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T002 sub-task — ImprovMX inbound forwarding for silentinfinity.com

Status: Partial — MX changed, awaiting Harnoor browser step at improvmx.com.

Created: 2026-04-21

Domain: silentinfinity.com

Alias goal: contact@silentinfinity.com → harnoors@gmail.com

Why ImprovMX: Free tier (25 aliases, 10 forwards/hour), zero-code, 5-minute setup. AWS-native alternative (SES receive rule + Lambda forwarder) is documented at bottom of this doc.

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What TITAN already did (automated, 2026-04-21 ~14:10 UTC)

1. Added ImprovMX MX records to Route 53 hosted zone Z06831253QG9ZEXH69EC6:

- silentinfinity.com. 300 IN MX 10 mx1.improvmx.com

- silentinfinity.com. 300 IN MX 20 mx2.improvmx.com

2. Kept existing SES bounce MX as priority-30 safety net:

- silentinfinity.com. 300 IN MX 30 feedback-smtp.us-east-1.amazonses.com

- Rationale: If Harnoor never claims the domain in ImprovMX, SES still handles bounces as a fallback. Priority-30 means real inbound mail will still be delivered to ImprovMX first. Remove this after ImprovMX verifies (see "Cleanup" below).

3. Route 53 change id: /change/C10451543D0JGU3YVSYH3 (Status: PENDING at submit time; usually INSYNC within 60s).

TITAN did not add an improvmx-ownership=<placeholder> TXT record. ImprovMX does not require a pre-seeded placeholder — it issues the real token at signup and Harnoor adds it once. Pushing a placeholder first only adds DNS noise. The exact command to add the real token is in Step 3 below.

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What Harnoor needs to do (three browser clicks + one CLI call)

Step 1 — Sign up / sign in

Open: https://improvmx.com/ (no signup required for the free tier; just add the domain).

Step 2 — Add the domain

Open: https://improvmx.com/domains/add

Form fields to fill:

After submitting, ImprovMX will show a verification screen that lists:

Step 3 — Add the ownership record to Route 53

If ImprovMX issues a TXT challenge, run:


# Replace REAL_TOKEN_FROM_IMPROVMX with the actual value shown on their dashboard
aws route53 change-resource-record-sets \
  --hosted-zone-id Z06831253QG9ZEXH69EC6 \
  --change-batch '{
    "Comment": "T002 ImprovMX ownership TXT + SPF update",
    "Changes": [
      {
        "Action": "UPSERT",
        "ResourceRecordSet": {
          "Name": "silentinfinity.com.",
          "Type": "TXT",
          "TTL": 300,
          "ResourceRecords": [
            { "Value": "\"v=spf1 include:amazonses.com include:spf.improvmx.com ~all\"" },
            { "Value": "\"improvmx-domain-verification=REAL_TOKEN_FROM_IMPROVMX\"" }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }'

Note: the existing SPF record is UPSERTed here to include spf.improvmx.com alongside amazonses.com so outgoing SES mail and ImprovMX-relayed mail both pass SPF. If ImprovMX shows a CNAME challenge instead (e.g., _improvmx.silentinfinity.com CNAME verify.improvmx.com), run the CNAME variant — ask TITAN for the updated change-batch at that time.

Step 4 — Confirm on ImprovMX dashboard

Back at https://improvmx.com/, click Verify (or refresh the dashboard). All three indicators (MX1, MX2, ownership) should go green. This usually takes 30–90 seconds after the DNS change is submitted.

Step 5 — Send a test email

Send any email from Gmail or phone to contact@silentinfinity.com. It should land in harnoors@gmail.com within ~30 seconds. (ImprovMX free tier has a 10-forwards-per-hour cap — fine for testing.)

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Verification script

Run after browser steps are done:


bash F:/TITAN/scripts/improvmx-verify.sh

It checks:

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Cleanup (after Harnoor confirms ImprovMX verifies)

Once Step 4 shows all green in the ImprovMX dashboard, remove the SES bounce MX as priority 30:


aws route53 change-resource-record-sets \
  --hosted-zone-id Z06831253QG9ZEXH69EC6 \
  --change-batch '{
    "Comment": "T002 remove SES bounce MX after ImprovMX verified",
    "Changes": [
      {
        "Action": "UPSERT",
        "ResourceRecordSet": {
          "Name": "silentinfinity.com.",
          "Type": "MX",
          "TTL": 300,
          "ResourceRecords": [
            { "Value": "10 mx1.improvmx.com" },
            { "Value": "20 mx2.improvmx.com" }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }'

Trade-off documented: Removing the SES bounce MX means SES-generated bounce emails (e.g., for invalid recipients that the leads Lambda tries to email) will no longer route back to SES's bounce handler via MX. SES still processes bounces via the DSN reply-path it sets on outgoing mail — this is independent of inbound MX — so the Feedback Forwarding we already enabled at the identity level continues to work. DKIM + DMARC are untouched. Net operational impact: none for outgoing mail.

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Alternative: AWS-native inbound (if Harnoor later decides to switch off ImprovMX)

If at some point Harnoor wants to move to SES receive + Lambda (no third party, full control, more work):

1. Create an SES receipt rule set in us-east-1 with a rule for contact@silentinfinity.com.

2. Rule actions: S3 (store raw MIME) and/or Lambda (forward to Gmail with rewritten From/Reply-To).

3. Change MX back to SES's regional inbound endpoint:

- silentinfinity.com. IN MX 10 inbound-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

- (This is the inbound-smtp hostname, not feedback-smtp — different service.)

4. Write a small Lambda (ses-forward-contact) that: re-wraps the inbound MIME, sets From: forwarder@silentinfinity.com, preserves Reply-To: <original sender>, and sends via ses:SendRawEmail to harnoors@gmail.com. Canonical reference implementation: https://github.com/arithmetric/aws-lambda-ses-forwarder

5. IAM: grant the Lambda ses:SendRawEmail and S3 read on the receive bucket.

6. Keep SPF and DKIM as-is; DMARC policy should allow forwarding (e.g., p=none or p=quarantine with aspf=r).

Cost rough-order: SES inbound is $0.10 per 1,000 emails received + Lambda invocations (essentially free at this volume). ImprovMX free tier covers 25 aliases; upgrade tier ($9/mo) if we ever exceed 10 forwards/hour.

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