Channels in SendOps map directly to **AWS SES configuration sets**. They control how SES processes and tracks emails sent through them, including event tracking, engagement tracking settings, and sending behavior. Identities are assigned to channels, and multiple identities can share a single channel.



## What is a channel?

A channel represents an AWS SES configuration set within SendOps. Each channel determines how emails sent through it are tracked and processed by SES. Rather than managing configuration sets directly in the AWS console, SendOps lets you create and manage them from the dashboard with a clear visual interface.

Each channel has:

- A **Purpose** badge — one of **Default**, **Transactional**, **Marketing**, **Onboarding**, or **Custom** — indicating the type of email traffic it handles
- A **Status** — **Enabled** or **Disabled** — derived from the channel's `sending_enabled` setting, controlling whether the channel is available for sending
- A **Sync status** — **Synced**, **Syncing**, or **Error** — reflecting whether the channel is in sync with its corresponding SES configuration set in AWS

## How channels relate to identities

Identities (domains and email addresses) are **assigned to** channels. This assignment determines which SES configuration set is used when email is sent from that identity.

Key points about the relationship:

- **Multiple identities can share a single channel.** For example, `notifications@example.com` and `receipts@example.com` can both be assigned to a "Transactional" channel.
- Identities are assigned to channels from the **Identities** page — both domain identities and email identities have their own **Channel** dropdown column in their respective tables.
- Reassigning an identity to a different channel changes the SES configuration set used for that identity's outgoing email.

## Why use channels?

Channels let you separate your email traffic by purpose and apply different tracking and sending configurations to each stream:

### By email type

| Channel | Purpose | Example identities |
|---|---|---|
| **Transactional** | Transactional | `notifications@example.com`, `receipts@example.com` |
| **Marketing** | Marketing | `campaigns@example.com`, `newsletter@example.com` |
| **Onboarding** | Onboarding | `welcome@example.com` |

### By product or service

If your company runs multiple products, each product can have its own channel with appropriate tracking settings and event destinations.

### By environment

Separate staging and production traffic into different channels to keep test data out of your production metrics.


  After your first domain is verified during onboarding, SendOps automatically provisions four channels: **Default**, **Transactional**, **Marketing**, and **Onboarding**. Any identities that are not explicitly assigned to a channel will use the Default channel. You can change which channel is the default via **Set as Default** on the channel detail page. The default channel cannot be deleted — there is always at least one channel in your workspace.


## What channels control

Each channel's detail page exposes the following settings, which map to the underlying SES configuration set:

- **Sending enabled/disabled** — controls whether sending is allowed through this channel.
- **TLS policy** — **Require** or **Optional** — determines whether SES enforces TLS when delivering email.
- **Max delivery duration** — from 5 minutes to 14 hours — how long SES will attempt delivery before giving up.
- **Auto validation threshold** — **SES Managed**, **High**, **Medium**, or **Off** — controls automatic email address validation.
- **Suppression override** — bounce and complaint suppression rules that override the account-level suppression list.
- **Engagement tracking** — whether open and click tracking is enabled for emails sent through the channel.
- **Event destinations** — auto-configured EventBridge destinations where SES event data is routed so SendOps can power your reports and notifications.

## Specifying a channel when sending

Because channels map to SES configuration sets, specifying a channel is an AWS SES concept — you tell SES which configuration set to use, and SendOps resolves it to the corresponding channel. There are two ways to do this:


  <TabPanel>
    When you assign a channel to a domain or email identity on the **Identities** page, SendOps configures SES so that every email sent from that identity automatically uses the channel's configuration set. No code changes are required — SES applies the configuration set for you based on the sending identity.

    This is the simplest approach and works regardless of how you send (SES API, SMTP interface, or any SDK).
  </TabPanel>
  <TabPanel>
    If you call the SES API directly, you can explicitly pass the configuration set name in the `X-SES-CONFIGURATION-SET` header. The channel detail page displays the exact header value to use, for example:

    ```
    X-SES-CONFIGURATION-SET: sesmail-acme--transactional
    ```

    The configuration set name follows the format `sesmail-{namespace}--{channel-slug}` (note the double dash). The `{namespace}` segment is unique to your workspace, so channels never collide even when multiple workspaces share one AWS account. Always copy the exact value from the channel detail page rather than typing it by hand.

    This overrides any identity-level assignment and is useful when you want the same identity to send through different channels depending on the type of message.
  </TabPanel>



  If an identity has no channel assigned and no `X-SES-CONFIGURATION-SET` header is provided, the email is sent without a configuration set. To ensure events are captured in SendOps, always assign a channel to your identities or include the header in your API calls.


## Channels and analytics

Reports in SendOps can be filtered by channel. This means you can:

- Compare bounce rates between your transactional and marketing channels
- Track open and click rates for a specific channel's email traffic
- Monitor complaint rates per channel to catch issues early
- Set up [notifications](/notifications/notification-types) scoped to a specific channel

## What's next?

Learn how to create, configure, and manage your channels in [Managing Channels](/channels/managing-channels), or read about [How Email Flows](/sending-email/email-flow) to understand how SendOps captures events from your SES sending.