# Email Deliverability DNS Audit (`conserving_mastodon/email-dns-audit`) Actor

SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX for any domain, parsed and graded A-F with a concrete fix list: enforcement qualifiers, lookup-limit risk, DMARC policy strength, missing DKIM selectors. The interpretation layer raw DNS lookups don't give you. Charged only when the audit completes.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/conserving\_mastodon/email-dns-audit.md
- **Developed by:** [Chris Arsenault](https://apify.com/conserving_mastodon) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$250.00 / 1,000 completed audits

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Email Deliverability DNS Audit

**A graded deliverability verdict for any domain, in one call.** Raw DNS lookups are a commodity; knowing what the records *mean* is the work. This Actor fetches SPF, DMARC, DKIM, and MX over DNS-over-HTTPS, parses them the way a mailbox provider does, and returns a grade (A to F) with an ordered fix list.

### What it evaluates

- **MX**: can the domain receive mail at all.
- **SPF**: present, single (multiple records are an RFC violation receivers punish), which `all` qualifier it ends in (`-all` hard fail, `~all` soft fail, `?all` no protection, `+all` spoofable), and estimated DNS lookup count against the limit of 10.
- **DMARC**: present, policy strength (`none` merely monitors; `quarantine`/`reject` protect), subdomain policy, percentage, and whether `rua=` reporting exists (without it you are flying blind).
- **DKIM**: probes 14 common selectors (google, selector1/2, k1, mandrill, resend, and more) — pass your ESP's custom selector as input for exact coverage.

### Output

One summary row:

```json
{
  "domain": "example.com",
  "grade": "C",
  "score": 70,
  "mx_count": 2,
  "spf": { "all_qualifier": "~all", "enforcement": "soft fail", "dns_lookups_estimate": 4 },
  "dmarc": { "policy": "none", "reporting": false },
  "dkim_selectors_found": [],
  "fixes": [
    "DMARC p=none only monitors; move to quarantine or reject once reports look clean.",
    "No DKIM key found on common selectors; publish DKIM or pass your selector to this audit."
  ]
}
```

### Use cases

- **Agencies and MSPs**: grade a client's domain before the meeting; the fix list is the proposal.
- **Cold-email and lifecycle operators**: verify sending domains before campaigns, and re-verify after DNS changes.
- **Agents onboarding customers**: an automatic deliverability check as a signup step.

Resolution runs over Cloudflare and Google public DoH (no scraping, no mail sent, nothing touched). Unresolvable or invalid domains report cleanly and **you are not charged**; billing is per completed audit.

Built by 1450 Enterprises. Its first two production targets were our own sending domains, and the fix list it produced is now in our own backlog.

# Actor input Schema

## `domain` (type: `string`):

The domain to audit (e.g. example.com). URLs are accepted and reduced to the domain.

## `dkimSelectors` (type: `array`):

Additional DKIM selector names to probe beyond the 14 common ones (e.g. your ESP's custom selector).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domain": "example.com"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Grade A-F with score, MX records, parsed SPF (enforcement qualifier, lookup-limit risk), parsed DMARC (policy, reporting), DKIM selectors found, and the ordered fix list.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "domain": "example.com"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("conserving_mastodon/email-dns-audit").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "domain": "example.com" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("conserving_mastodon/email-dns-audit").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "domain": "example.com"
}' |
apify call conserving_mastodon/email-dns-audit --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,conserving_mastodon/email-dns-audit"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/x6YmCggyOCkFSLlnz/builds/ykmnWGQKpXGmcC8W0/openapi.json