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Getting into the inbox is a combination of infrastructure (DKIM, SPF, DMARC, IP reputation) and hygiene (clean lists, low complaint rates, honoring unsubscribes). Hiveku manages the infrastructure side. This page covers the hygiene side — suppressions, bounces, complaints, and the best practices that keep your sends landing.

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Suppression list

A suppression is an address Hiveku will not deliver to, even if you try to send. Suppressions exist to protect your reputation: repeatedly hitting addresses that bounce or complain is the fastest way to get your domain blocklisted.

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Auto-suppressions

Hiveku automatically adds an address to your suppression list when:
  • A message to it hard bounces (mailbox does not exist, domain does not resolve, etc.)
  • The recipient files a complaint (marks the message as spam via their mail client)
Auto-suppressions prevent sends to that address from that point forward. You still get a normal API response, but the message is dropped before ever reaching AWS SES.

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Manual suppressions

Add addresses manually when you have out-of-band signals you want to honor:
  • A user unsubscribed from your own preference center
  • A user emailed support asking to stop receiving mail
  • You want to block internal test addresses from production sends
Manage manual suppressions via the dashboard or the API: 
await hiveku.suppressions.create({
  email: "customer@example.com",
  reason: "unsubscribed via preference center",
});

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Global suppression list

Hiveku also maintains a global suppression list shared across all customers — addresses that have repeatedly complained or bounced across the platform. You cannot override global suppressions. They protect platform-wide reputation.

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Bounces

Bounces fall into two categories:
  • Hard bounce — Permanent failure (550 User unknown, invalid domain, mailbox full for days). Auto-suppressed.
  • Soft bounce — Temporary failure (421 Try again later, mailbox full briefly, rate-limited by receiver). Retried automatically; not suppressed.
Target a hard bounce rate below 5%. Above 5%, receivers start throttling or blocking your mail, and Hiveku may pause sending from the affected domain.

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Complaints

Complaints arrive via ARF (Abuse Reporting Format) feedback loops that Hiveku maintains with major mailbox providers. Common complaint types:
  • abuse — Recipient marked as spam
  • fraud — Phishing or scam report
  • virus — Mail flagged as malware
  • other — Unspecified
Target a complaint rate below 0.1%. Above 0.3%, expect immediate deliverability degradation. Above 0.5%, expect blocks.

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View and manage suppressions

Go to Settings > Email > Suppressions to:
  • Search for a specific address
  • Filter by reason (hard bounce, complaint, manual)
  • Export the list to CSV
  • Remove an address (only for auto-suppressions you are certain have been resolved, e.g., you confirmed the mailbox is valid again)
Only remove an auto-suppressed address if you have concrete evidence the underlying problem is fixed. Removing and resending to an address that still complains or bounces damages reputation faster than the original event did.

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Best practices

When a user subscribes, send a confirmation email with a verification link and require them to click it before their address is added to your list. Double opt-in keeps typos, bots, and hostile sign-ups off your list — the #1 source of spam-trap hits.
Target < 5% hard bounce and < 0.1% complaint. The domain reputation dashboard surfaces both. Set up bounce and complaint webhooks so you can react in real time — a spike almost always points to a list issue or a bad template.
A brand-new domain has zero reputation. Start at a few hundred sends per day and ramp over 2-4 weeks. If you send from a dedicated IP, Hiveku handles IP warmup automatically, but domain warmup is still your responsibility.
Start with p=quarantine for a few weeks, review the aggregate reports sent to your rua address, then move to p=reject once you are confident all legitimate mail is aligned. A strict DMARC policy is now the de facto requirement for Gmail and Yahoo bulk sender compliance. See Domains for DMARC setup.
Never use @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, or any other free mailbox provider as the from address. Their DMARC policies explicitly reject mail that is not sent from their servers. Use a verified subdomain you own, like noreply@mail.acme.com.

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Further reading

  • Domains — DKIM, SPF, DMARC setup
  • Dedicated IPs — When to isolate your sending IP
  • Webhooks — React to bounces and complaints in real time