1# Cloudflare Email Routing Skill Reference
2 
3## Overview
4 
5Cloudflare Email Routing enables custom email addresses for your domain that route to verified destination addresses. It's free, privacy-focused (no storage/access), and includes Email Workers for programmatic email processing.
6 
7**Available to all Cloudflare customers using Cloudflare as authoritative nameserver.**
8 
9## Quick Start
10 
11```typescript
12// Basic email handler
13export default {
14  async email(message, env, ctx) {
15    // CRITICAL: Must consume stream before response
16    const parser = new PostalMime.default();
17    const email = await parser.parse(await message.raw.arrayBuffer());
18    
19    // Process email
20    console.log(`From: ${message.from}, Subject: ${email.subject}`);
21    
22    // Forward or reject
23    await message.forward("[email protected]");
24  }
25} satisfies ExportedHandler<Env>;
26```
27 
28## Reading Order
29 
30**Start here based on your goal:**
31 
321. **New to Email Routing?** → [configuration.md](configuration.md) → [patterns.md](patterns.md)
332. **Adding Workers?** → [api.md](api.md) § Worker Runtime API → [patterns.md](patterns.md)
343. **Sending emails?** → [api.md](api.md) § SendEmail Binding
354. **Managing via API?** → [api.md](api.md) § REST API Operations
365. **Debugging issues?** → [gotchas.md](gotchas.md)
37 
38## Decision Tree
39 
40```
41Need to receive emails?
42├─ Simple forwarding only? → Dashboard rules (configuration.md)
43├─ Complex logic/filtering? → Email Workers (api.md + patterns.md)
44└─ Parse attachments/body? → postal-mime library (patterns.md § Parse Email)
45 
46Need to send emails?
47├─ From Worker? → SendEmail binding (api.md § SendEmail)
48└─ From external app? → Use external SMTP/API service
49 
50Having issues?
51├─ Email not arriving? → gotchas.md § Mail Authentication
52├─ Worker crashing? → gotchas.md § Stream Consumption
53└─ Forward failing? → gotchas.md § Destination Verification
54```
55 
56## Key Concepts
57 
58**Routing Rules**: Pattern-based forwarding configured via Dashboard/API. Simple but limited.
59 
60**Email Workers**: Custom TypeScript handlers with full email access. Handles complex logic, parsing, storage, rejection.
61 
62**SendEmail Binding**: Outbound email API for Workers. Transactional email only (no marketing/bulk).
63 
64**ForwardableEmailMessage**: Runtime interface for incoming emails. Provides headers, raw stream, forward/reject methods.
65 
66## In This Reference
67 
68- **[configuration.md](configuration.md)** - Setup, deployment, wrangler config
69- **[api.md](api.md)** - REST API + Worker runtime API + types
70- **[patterns.md](patterns.md)** - Common patterns with working examples
71- **[gotchas.md](gotchas.md)** - Critical pitfalls, troubleshooting, limits
72 
73## Architecture
74 
75```
76Internet → MX Records → Cloudflare Email Routing
77                            ├─ Routing Rules (dashboard)
78                            └─ Email Worker (your code)
79                                ├─ Forward to destination
80                                ├─ Reject with reason
81                                ├─ Store in R2/KV/D1
82                                └─ Send outbound (SendEmail)
83```
84 
85## See Also
86 
87- [Cloudflare Docs: Email Routing](https://developers.cloudflare.com/email-routing/)
88- [Cloudflare Docs: Email Workers](https://developers.cloudflare.com/email-routing/email-workers/)
89- [postal-mime npm package](https://www.npmjs.com/package/postal-mime)
90