Email setup

Auth Service uses Nodemailer to send password reset and email verification emails. Email is entirely optional — all SMTP settings are omitted by default and Auth Service silently skips sending if SMTP_HOST is not set.

Configuration

Set the following environment variables:

SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com
SMTP_PORT=587              # defaults to 587
SMTP_USER=user@example.com
SMTP_PASS=your-smtp-password
SMTP_FROM=Auth Service <no-reply@example.com>

SMTP_PORT=465 automatically enables TLS (secure: true). All other ports use STARTTLS negotiation.

If SMTP_USER and SMTP_PASS are both empty, Nodemailer connects without authentication — useful for local SMTP relays.

Emails sent

requireEmailVerification is false by default in src/auth.ts. Enable it in the BetterAuth configuration if you want to require email verification before users can sign in.

Testing with a local SMTP relay

Use Mailhog or smtp4dev locally:

# docker-compose.dev.yml addition
mailhog:
  image: mailhog/mailhog
  ports:
    - "1025:1025"   # SMTP
    - "8025:8025"   # Web UI

SMTP_HOST=localhost
SMTP_PORT=1025