Suppressions
The suppression list is the safety net that protects your sender reputation. Every send is checked against it before any SMTP connection is opened.
What lands on the suppression list
Section titled “What lands on the suppression list”- Hard bounces — recipient address doesn’t exist or rejected outright.
- Complaints — recipient marked your email as spam (received via FBL or
email.complainedwebhook). - Unsubscribes — recipient clicked unsubscribe (RFC 8058 one-click or list footer link).
- Manual additions — emails you’ve added via the dashboard or API.
How long suppressions last
Section titled “How long suppressions last”| Reason | Duration |
|---|---|
| Hard bounce | 90 days |
| Complaint | Permanent |
| Unsubscribe | Permanent (unless re-confirmed by the recipient) |
| Manual | Permanent unless removed |
What happens on a suppressed send
Section titled “What happens on a suppressed send”The API still returns 200 OK with status suppressed — your application logic doesn’t break. No SMTP connection is made and no charge is incurred. The email is recorded with suppression_reason so you can audit later.
Removing a suppression
Section titled “Removing a suppression”You should rarely do this. The case where it’s correct: a previously-bouncing address has been confirmed healthy through another channel.
curl -X DELETE https://mail.3ava.com/api/suppressions/{email_address} \ -H "Authorization: Bearer am_YOUR_KEY"Removing a complaint suppression is generally a bad idea — the recipient told a mailbox provider that your mail is spam, and re-sending to them will damage your reputation further.
Checking before sending
Section titled “Checking before sending”You don’t need to. The check is automatic. But if you want to query:
curl https://mail.3ava.com/api/suppressions/{email_address} \ -H "Authorization: Bearer am_YOUR_KEY"Returns 404 if the address is not suppressed.