified. To check straight away, open the domain and choose **Check verification**.

Each record shows **Confirmed**, **Not found** or **Wrong value**. If a value is wrong, Kirora shows what it expected and what it found, so you can correct it.

The domain's status tells you where it is:

| Status | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Publish DNS records** | Waiting for the records to be published. |
| **Setting up** | The records were found, and the domain is being set up. This usually takes a few minutes. |
| **Verification failed** | The records couldn't be verified. Review them, then check again. |
| **Ready to send** | Verified. If DMARC is missing, transactional email can send but marketing email waits for it. |

> **Warning:** If ownership isn't proven within 72 hours, the domain is released and you'll need to add it again. The domain's page shows the deadline.

## What you can do while you wait

You don't have to wait for verification to get started. While the domain is checked, you can:

- import contacts and build groups and segments
- design emails and draft campaigns and journeys
- send test emails to yourself and your team. Until a domain is verified, tests come from a shared test address.
- set up and send push notifications, which don't need a domain

Campaigns and journeys can't send email until the domain is verified.

## Remove a domain

Open the domain, open its actions menu and choose **Delete domain**. Before you confirm, Kirora lists the unsent campaigns and journeys that use it. They can't send email from that domain until it's added and verified again.

## Next steps

- [Set up push](/docs/guides/getting-started/set-up-push) — reach people on their phones and in the browser
- [Send your first campaign](/docs/guides/getting-started/your-first-campaign) — from contacts to a sent email, step by step