# Mailbox handshake

A mailbox handshake is an SMTP conversation opened with a domain's mail server as far as the RCPT TO step and abandoned before any message is sent.

Date: 2026-09-10

A mailbox handshake is an SMTP conversation opened with a domain's mail server as far as the `RCPT TO` step and abandoned before any message is sent. The server's response to that one command is what says whether a mailbox exists. No mail is transmitted, so nobody receives anything.

## What Spaw answers

`smtp_checked` says whether the handshake ran, `smtp_checked_at` when, `mailbox_exists` what it established, and `smtp_reason` why it could not establish anything when it could not — [`greylisted`](/docs/reasons/greylisted), `timeout`, `no_connect`, `mx_unreachable`, `provider_unavailable` and the rest.

## When it runs, and when it does not

The handshake is the only part of an email lookup that leaves this server, so it is gated deliberately. It runs only when the domain's MX accepts mail and no free signal has already settled the address: a disposable domain, a typo-squat or a local part the provider's own rules reject is answered from DNS and open lists alone and never leaves Spaw.

A mailbox the handshake could not confirm is reported `risky` with the reason [`unverified`](/docs/reasons/unverified). It is never reported deliverable — that word is reserved for a mailbox a server confirmed.

Reference: https://spaw.co/glossary/mailbox-handshake