Update a sending domain

PATCH

/v1/email/domains/{domain_id}

curl -X PATCH "https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/email/domains/{domain_id}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "settings": {
      "click_tracking": true,
      "open_tracking": true
    },
    "tracking": {
      "name": "links"
    }
  }'

Updates settings and configuration on a sending domain. settings changes apply immediately. Changes to return_path, tracking, or dkim on a verified capability are staged: the current configuration keeps serving until the new one's DNS records verify, then the change is promoted automatically. Staged values are visible under capabilities.*.pending; the records to publish appear in dns_records with state: pending.

Parameters

domain_id

string

Domain ID.

Request Payload

settings

object

Per-domain behavior toggles. Changes apply immediately to new sends.

Show child parameters

settings.click_tracking

boolean

Rewrite links in HTML email through your tracking domain to record clicks. You can enable this before your tracking domain has verified — it begins working once verification completes. A tracking domain must be configured; enabling it without one returns 409.

settings.open_tracking

boolean

Insert a tracking pixel in HTML email to record opens. You can enable this before your tracking domain has verified — it begins working once verification completes. A tracking domain must be configured; enabling it without one returns 409.

return_path

object

Show child parameters

return_path.name

string

required

Name part to use for the return-path domain. For example, send on mail.acme.com becomes send.mail.acme.com. Defaults to send when omitted at creation.

tracking

nullable object

Set or change the tracking name part, or remove tracking by passing null. Removal requires click_tracking and open_tracking to be disabled first, and returns 409 otherwise. After removal, links in previously sent email keep resolving while the tracking records are reported as deprecated.

Show child parameters

tracking.name

string

required

Name part to use for branded open and click tracking URLs. For example, links on mail.acme.com becomes links.mail.acme.com.

dkim

object

Show child parameters

dkim.mode

string

How the DKIM public key is published in your DNS.

txt — you publish the DKIM public key as a TXT record. Key rotation requires updating the record.
delegated — preview, currently unavailable; supplying it returns 422. When available, you publish a single CNAME and Bird hosts and rotates the key with no further DNS changes on your side.

inbound

object

Show child parameters

inbound.enabled

boolean

required

Set true to enable receiving on this domain, false to disable it. Disabling tears receiving down and removes the MX records from dns_records; this is immediate in the normal case, and if a step needs retrying the capability clears as soon as teardown finishes.

Response Payload

string

required

workspace_id

string

required

domain

string

required

The sending domain name. Set at creation and immutable.

vendor

string

required

The DNS provider hosting this domain's nameservers, so you know which provider's dashboard to manage the required DNS records in. Returns "other" when the provider has not been detected or is not recognized.

status

string

required

Domain ownership verification, proven by the DKIM record. Readiness to send or track is reported separately per capability under capabilities.*.status.

pending — the DKIM record has not been published yet. - verified — the DKIM record is in place; ownership is confirmed. - failed — a DKIM record exists but does not match the expected value (for example a stale record from an earlier setup), or a previously verified record was removed. Correct the record to recover.
temporary_failure — DNS resolution failed transiently (timeout, unreachable nameserver). Verification is queued for retry on a 72h cadence; customer should not edit DNS records before the retry runs.
rejected — the domain was refused for policy reasons and cannot be used for sending. Contact support if you believe this is an error.

settings

object

required

Per-domain behavior toggles. Changes apply immediately to new sends.

Show child attributes

settings.click_tracking

boolean

settings.open_tracking

boolean

dkim

object

required

Active DKIM signing configuration for the domain.

Show child attributes

dkim.mode

string

required

How the DKIM public key is published in your DNS. txt — you publish the key as a TXT record. delegated — you publish a single CNAME and Bird hosts and rotates the key.

dkim.selector

string

required

DKIM selector used to sign mail from this domain.

dkim.key_size

integer

required

RSA key size in bits.

capabilities

object

required

Show child attributes

capabilities.sending

object

required

Show child attributes

capabilities.sending.status

string

required

Capability verification status.

pending — verification has not run, or is currently running. - verified — all DNS records for this capability resolved with the expected values.
warning — a record for this capability verified before and a recent check no longer matches, but it is still within the grace period. Sending is not yet affected; fix it before the grace period ends.
failed — DNS records resolved but at least one value is wrong. Update your DNS to recover.
temporary_failure — DNS lookup failed transiently. Verification is queued for retry; don't change DNS records yet.
not_configured — the capability is not set up on this domain (e.g. no tracking domain configured).

capabilities.sending.domain

nullable string

Hostname this capability is configured with — the return-path domain, the tracking domain, or the domain where the DMARC policy was found. Null when not applicable or not configured.

capabilities.sending.pending

object

A staged configuration change awaiting DNS verification. The currently active configuration keeps serving until the staged one verifies, at which point it is promoted automatically. Submitting another change for the same capability replaces the staged value.

