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On this page, learn how to configure email notifications for users in a self-managed Cortex instance. If you are looking for instructions on configuring notifications for users in a Cortex cloud workspace, please see Notifications.

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Set up SMTP

To set up email notifications for an on-prem build, you must pass environment variables or extend application properties with the following:
  1. SMTP server settings
    • spring.mail.host (SPRING_MAIL_HOST) - SMTP server host (for example, “smtp.google.com”, “email-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com”, or “smtp.postmarkapp.com”)
    • spring.mail.port (SPRING_MAIL_PORT) - SMTP server port (for example, 25, 465, or 587)
  2. Authorization
    • spring.mail.username (SPRING_MAIL_USERNAME) - SMTP server username
    • spring.mail.password (SPRING_MAIL_PASSWORD) - SMTP server password
    • spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.auth (SPRING_MAIL_PROPERTIES_MAIL_SMTP_AUTH) - true
  3. SSL
    • spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.starttls.enable (SPRING_MAIL_PROPERTIES_MAIL_SMTP_STARTTLS_ENABLE) - true
For example, using google SMTP server with SSL should look like this:
With environment variables:

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Set up from & reply-to addresses↗

To set up email notifications, it is required to set up a “from” address and, optionally, a “reply-to” address. To do that:
  • notifications.email.from (NOTIFICATIONS_EMAIL_FROM) - valid email address to be used as a sender address
  • notifications.email.replyTo (NOTIFICATIONS_EMAIL_REPLY_TO) - valid email address to be used as a reply-to address
For example this is what Cortex uses for its notifications:
With environment variables:
Last modified on September 9, 2026