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How It Works

The email service (backend/app/services/email.py) has two modes:

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Development Mode (default)

When SMTP_HOST is empty (the default), all emails are printed to the backend console: 
============================================================
📧 EMAIL TO: admin@bluemountain.edu
   SUBJECT: NIL Benchmark - Reset Your Password
   BODY:
Hello Admin,

You requested a password reset...
============================================================

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Production Mode

Set these environment variables to enable real SMTP delivery: 
SMTP_HOST=smtp.sendgrid.net
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_TLS=true
SMTP_USER=apikey
SMTP_PASSWORD=SG.xxxxx
SMTP_FROM=noreply@nilbenchmark.com

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Email Types

TriggerSubjectContent
User invited”You’ve Been Invited”Login URL, email, temp password
Forgot password”Reset Your Password”Reset link with token (1-hour expiry)
Password changed”Password Changed”Confirmation, contact admin if unexpected
Signup”Welcome to NIL Benchmark”Institution name, plan tier, login URL
Tier upgrade”Access Granted”New tier features description

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Adding New Email Types

from app.services.email import send_email

await send_email(
    to="user@school.edu",
    subject="NIL Benchmark - Subject",
    body="Plain text body...",
    html="<h1>Optional HTML body</h1>",  # optional
)
Email sending is async but non-blocking — failures are logged but don’t crash the request.