Email setup

To use Gitea’s built-in Email support, update the app.ini config file [mailer] section:

Sendmail version

Use the operating system’s sendmail command instead of SMTP. This is common on Linux servers.
Note: For use in the official Gitea Docker image, please configure with the SMTP version.

[mailer]
ENABLED       = true
FROM          = gitea@mydomain.com
MAILER_TYPE   = sendmail
SENDMAIL_PATH = /usr/sbin/sendmail

SMTP version

[mailer]
ENABLED        = true
FROM           = gitea@mydomain.com
MAILER_TYPE    = smtp
HOST           = mail.mydomain.com:587
IS_TLS_ENABLED = true
USER           = gitea@mydomain.com
PASSWD         = `password`

  • Restart Gitea for the configuration changes to take effect.

  • To send a test email to validate the settings, go to Gitea > Site Administration > Configuration > SMTP Mailer Configuration.

For the full list of options check the Config Cheat Sheet

  • Please note: authentication is only supported when the SMTP server communication is encrypted with TLS or HOST=localhost. TLS encryption can be through:
    • Via the server supporting TLS through STARTTLS - usually provided on port 587. (Also known as Opportunistic TLS.)
    • SMTPS connection (SMTP over transport layer security) via the default port 465.
    • Forced SMTPS connection with IS_TLS_ENABLED=true. (These are both known as Implicit TLS.)
  • This is due to protections imposed by the Go internal libraries against STRIPTLS attacks.

Gmail

The following configuration should work with GMail’s SMTP server:

[mailer]
ENABLED        = true
HOST           = smtp.gmail.com:465
FROM           = example@gmail.com
USER           = example@gmail.com
PASSWD         = ***
MAILER_TYPE    = smtp
IS_TLS_ENABLED = true
HELO_HOSTNAME  = example.com