Show child attributes

capabilities.sending.pending.domain

string

required

Hostname the capability will use once the staged change verifies.

capabilities.sending.pending.status

string

required

Verification status of the staged change. pending — waiting for the DNS records to be detected. failed — the records resolved with wrong values; correct them or submit a different change. temporary_failure — DNS lookup failed transiently and will be retried.

capabilities.sending.reason

nullable string

Machine-readable reason code for a failed capability status. Only set when status is failed. Use this to display a specific message to users rather than a generic failure message.

tracking_domain_in_use — the link tracking subdomain is already claimed by another organization.

capabilities.return_path

object

required

Show child attributes

capabilities.return_path.status

string

required

Capability verification status.

pending — verification has not run, or is currently running. - verified — all DNS records for this capability resolved with the expected values.
warning — a record for this capability verified before and a recent check no longer matches, but it is still within the grace period. Sending is not yet affected; fix it before the grace period ends.
failed — DNS records resolved but at least one value is wrong. Update your DNS to recover.
temporary_failure — DNS lookup failed transiently. Verification is queued for retry; don't change DNS records yet.
not_configured — the capability is not set up on this domain (e.g. no tracking domain configured).

capabilities.return_path.domain

nullable string

Hostname this capability is configured with — the return-path domain, the tracking domain, or the domain where the DMARC policy was found. Null when not applicable or not configured.

capabilities.return_path.pending

object

Show child attributes

capabilities.return_path.pending.domain

string

required

Hostname the capability will use once the staged change verifies.

capabilities.return_path.pending.status

string

required

capabilities.return_path.reason

nullable string

Machine-readable reason code for a failed capability status. Only set when status is failed. Use this to display a specific message to users rather than a generic failure message.

tracking_domain_in_use — the link tracking subdomain is already claimed by another organization.

capabilities.dmarc

object

required

Show child attributes

capabilities.dmarc.status

string

required

Capability verification status.

pending — verification has not run, or is currently running. - verified — all DNS records for this capability resolved with the expected values.
warning — a record for this capability verified before and a recent check no longer matches, but it is still within the grace period. Sending is not yet affected; fix it before the grace period ends.
failed — DNS records resolved but at least one value is wrong. Update your DNS to recover.
temporary_failure — DNS lookup failed transiently. Verification is queued for retry; don't change DNS records yet.
not_configured — the capability is not set up on this domain (e.g. no tracking domain configured).

capabilities.dmarc.domain

nullable string

Hostname this capability is configured with — the return-path domain, the tracking domain, or the domain where the DMARC policy was found. Null when not applicable or not configured.

capabilities.dmarc.pending

object

Show child attributes

capabilities.dmarc.pending.domain

string

required

Hostname the capability will use once the staged change verifies.

capabilities.dmarc.pending.status

string

required

capabilities.dmarc.reason

nullable string

Machine-readable reason code for a failed capability status. Only set when status is failed. Use this to display a specific message to users rather than a generic failure message.

tracking_domain_in_use — the link tracking subdomain is already claimed by another organization.

capabilities.tracking

object

required

Show child attributes

capabilities.tracking.status

string

required

Capability verification status.

pending — verification has not run, or is currently running. - verified — all DNS records for this capability resolved with the expected values.
warning — a record for this capability verified before and a recent check no longer matches, but it is still within the grace period. Sending is not yet affected; fix it before the grace period ends.
failed — DNS records resolved but at least one value is wrong. Update your DNS to recover.
temporary_failure — DNS lookup failed transiently. Verification is queued for retry; don't change DNS records yet.
not_configured — the capability is not set up on this domain (e.g. no tracking domain configured).

capabilities.tracking.domain

nullable string

Hostname this capability is configured with — the return-path domain, the tracking domain, or the domain where the DMARC policy was found. Null when not applicable or not configured.

capabilities.tracking.pending

object

Show child attributes

capabilities.tracking.pending.domain

string

required

Hostname the capability will use once the staged change verifies.

capabilities.tracking.pending.status

string

required

capabilities.tracking.reason

nullable string

Machine-readable reason code for a failed capability status. Only set when status is failed. Use this to display a specific message to users rather than a generic failure message.

tracking_domain_in_use — the link tracking subdomain is already claimed by another organization.

