# Accept the cost of publishing, so the record is offered

`POST /v1/domain-auth/domains/{domain}/readiness/acknowledge`

- Authentication: required (Bearer token)
- Required scope: `api.domain_auth.manage`

Records that a person was shown what tightening this domain's DMARC
policy will cost them, and agreed to it.

Some of a domain's failing mail is its own, broken on the way by a
forwarder the customer does not control. That mail is not a fault they
can fix, so it does not block the verdict — and precisely because
nothing is judging it, nothing else would ever make them look at it.
This endpoint is what makes it visible: a domain in the
`ready_pending_acknowledgement` state has met every criterion and is
offered no record until the cost is accepted.

**There is no request body and no figure to send.** The server takes the
cost from the domain's current assessment — the same volumes, the same
named senders and the same sentence `readiness.cost.sentence` returns —
and freezes them onto the domain's timeline. A client-supplied number
would record what the client chose to send rather than what the customer
was shown, and the record would then say somebody accepted a cost they
never saw.

**It records a person, so a client-credentials token is refused**, the
same way `decideDomainAuthSource` refuses one. Re-authorize with a
user-delegated token.

**Only the pending state has anything to acknowledge.** A domain with
blocking criteria outstanding, one already `ready`, and one that would
cost nothing to publish all return 422.

An acknowledgement covers ONE RUNG. Accepting a `p=quarantine` cost is
not accepting a `p=reject` one — same mail, different consequence — so
the next rung asks again. So does a cost that has since grown by more
than half AND by at least 100 messages over the window.

Reversible in the only sense that matters: it publishes nothing and
changes no DNS. It is classified non-destructive and a test-environment
credential may call it. What it unlocks is a string for a person to
paste; no endpoint on this API publishes DNS.

## Path parameters

- `domain` (string, required) — The domain, by NAME (`acme.com`). A UUID is also accepted. Matched case-insensitively, and scoped to the calling org — a domain belonging to another org is a 404, never a 403.

## Example request

```bash
curl -X POST 'https://api.sendops.dev/v1/domain-auth/domains/string/readiness/acknowledge' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDOPS_API_KEY"
```

## Responses

### 200 — What was recorded, and the ladder as it stands once it counts

Content type: `application/json`

```json
{
  "acknowledgement": {
    "acknowledged_at": "2026-05-17T20:00:00Z",
    "actor_email": "string",
    "target_policy": "",
    "relay_broken_messages": 0,
    "relay_broken_sources": 0,
    "relay_broken_label": "string",
    "reviewed_messages": 0,
    "reviewed_sources": 0,
    "sources": [
      "string"
    ],
    "sources_truncated": true,
    "window_days": 0,
    "sentence": "string"
  },
  "readiness": {
    "current_policy": "no_record",
    "target_policy": "no_record",
    "ready": true,
    "ready_pending_acknowledgement": true,
    "cost": {
      "reviewed_messages": 0,
      "reviewed_sources": 0,
      "reviewed_per_day": 0,
      "relay_broken_messages": 0,
      "relay_broken_sources": 0,
      "relay_broken_label": "string",
      "acknowledgement_required": true,
      "acknowledged": true,
      "acknowledgement_stale": true,
      "acknowledged_messages": 0,
      "sentence": "string"
    },
    "record_diff": [
      {
        "tag": "string",
        "kind": "added",
        "from": "string",
        "to": "string",
        "note": "string"
      }
    ],
    "ttl_advice": {
      "record": "string",
      "seconds": 0,
      "why": "string"
    },
    "at_strongest": true,
    "needs_record": true,
    "awaiting_first_report": true,
    "regressed": true,
    "regressed_from": "none",
    "policy_history_unavailable": true,
    "criteria": [
      {
        "key": "coverage_days",
        "label": "string",
        "met": true,
        "actual": "string",
        "required": "string",
        "detail": "string",
        "blocking": true
      }
    ],
    "pass_rate": {
      "raw": 0,
      "adjusted": 0,
      "messages": 0,
      "authenticable_messages": 0,
      "excluded_messages": 0,
      "excluded_sources": 0,
      "campaign_excluded": true,
      "disowned_messages": 0,
      "disowned_sources": 0,
      "disowned_excluded": true,
      "relay_broken_messages": 0,
      "relay_broken_sources": 0,
      "relay_broken_label": "string",
      "relay_broken_excluded": true
    },
    "top_failure_contributor": {
      "label": "string",
      "class": "sendops",
      "failures": 0,
      "share": 0
    },
    "impact": {
      "target_policy": "no_record",
      "sources": [
        {
          "group_kind": "provider",
          "group_key": "string",
          "label": "string",
          "class": "sendops",
          "review_state": "none",
          "failures": 0,
          "volume": 0,
          "last_seen": "2026-05-17T20:00:00Z"
        }
      ],
      "would_affect_messages": 0,
      "campaign_messages_excluded": 0,
      "rejected_messages_excluded": 0,
      "unmeasured_sources": 0,
      "truncated": true,
      "reviewed_messages": 0,
      "reviewed_sources": 0,
      "unreviewed_messages": 0,
      "unreviewed_sources": 0,
      "unreviewed_below_floor_messages": 0,
      "unreviewed_below_floor_sources": 0,
      "relay_broken_messages": 0,
      "relay_broken_sources": 0,
      "relay_broken_label": "string",
      "measured_sources": 0,
      "unmeasured_with_volume_sources": 0,
      "measured_share": 0,
      "completeness": "complete",
      "unmeasured_max_messages": 0,
      "evidence_capped": true,
      "last_measured_at": "string"
    },
    "enforcement": {
      "policy": "quarantine",
      "receivers_reporting": 0,
      "receivers_applying": 0,
      "messages_failed": 0,
      "messages_actioned": 0
    },
    "recommendation": {
      "moment": "",
      "record": "string",
      "record_diff": [
        {
          "tag": "string",
          "kind": "added",
          "from": "string",
          "to": "string",
          "note": "string"
        }
      ],
      "ttl_advice": {
        "record": "string",
        "seconds": 0,
        "why": "string"
      },
      "watch_window_days": 0,
      "watch_window_ends_at": "2026-05-17T20:00:00Z",
      "rollback_record": "string",
      "rollback_reason": "string",
      "headline": "string",
      "detail": "string"
    },
    "record_to_publish": "string",
    "recipient_impact": "string",
    "next_action": {
      "title": "string",
      "body": "string",
      "doc_url": "string",
      "source_label": "string",
      "share": 0
    },
    "alignment_breadth": {
      "measured": true,
      "both_messages": 0,
      "dkim_only_messages": 0,
      "spf_only_messages": 0,
      "passing_messages": 0,
      "both_share": 0,
      "dkim_only_share": 0,
      "spf_only_share": 0,
      "fragile": true,
      "suite_signing_as_itself": "string",
      "sentence": "string"
    },
    "summary": "string"
  }
}
```

### 401 — Missing, malformed, or unknown API key

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 403 — Key lacks the required scope or plan limit violated

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 404 — Resource not found

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 422 — Query parameter or path value failed validation

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 429 — Per-org rate limit exceeded

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 500 — Unexpected server-side failure. The `code` is `internal_error`. The
`request_id` field can be quoted to SendOps support to investigate.

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```