HappyFox SPF and DKIM setup

What you are setting up

HappyFox sends ticket replies and notifications from a custom email channel such as support@yourdomain.com. Since March 2024 HappyFox requires that channel to pass SPF and DKIM verification, and a channel that does not verify has its From address rewritten to notifications@your-account.happyfox.com. You publish one SPF TXT record and two DKIM CNAMEs, then click Verify Now on the channel. The DKIM keys are hosted by HappyFox and delegated to your domain by CNAME, so there is no public key to paste.

Publish SPF and DKIM

In HappyFox, go to Main Menu > Manage > Email Channels and open the custom channel that sends from your domain. The SPF and DKIM sections each show a Verification Pending state until the records resolve. For a US account (your HappyFox URL ends in .com) publish:

Type:  TXT     (SPF)
Host:  @
Value: v=spf1 include:spf.happyfox.com ~all

Type:  CNAME   (DKIM, first selector)
Host:  happyfox1._domainkey
Value: happyfox1._domainkey.happyfox.com

Type:  CNAME   (DKIM, second selector)
Host:  happyfox2._domainkey
Value: happyfox2._domainkey.happyfox.com

Add both CNAMEs; HappyFox verifies the pair, not just one. If you already have an SPF record, merge include:spf.happyfox.com into it rather than adding a second one. HappyFox requires the record to end in ~all or -all, and a record without either fails verification. Accounts on the EU data center (URL ends in .net) use include:spf.happyfox.net and point the CNAMEs at happyfox1._domainkey.happyfox.net and happyfox2._domainkey.happyfox.net instead. Once the records are live, go back to the channel and click Verify Now next to SPF, then next to DKIM; each alert icon turns into a green tick when it passes.

Add DMARC

Standard _dmarc TXT record, nothing HappyFox-specific. Start in monitor-only mode and ramp up:

Type:  TXT
Host:  _dmarc
Value: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com

Leave alignment at the relaxed default. HappyFox’s own DMARC guidance warns against setting adkim explicitly, and you do not need it: the CNAME-delegated signature already carries d=yourdomain.com. Build the record with our DMARC builder and progress past p=none once your reports are clean.

The HappyFox gotcha

An unverified channel does not fail, it changes identity. Mail still goes out, but from notifications@your-account.happyfox.com (or .happyfox.net on EU accounts), so your customers see a HappyFox address and your DMARC reports show nothing from HappyFox at all. The same fallback kicks in if SPF or DKIM is only pending, or if a channel sends 5,000 or more messages a day without aligning. If HappyFox suddenly disappears from your reports, check the channel’s verification state before anything else. Two DNS traps feed this: some DNS hosts append your domain to the CNAME host, so enter only happyfox1._domainkey (HappyFox’s own advice is to try it both with and without the domain), and long-standing accounts may still carry the old static ip4:54.213.101.86 entries in SPF, which HappyFox says to replace with the include. Last, if you route the channel through your own SMTP (Gmail or Microsoft 365), HappyFox is no longer the sending server, so the records that matter are your mail provider’s, not spf.happyfox.com.

Confirm it worked

• Verify in HappyFox. Both the SPF and DKIM sections on the channel should show a green tick after you click Verify Now.
• Send a test reply and read the headers. Reply to a ticket, open the message, and confirm the signature shows d=yourdomain.com with selector happyfox1 or happyfox2, and dmarc=pass. Our header analyzer reads it back plainly.
• Watch the reports. HappyFox should appear as an aligned, passing source in your DMARC aggregate reports, labeled as a known sender in trustyourinbox. If it vanishes, the channel has fallen back to the HappyFox address.