> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.nilbenchmarks.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Email Service

> Console logging in development, SMTP in production. Invitation, password reset, and welcome emails.

## How It Works

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

### 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...
============================================================
```

### Production Mode

Set these environment variables to enable real SMTP delivery:

```env theme={null}
SMTP_HOST=smtp.sendgrid.net
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_TLS=true
SMTP_USER=apikey
SMTP_PASSWORD=SG.xxxxx
SMTP_FROM=noreply@nilbenchmark.com
```

## Email Types

| Trigger          | Subject                    | Content                                   |
| ---------------- | -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| 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             |

## Adding New Email Types

```python theme={null}
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.