Emails to my customers should come from my own address
Once your own address is connected to your bernard site, there's a second, entirely
optional step: letting bernard send email from that address too. Add two more small
records, and you can send yourself a preview from [email protected] today — dressed
in your style, not bernard's. As bernard's emails to your customers come online, they'll
switch to your address automatically, with nothing more for you to do.
What it does — and what it doesn't
Today, it lights up the preview on the Emails page. Send yourself a preview and it genuinely arrives from your own address, so you can see exactly how it'll look and feel once it's live for your customers.
As bernard's customer emails come online, they'll pick it up automatically. Receipts, order updates, the odd notification — as each one is wired to use your address, it starts arriving from you rather than a shared bernard address. You won't need to do anything when that happens; the records are already in place.
It never touches how you receive email. Nothing about your inbox moves, changes, or needs re-checking. Replies still land exactly where they already do. These records don't touch your mail server or your mailbox — only the sending side of what bernard does for you.
It's optional, both ways. Skip it, and your site works exactly as before: bernard sends on your behalf from its own address, replying to your real inbox. Add it later, any time, from the same Custom domain page where you connected your address.
How to do it
- Open Custom domain in bernard, on the site whose own address is already connected. Below the site records, a section called "Email from your own address" shows two more records, already filled in for your domain.
- Add them where you manage your domain, the same way you added the site records — copy each value exactly.
- Give it a little time. Same as the site records, it can take from minutes up to a few hours to catch on. Bernard checks automatically and switches sending over once both are in place.
The site's Emails page shows a preview email today — a button to send yourself a copy so you can see exactly how it'll look and feel arriving from your own address. More messages join it here as bernard's customer-facing emails come online.
If you get stuck, the Bernard AI assistant can check your email records' live status and tell you in plain English what's in place and what still needs adding.
Adding your own address in the first place — the step this builds on — is Connect my own web address (domain) to my site.
The prompt
“Help me set up email sending from [my domain] on my bernard site — check whether the email records are working yet and tell me what to add if not.”
The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Connect bernard to your AI over MCP — a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI — then paste the prompt above.
Questions people ask
- Does this change my email inbox?
- No. These records only affect mail bernard sends for you — a receipt when someone buys, for example. How you receive email is never touched: nothing arrives differently, nothing moves, and replies still land in the inbox you already use.
- What if I don't add them?
- Everything keeps working. Mail still goes out — bernard just sends it from its own address on your behalf, with replies still routed to you. Adding the two records later is entirely optional, and nothing breaks in the meantime.
- Do I need a new mailbox?
- No — this is a sending address, not a new inbox to check. Once it's set up, emails simply carry your own address as the From; replies come back to the inbox you already use every day, exactly as they do now.
- What happens if I get it wrong, or it stops working?
- Nothing to worry about — bernard falls straight back to its own sending address the moment anything's amiss, so your customers never miss a receipt. Every change lands on a draft you approve first, and you can retry or disconnect from the domain page any time.