Getting Started

Installation

MailLaser provides multiple installation methods. Docker is recommended for production deployments. Pre-compiled binaries work well for quick evaluation, and building from source gives you full control.

Pull the official image from GitHub Container Registry:

docker pull ghcr.io/govcraft/mail-laser:latest

To pin a specific version:

docker pull ghcr.io/govcraft/mail-laser:v2.0.0

Run the container with your configuration:

docker run -d \
  --name mail-laser \
  -p 2525:2525 \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -e MAIL_LASER_TARGET_EMAILS="alerts@example.com,support@example.com" \
  -e MAIL_LASER_WEBHOOK_URL="https://your-api.com/webhook" \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/govcraft/mail-laser:latest

The Docker image is built from scratch with a statically-linked musl binary, resulting in a minimal image that contains only the binary and CA certificates for HTTPS.

Bind addresses in Docker

When running in Docker, leave MAIL_LASER_BIND_ADDRESS and MAIL_LASER_HEALTH_BIND_ADDRESS at their default value of 0.0.0.0. Port mapping (-p) handles external access. Changing the bind address inside the container will prevent Docker port forwarding from working.

Pre-compiled binaries

Download the binary for your platform from the GitHub Releases page.

Available platforms:

  • mail_laser-linux-x86_64 -- Linux (x86_64)
  • mail_laser-macos-x86_64 -- macOS (Intel)
  • mail_laser-macos-aarch64 -- macOS (Apple Silicon)

Linux and macOS

chmod +x ./mail_laser-linux-x86_64

MAIL_LASER_TARGET_EMAILS="alerts@example.com" \
MAIL_LASER_WEBHOOK_URL="https://your-api.com/webhook" \
./mail_laser-linux-x86_64

You can also place configuration in a .env file in the same directory as the binary. See Configuration for details.

Nix

MailLaser includes a flake.nix for reproducible development environments. Enter the development shell with all necessary tools:

git clone https://github.com/Govcraft/mail-laser.git
cd mail-laser
nix develop

The Nix shell provides the Rust stable toolchain, OpenSSL, and swaks for testing.

Build from source

Building from source requires the Rust toolchain (1.70.0 or later). Install it from rustup.rs.

git clone https://github.com/Govcraft/mail-laser.git
cd mail-laser
cargo build --release

The compiled binary is at target/release/mail_laser. Run it directly:

MAIL_LASER_TARGET_EMAILS="alerts@example.com" \
MAIL_LASER_WEBHOOK_URL="https://your-api.com/webhook" \
./target/release/mail-laser

Release profile

The release build is optimized for binary size:

  • opt-level = "z" -- Aggressive size optimization
  • lto = true -- Link-time optimization across crates
  • codegen-units = 1 -- Single codegen unit for better optimization
  • strip = true -- Debug symbols removed

Verify the installation

Regardless of installation method, verify that MailLaser is running by checking the health endpoint:

curl http://localhost:8080/health

A 200 OK response with an empty body confirms the service is operational. Any other path returns 404 Not Found.

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Configuration