capabilities.inbound

object

Show child attributes

capabilities.inbound.status

string

required

Capability verification status.

pending — verification has not run, or is currently running. - verified — all DNS records for this capability resolved with the expected values.
warning — a record for this capability verified before and a recent check no longer matches, but it is still within the grace period. Sending is not yet affected; fix it before the grace period ends.
failed — DNS records resolved but at least one value is wrong. Update your DNS to recover.
temporary_failure — DNS lookup failed transiently. Verification is queued for retry; don't change DNS records yet.
not_configured — the capability is not set up on this domain (e.g. no tracking domain configured).

capabilities.inbound.domain

nullable string

Hostname this capability is configured with — the return-path domain, the tracking domain, or the domain where the DMARC policy was found. Null when not applicable or not configured.

capabilities.inbound.pending

object

Show child attributes

capabilities.inbound.pending.domain

string

required

Hostname the capability will use once the staged change verifies.

capabilities.inbound.pending.status

string

required

capabilities.inbound.reason

nullable string

Machine-readable reason code for a failed capability status. Only set when status is failed. Use this to display a specific message to users rather than a generic failure message.

tracking_domain_in_use — the link tracking subdomain is already claimed by another organization.

dns_records

array of object

required

The domain's DNS records and their individual verification state, returned in full on both the list and single-domain responses. This is the complete set to publish across DKIM, return-path, DMARC, tracking, and inbound; records for a staged change carry state: pending. Inbound MX records are always included as a regional reference, even while receiving is off (capabilities.inbound.status is not_configured) — their presence alone does not mean receiving is enabled (see DomainUpdate.inbound).

Show child attributes

dns_records.type

string

required

dns_records.name

string

required

The record name — the part you enter in your DNS provider's "Name" or "Host" field, relative to the DNS zone the record belongs in (your registered domain). For a sending domain mail.acme.com the DKIM record name is bird1._domainkey.mail, entered in the acme.com zone. @ for records at the zone apex.

dns_records.host

string

required

The fully qualified hostname for this record (e.g. bird1._domainkey.mail.acme.com).

dns_records.value

string

required

dns_records.purpose

string

required

What this record is for.

dkim — signs outbound mail and proves domain ownership. - return_path — return-path (bounce) CNAME for sending. - tracking — branded open/click tracking CNAME (optional). - dmarc — advisory DMARC policy record. - inbound_mx — MX record routing mail to Bird for receiving. Always present wherever inbound is available, as a regional reference, regardless of whether receiving is enabled; publishing it does not enable receiving on its own — see DomainUpdate.inbound.

dns_records.state

string

required

Lifecycle state of this record.

active — the record backs the domain's current configuration. - pending — the record belongs to a staged configuration change; publish it to complete the change.
deprecated — the record belonged to a previous configuration. Keep it in DNS until safe_to_remove is true; in-flight mail and previously sent tracked links may still resolve through it.

dns_records.optional

boolean

required

Whether this record can be skipped. Optional records enable extra functionality (e.g. tracking) but are not required for sending.

dns_records.status

string

required

Verification status of this record's most recent DNS check.

pending — the record has not verified yet; publish it (or correct it) and it will verify on the next check.
verified — the most recent check matched the expected value. - warning — the record verified before and a recent check no longer matched, but it is still within the grace period. Sending is not yet affected; fix the record before the grace period ends to avoid it being blocked.
failed — the record verified before but later checks kept failing past the grace period; the configuration has regressed and needs attention.

dns_records.error

nullable string

Human-readable detail for a failed check on this record — what was found in DNS and why it did not match. Null when the record is verified or not yet checked.

dns_records.safe_to_remove

nullable boolean

Only set on deprecated records: true once the record is no longer referenced by in-flight mail or live tracked links and can be deleted from your DNS. Null on active and pending records.

last_checked_at

nullable string

When Bird last checked this domain's DNS records, whether or not the outcome changed. Updated on every verification — your manual refresh and the periodic automatic re-checks alike. Null if the domain has never been checked.

verified_at

nullable string

When the domain's ownership was confirmed — the moment status became verified via the DKIM record. Unchanged by later re-checks while it stays verified. Null if the domain has never been verified.

created_at

string

required

When the domain was added.

updated_at

string

required

When the domain's configuration was last changed (such as a settings or return-path change). Verification re-checks do not change this; see last_checked_at and verified_at for verification timing.

curl -X PATCH "https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/email/domains/{domain_id}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "settings": {
      "click_tracking": true,
      "open_tracking": true
    },
    "tracking": {
      "name": "links"
    }
  }'