Capture an email from your app
3 minute read · Email
Catch an email from your development app before you send real messages. Vortex Mail is a test-email receiver, not a replacement for a personal IMAP inbox.
- Connect a development app to the catcher
- Trace a missing message
- Inspect the result and repeat
- Test a queued mail flow
Connect a development app to the catcher
Open Mail and complete the local SMTP setup. Use the host, port and transport settings displayed by Vortex for your current machine; do not assume a port copied from another computer is correct. If the setup requires certificates, generate/check them and explicitly trust the local CA through the supported OS workflow.
Put those settings into your development app's mail configuration. Keep the app in its local/test environment. Trigger one fictional message, such as a welcome email to a test recipient, then check the local Mail source for its sender, recipient and subject. If the app queues mail, its own queue worker must process the job before the catcher can receive it.
Trace a missing message
| Observation | Check |
|---|---|
| App cannot connect | Whether Vortex's local SMTP service is available and the app uses the displayed host/port. |
| Certificate or TLS error | The selected transport, generated certificate and local CA trust state. |
| App reports queued | The development app's queue and job error, not only its HTTP response. |
| App reports sent, inbox empty | Which SMTP configuration the running app loaded and whether you are viewing local or cloud mail. |
After changing an environment file, the app may need its own configuration/process refresh. Do not change production mail settings just to test the local catcher.
Inspect the result and repeat
Open the message, compare rendered HTML with text/source and inspect any attachments deliberately. Send a second sample with an empty optional field to check your template's fallback. Local Mail is a development email catcher, not a personal IMAP inbox and not evidence of delivery to a real external mailbox.
If a provider or agent should inspect the message, use the captured result and redact private content first. Continue with mail inspection or cloud SMTP.
Test a queued mail flow
Configure the app's development mail transport using the host, port and TLS mode shown in Vortex's local SMTP setup. If that app queues messages, start its local queue worker too. Submit the app action that creates mail and trace the result: queued job, SMTP send, captured message, then the message's rendered and text views.
Use fictional recipients and recognizable subjects so the test is easy to find. Test an ordinary welcome message and a missing optional value in its template. Read the actual SMTP or worker error if one is absent; changing the template cannot repair a stopped queue worker.
Certificate generation, inspection and CA trust are separate setup actions. Trust a local CA only when you understand the requested OS change. Changing mail preferences does not grant an agent permission to email real recipients. Use cloud capture when a remote test app cannot reach this computer.
Related guides: read the message, cloud SMTP capture.