How to Make Your Website Send Emails Using Claude Code

You built a site in Claude Code, and now it needs to send email. Maybe your contact form should land in your inbox, or new sign-ups should get a welcome message. This guide shows how to send email from your website with Claude Code, in plain English, with no code for you to write.

You'll see which emails a typical site sends, why a site can't send them on its own, how to connect an email service, and what to tell Claude Code for each kind of email. Each section links to a step-by-step guide when you want more detail.

Which emails does a website send?

Most websites send a small set of automatic emails, each one set off by something a visitor does. These are called transactional emails: one-to-one messages sent because of an action, not newsletters or promotions.

A simple business site might need the first two. A SaaS with user accounts usually needs more. The full list, with what to include in each, is in 12 transactional emails every SaaS needs.

Why can't your website send email on its own?

A website can't send email by itself because sending needs a mail service behind it, and the parts of your site that visitors see don't have one.

Your pages run in each visitor's browser, and a browser can't send email for you. An email link, called a mailto link, only opens the visitor's own email program and leaves them to write and send the message. A form with nothing behind it has nowhere to send what people type.

The part of your site that runs on a server (the computer your host runs for you) can send email, but it still needs a mail service. Hosting platforms often block the connection mail servers use to pass email directly to each other. Vercel, for example, blocks it and recommends sending through an email provider's web connection instead.

Inboxes also check where email comes from. Since February 2024, Gmail has required everyone who sends to Gmail addresses to prove they're allowed to send from their domain. That proof lives in your domain's DNS settings, the records that tell the internet where your domain's website and email are handled.

A transactional email service takes care of this. Your site hands each message to the service, and the service delivers it from your domain.

How do you get Claude Code to send email from your website?

Connect an email service once, set up the address you'll send from, then tell Claude Code which emails your site should send. Here's how that works with SimpleSends.

1. Sign up and set up your sending address. Sign up on the SimpleSends website and follow the steps there to set up the email address you'll send from. To send from your own domain, such as hello@yourcompany.com, this includes adding a few DNS records where your domain is registered. Our guide to verifying your domain for email walks through that step.
2. Add the connector. In Claude Code, open Customize, then Connectors, choose Add, then Add custom connector, and fill in these two fields:

3. Log in. When Claude prompts you to connect, log in to SimpleSends.
4. Tell Claude Code you're connected. Back in the Claude Code chat, send this:

I've connected SimpleSends for all transactional email.

A connector lets Claude Code work with another service while you build. This one is an MCP server, a standard way for AI tools to talk to other services. Our guide to what MCP is explains more.

From there, Claude Code adds what your project needs to send email. As with any email service, that includes a small piece of sending code and a secret key, called an API key, that proves your site is allowed to send. You don't write any of it.

The connector is for building. Once your site is live, it sends each email directly through SimpleSends. If a visitor fills in your form at 3am, the email goes out without Claude Code being open.

What makes SimpleSends different is who it's built for. The sign-up, the connect steps and the help are written in plain English, without developer jargon. After you sign up, everything happens in the chat: Claude Code designs, writes, builds and changes your emails, and you approve them.

How do you set up contact forms, sign-ups and notifications?

Tell Claude Code what should happen, who should get the email and what it should say, the way you'd brief a person. Ask to see each email before it's built.

Contact forms

When someone fills in the contact form, email me their message at hello@yourcompany.com. Make replies go straight to the visitor's email address. Also send the visitor a short note saying we got their message and will reply within two working days. Show me both emails before you build anything.

Claude Code drafts both emails for you to review. Once you approve them, it connects them to your form. You'll get something like this:

SubjectNew message from your website: Sam Lee

You have a new message from your contact form.

Name: Sam Lee Email: sam@yourcompany.com Message: Hi, do you offer a discount for teams of 10 or more?

Reply to this email to answer Sam directly.

For more on auto-replies and reply settings, see how to make your contact form send emails.

Other forms

Quote requests, booking requests and waitlist forms work the same way. Say which form it is, who should hear about it and what the email should include.

When someone submits the quote request form, email me all their answers in a tidy list. Send them a confirmation that repeats what they asked for, so they have a record.

There's more on this in getting an email every time someone fills in your form.

Sign-ups and notifications

If people create accounts on your site, two emails usually go out at once: one to them and one to you.

When someone creates an account, send them a friendly welcome email that tells them the first thing to do. Also send me a short note with their name and email so I know someone new joined. Show me both first.

The guides to welcome emails and sign-up notifications cover what to include in each.

Everything at once

You don't have to set them up one by one. Claude Code can look at your site and work out which emails it needs.

Look through my site and list every email it should send, with what triggers each one and who gets it. Once I've approved the list, set them all up and show me each email before it goes live.

How do you test your website's emails?

Test in two rounds: send yourself test emails from the chat, then use your live site the way a visitor would.

1. Send test emails. Test emails can go out straight from the Claude Code chat, before anything is live.

Send me a test of every email the site sends, to hello@yourcompany.com, filled in with realistic example details.

2. Check each one. Look at the from address, the subject line, any names and links, and where replies go. Open at least one on your phone.
3. Try the real thing. On your live site, fill in the contact form or create an account using an email address you can check, and make sure each email arrives.
4. Ask if something's missing. Claude Code can read your SimpleSends send logs and delivery status, so it can tell you whether an email went out and help work out why one didn't.

I filled in the contact form on the live site around 2:15pm but no email came through. Can you check whether it was sent and what happened?

For a fuller checklist before launch, see how to test your emails before your users see them.