Sending Emails

Here's how to connect different frameworks and languages to MailCade.

The key thing: point your app to localhost:1025. No authentication, no encryption.

#Laravel

Add this to your .env file:

MAIL_HOST=localhost
MAIL_PORT=1025
MAIL_USERNAME=null
MAIL_PASSWORD=null
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=null

Now send an email like normal:

Mail::to('[email protected]')->send(new WelcomeEmail());

It'll show up in MailCade instead of actually sending.

#Node.js

With Nodemailer:

const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
 
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
  host: 'localhost',
  port: 1025
});
 
transporter.sendMail({
  from: '[email protected]',
  to: '[email protected]',
  subject: 'Test Email',
  html: '<p>Hello from Node!</p>'
});

#Python

Using smtplib:

import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
 
msg = MIMEText('<p>Hello from Python!</p>', 'html')
msg['Subject'] = 'Test Email'
msg['From'] = '[email protected]'
msg['To'] = '[email protected]'
 
server = smtplib.SMTP('localhost', 1025)
server.send_message(msg)
server.quit()

In Django, update your settings.py:

EMAIL_HOST = 'localhost'
EMAIL_PORT = 1025
EMAIL_USE_TLS = False

Then send emails normally:

from django.core.mail import send_mail
 
send_mail(
    'Test Subject',
    'Test message.',
    '[email protected]',
    ['[email protected]'],
)

#Ruby on Rails

In config/environments/development.rb:

config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
  address: 'localhost',
  port: 1025
}

Then send emails as usual:

UserMailer.welcome_email(@user).deliver_now

#PHP

ini_set('SMTP', 'localhost');
ini_set('smtp_port', 1025);
 
mail(
    '[email protected]',
    'Test Email',
    'Hello from PHP!',
    'From: [email protected]'
);

#Go

package main
 
import "net/smtp"
 
func main() {
    from := "[email protected]"
    to := []string{"[email protected]"}
    msg := []byte("Subject: Test\r\n\r\nHello from Go!")
 
    smtp.SendMail("localhost:1025", nil, from, to, msg)
}

#Java

With JavaMail:

Properties props = new Properties();
props.put("mail.smtp.host", "localhost");
props.put("mail.smtp.port", "1025");
 
Session session = Session.getInstance(props);
Message message = new MimeMessage(session);
message.setFrom(new InternetAddress("[email protected]"));
message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO,
    InternetAddress.parse("[email protected]"));
message.setSubject("Test Email");
message.setText("Hello from Java!");
 
Transport.send(message);

#Quick test with cURL

Want to test without writing code? Use curl:

curl smtp://localhost:1025 \
  --mail-from [email protected] \
  --mail-rcpt [email protected] \
  --upload-file - <<EOF
Subject: Test from cURL
 
If you see this, it works!
EOF

#From Docker containers

If your app runs in Docker, localhost won't work. Use host.docker.internal instead:

# docker-compose.yml
environment:
  MAIL_HOST: host.docker.internal
  MAIL_PORT: 1025

On Linux, add this too:

extra_hosts:
  - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"

#Troubleshooting

Emails not showing up? Check these:

Make sure MailCade is running (sidebar shows "● Running")
Double-check you're using localhost:1025
Turn off TLS/SSL in your app config
Turn off SMTP authentication
Try the curl command above to isolate the issue

Still stuck? The troubleshooting guide has more solutions.

#What's next

Now that emails are flowing in, learn how to inspect them or check out testing workflows for specific scenarios like password resets.