⚙️ Reacher Backend

Backend Server for Reacher Email Verification API: https://reacher.email.

⚠️⚠️ IMPORTANT UPDATE ⚠️⚠️

This repo has been moved to the monorepo reacherhq/check-if-email-exists, in the backend subfolder.

Reacher Backend

This repository holds the backend for Reacher. The backend is a HTTP server with the following components:

• check-if-email-exists, which performs the core email verification logic,
• warp web framework.

Get Started

There are 2 ways you can run this backend.

1. Use Docker

The Docker image is hosted on Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/reacherhq/backend.

To run it, run the following command:

docker run -p 8080:8080 reacherhq/backend

You can then send a POST request with the following body to http://localhost:8080/v0/check_email:

{
	"to_email": "someone@gmail.com",
	"from_email": "my@my-server.com", // (optional) email to use in the `FROM` SMTP command, defaults to "user@example.org"
	"hello_name": "my-server.com",    // (optional) name to use in the `EHLO` SMTP command, defaults to "localhost"
	"proxy": {                        // (optional) SOCK5 proxy to run the verification through, default is empty
		"host": "my-proxy.io",
		"port": 1080
	},
	"smtp_port": 587                  // (optional) SMTP port to do the email verification, defaults to 25
}

2. Run locally

If you prefer to run the server locally on your machine, just clone the repository and run:

cargo run

The server will then be listening on http://127.0.0.1:8080.

Configuration

These are the environment variables used to configure the HTTP server:

Env Var	Required?	Description	Default
RCH_ENABLE_BULK	No	If set to 1, then bulk verification endpoints will be added to the backend.	0
DATABASE_URL	Yes if RCH_ENABLE_BULK==1	Database connection string for storing results and task queue	not defined
RCH_HTTP_HOST	No	The host name to bind the HTTP server to.	127.0.0.1
PORT	No	The port to bind the HTTP server to, often populated by the cloud provider.	8080
RCH_FROM_EMAIL	No	The email to use in the MAIL FROM: SMTP command.	user@example.org
RCH_SENTRY_DSN	No	If set, bug reports will be sent to this Sentry DSN.	not defined
RCH_DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS	No	Connections created for the database pool	5
RCH_MINIMUM_TASK_CONCURRENCY	No	Minimum number of concurrent running tasks below which more tasks are fetched	10
RCH_MAXIMUM_CONCURRENT_TASK_FETCH	No	Maximum number of tasks fetched at once	20
RUST_LOG	No	One of trace,debug,warn,error,info. 💡 PRO TIP: RUST_LOG=debug is very handful for debugging purposes.	not defined

REST API Documentation

Read docs on https://help.reacher.email/rest-api-documentation.

The API basically only exposes one endpoint: POST /v0/check_email expecting the following body:

{
	"to_email": "someone@gmail.com",
	"from_email": "my@my-server.com", // (optional) email to use in the `FROM` SMTP command, defaults to "user@example.org"
	"hello_name": "my-server.com",    // (optional) name to use in the `EHLO` SMTP command, defaults to "localhost"
	"proxy": {                        // (optional) SOCK5 proxy to run the verification through, default is empty
		"host": "my-proxy.io",
		"port": 1080
	},
	"smtp_port": 587                  // (optional) SMTP port to do the email verification, defaults to 25
}

Also check openapi.json for the complete OpenAPI specification.

License

reacherhq/backend's source code is provided under a dual license model.

Commercial license

If you want to use reacherhq/backend to develop commercial sites, tools, and applications, the Commercial License is the appropriate license. With this option, your source code is kept proprietary. Purchase an reacherhq/backend Commercial License at https://reacher.email/pricing.

Open source license

If you are creating an open source application under a license compatible with the GNU Affero GPL license v3, you may use reacherhq/backend under the terms of the AGPL-3.0.

Read more about Reacher's license.

Sponsor my Open-Source Work

If you like my open-source work at Reacher, consider sponsoring me! You'll also get 8000 free email verifications every month with your Reacher account, and a this contribution would mean A WHOLE LOT to me.