# Chat mail relay Federation **URL:** \ **Category:** Chatmail Relays\ **Created:** [June 12, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837 "2025-06-12T20:43:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/delta_mafia/32/2624_2.png) [@DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/u/DELTA_MAFIA)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/1 "2025-06-12T20:43:01Z")
The question is, how to enable federation in chat mail relay, so that it would be possible, for example, with [nine.testrun.org](http://nine.testrun.org) send an email to other repeaters and vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![cyrneko](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/cyrneko/32/2621_2.png) [@cyrneko](https://support.delta.chat/u/cyrneko)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/2 "2025-06-12T22:24:51Z")
this should just be the default!? the whole point of chatmail is that it’s using the already federated email protocols under the hood 🤔 ---
**Author:** ![DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/delta_mafia/32/2624_2.png) [@DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/u/DELTA_MAFIA)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 2:45am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/3 "2025-06-13T02:45:08Z")
I agree, it must be. But this is not the case. ---
**Author:** ![DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/delta_mafia/32/2624_2.png) [@DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/u/DELTA_MAFIA)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:14am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/4 "2025-06-13T05:14:00Z")
Maybe I didn’t fully set up something, or didn’t turn it on. But at the moment, I can’t log out of the server, meaning I can’t connect to anyone, even using a qr code. In general, my server is isolated for some reason. Contact is only possible inside chatmail relay. ---
**Author:** ![DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/delta_mafia/32/2624_2.png) [@DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/u/DELTA_MAFIA)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:25am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/5 "2025-06-13T05:25:38Z")
Everything turned out to be much simpler, I’m a fool, I didn’t have an MX DNS record on my domain name, therefore the other mail servers didn’t understand what I wanted from them, everything is working now. I’m sorry for my stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![WofWca](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/wofwca/32/1702_2.png) [@WofWca](https://support.delta.chat/u/WofWca)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 8:27am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/6 "2025-06-13T08:27:20Z")
Did [`scripts/cmdeploy test`](https://github.com/chatmail/relay) not catch that? ---
**Author:** ![DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/delta_mafia/32/2624_2.png) [@DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/u/DELTA_MAFIA)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 9:51am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/7 "2025-06-13T09:51:37Z")
I’m sorry, I didn’t understand you, what did you mean? ---
**Author:** ![WofWca](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/wofwca/32/1702_2.png) [@WofWca](https://support.delta.chat/u/WofWca)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 10:03am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/8 "2025-06-13T10:03:12Z")
Have you tried to execute `scripts/cmdeploy test`? What was the output? Did it not report the issue? ---
**Author:** ![DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/delta_mafia/32/2624_2.png) [@DELTA\_MAFIA](https://support.delta.chat/u/DELTA_MAFIA)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 10:37am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/9 "2025-06-13T10:37:25Z")
@WofWca , **I didn’t run `scripts/cmdeploy test`.** I just checked my domain’s DNS records and noticed that I was missing the `A` record for `mail.example.ru` pointing to `87.234.10.3` and also the `MX` record. After adding those, I was able to connect with bots from `testrun.org` and with my other accounts on classic email providers. Digging into the server scripts, I found that **Chat Mail Relay works like this** : 1. **Federation is enabled by default** — all that’s required is a proper `A` and `MX` DNS record. 2. **It authenticates users even if they don’t yet exist on the server** , as long as the input matches the criteria defined in `chatmail.ini` (like minimum address and password length). This means you can migrate servers quickly: just spin up a new one with the same domain, and users will reconnect automatically. Overall, **everything important is in `chatmail.ini`** , and honestly — that’s all you really need. The server runs fast, stable, and that’s a huge plus. Federation and the ability to create your own accounts make it even better. Just brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![WofWca](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/wofwca/32/1702_2.png) [@WofWca](https://support.delta.chat/u/WofWca)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/10 "2025-06-15T19:41:13Z")
For other readers, here is a follow-up discussion: > [@Cannot run Chatmail relay](https://support.delta.chat/t/cannot-run-chatmail-relay/3831/6): > > To be honest, the chat mail relay Federation works every other time, but somewhere it doesn’t work at all. No one can answer me, as if they are hiding something. The federation only works for the domain [testrun.org](http://testrun.org) otherwise, everything is closed. I was wrong to say recently that everything was working, but not everything is working. Well, if that’s what the creators of the repeater want, let them. It’s strange that the guys who raise their servers don’t understand why the federation is working … Also there is a related issue: > > > for someone setting up a server for the first time like me, just following the g…uide/readme was not enough, ex. the guide assumes you already have a VPS with DNS configured to point to your domain, it would be good to mention that the A record is needed to be added with the domain and corresponding VPS IP, without this it is not possible to start the guide, I had to add this initial records before being able to properly run the \`cmddeploy run\` command: > > !\[Image\](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/50c45daf-bf6d-486a-95d9-3b9f505ebbd2) > > more important to point out: after finishing the deployment, my server was still not able to communicate with Gmail because \[Reverse DNS lookup\](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse\_DNS\_lookup) records were not configured, the guide doesn't mention this, which is important for federation with the "big providers", the google error: > > \`\`\` > The IP address sending this message does not have a PTR record setup, or the corresponding forward DNS entry > does not match the sending IP. As a policy, Gmail does not accept messages from IPs with missing PTR records. > For more information, go to https://support.google.com/a?p=sender-guidelines-ip > \`\`\` > > after setting up the PTR records in my VPS provider and waiting for some minutes for it to propagate to google DNS servers, then sending messages worked, the PTR can be checked with \`nslookup\` or https://www.whatsmydns.net/dns-lookup/ptr-records ---
**Author:** ![r10s](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/r10s/32/1513_2.png) [@r10s](https://support.delta.chat/u/r10s)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 3:19pm UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/chat-mail-relay-federation/3837/11 "2026-10-06T15:19:27Z")