Kit (ConvertKit) SPF and DKIM setup

What you are setting up

Kit (the email platform formerly called ConvertKit) sends your newsletters. Setting up a Verified Sending Domain publishes two CNAME records so Kit signs your mail as you and routes the return-path through your domain. That aligns both DKIM and SPF, so your mail passes DMARC. By default, before you verify, Kit's return-path is a kit.com address, which is why unverified mail fails DMARC alignment.

Set up the Verified Sending Domain

In Kit, click Settings in the lower-left corner, choose Email, and under Verified Sending Domains click Set up your Verified Sending Domain. Kit shows you two CNAME records:

Type:  CNAME
Host:  ckespa             (SPF / return-path delegation)
Value: (copy the exact target Kit shows you)

Type:  CNAME
Host:  cka._domainkey     (DKIM)
Value: (copy the exact target Kit shows you)

The ckespa record delegates SPF and the return-path to Kit, and cka._domainkey is the DKIM signing record. The ck prefix is a ConvertKit-era holdover Kit kept through the rebrand, so it is correct, not stale. Copy the targets exactly from the console, they are specific to your account. Kit can also set the records up for you automatically through Entri on supported DNS hosts. When the records resolve, click Validate.

Add DMARC

Kit names DMARC alongside SPF and DKIM as the records to set up with your DNS host, but the record itself is yours to publish, as a separate _dmarc TXT. Start monitor-only:

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

Once it is in place, do not remove it. Build or strengthen it with our DMARC builder and progress past p=none as your reports come back clean.

The Kit gotcha

The most common break is the DNS host appending your domain to the record. Kit's own guidance: many providers want the truncated host (just ckespa and cka._domainkey, not the full ckespa.yourdomain.com), or you end up with ckespa.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com and Kit looks in the wrong place. A Kit-documented specific: Bluehost does not accept the trailing period in CNAME values, so omit it there. Kit says configuration may take a few minutes; give it that, then click Validate.

Confirm it worked

• Click Validate in Kit. The domain should move to verified once the records resolve.
• Send a test and read the headers. Send yourself a broadcast, open the original, and confirm the DKIM signature shows d=yourdomain.com, the return-path is on your domain (not kit.com), and dmarc=pass. Our header analyzer reads it back plainly.
• Watch the reports. Kit should appear as an aligned, passing source in your DMARC aggregate reports, labeled as a known sender in trustyourinbox.