Contact Form Send Email: How to Make Yours Work

Your site has a contact form. People fill it in, press Send, and nothing happens. No email reaches you, and the sender can't tell whether it worked.

This guide shows you how to make your contact form send email when you build with Claude Code. You'll set up a notification to you, an optional auto-reply to the sender, and a reply-to setting so you can answer with one click. You get the messages to send Claude Code and sample emails.

If you have other forms too, such as a quote request or a booking form, see how to get an email every time someone fills in your form.

Why doesn't my contact form send email by default?

A contact form doesn't send email by itself. When someone presses Send, their browser packages what they typed and sends it to a web address on your site. Something at that address has to receive it and decide what to do next, such as emailing you. If nothing is set up to do that, the message goes nowhere.

Your site can't send the email directly either. It needs a transactional email service: a service that sends automatic, one-to-one emails when someone does something, like filling in a form or resetting a password. Our guide to making your website send emails covers the bigger picture.

Some sites use a "mailto" link instead, which opens the visitor's own email program. That fails for anyone without one set up on their device, so most sites use a form plus an email service.

What should I tell Claude Code to make my contact form send email?

First, connect an email service. With SimpleSends, that takes four steps:

1. 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, this includes adding a few DNS records where your domain is registered. (DNS records are short settings that tell the internet which services may send email for your domain.)
2. In Claude Code, open Customize, then Connectors, choose Add, then Add custom connector. Name: SimpleSends. MCP server URL: https://mcp.simplesends.com/mcp
3. When Claude prompts you to connect, log in to SimpleSends.
4. Back in the Claude Code chat, tell Claude Code: "I've connected SimpleSends for all transactional email."

A connector lets Claude Code use an outside service while you build, through MCP, a standard way for AI tools to connect to other services. Claude Code then adds what your project needs to send email, including sending code and a secret API key, a password-like code your live site uses. Real emails go out from your live site, not from the chat.

Now brief Claude Code the way you'd brief a developer:

The contact form on my Contact page doesn't send anything yet. When someone submits it, email me at hello@yourcompany.com with their name, email address and message. Start the subject line with "New message from" and their name. After they press Send, show a short thank-you note on the page, or a clear error message if something goes wrong. Send me a test when it's ready.

Claude Code connects the form to a form handler, writes the notification, and sends you a test.

SubjectNew message from Jordan Lee

You have a new message from the contact form on yourcompany.com.

Name: Jordan Lee Email: the address Jordan entered (press Reply to answer) Message: Hi, do you offer a discount for nonprofits? We're a team of six.

How do I send an auto-reply to the person who filled in the form?

An auto-reply is a short email confirming you got the sender's message and when to expect an answer.

Also send the person who filled in the form a short, friendly confirmation. Thank them by first name, say we usually reply within one business day, and sign off from the team at yourcompany.com. Don't include their message in it. Show me a preview first.

SubjectWe got your message

Hi Jordan,

Thanks for getting in touch. Your message reached us, and we usually reply within one business day.

If you think of anything else in the meantime, reply to this email and it will come straight to us.

The team at yourcompany.com

Leave their message out of the auto-reply. Anyone can type any address into a form, so an auto-reply should never carry a stranger's text into someone else's inbox. Automated programs fill in forms too, so ask Claude Code to add basic protection, such as a limit on how many messages one address can send in an hour.

How do I set reply-to on contact form emails?

Reply-to is the address your email program uses when you press Reply. On the notification you receive, set it to the visitor's address, so your answer goes straight to them while the email still comes from your own address.

Why not send it "from" the visitor? The email standard says the From address should belong to the sender, which is your site. Mail providers also check that the From domain has approved the service sending the email, so emails sent in someone else's name can be rejected. Our guide to choosing your sending domain and from address explains which address to use.

On the notification email to me, set reply-to to the address the person typed in the form, so I can answer them with one click. Keep the From address as our own. On the auto-reply, set reply-to to hello@yourcompany.com.

How do I test my contact form emails?

Test both emails from your live site before you rely on the form:

1. Ask Claude Code to send you a test of each email from the chat, and check the wording and layout.
2. Fill in the form on your live site using a second email address you can check.
3. Check the notification arrived with the right name and message, and that pressing Reply addresses your answer to the second address.
4. Check the auto-reply arrived at the second address and reads well on your phone.
5. Submit the form with the email field left blank, and check that a clear error message appears.

If an email doesn't arrive, ask Claude Code. It can read the send logs and delivery status in SimpleSends, so it can tell you whether the email went out and help work out why it didn't.

I submitted the contact form a few minutes ago, but no email arrived. Check whether it was sent and tell me what happened.

For a fuller checklist, see how to test your emails before your users see them and how to check whether your emails actually sent.

Contact form emails are one of several transactional emails most sites and SaaS products need.