Your mail could be failing, silently.Somewhere out there, a server is trying to send you an email over an encrypted connection, and it can't. Maybe your certificate expired. And you'd never know. TLS-RPT is the standard that finally tells you.
⬡ title-card, big "TLS-RPT", subtitle fades in: "TLS Reporting, RFC 8460"TLS-RPT stands for TLS Reporting. In plain terms, it's a way to say to every other mail server on the internet, "if you have trouble connecting to me securely, here's where to send me the report." It's defined in a spec called RFC 8460, and it's diagnostics only. It watches. It doesn't block anything.
⬡ record-cards, one card: _smtp._tls.thedeepsea.com TXT v=TLSRPTv1; rua=mailto:...TLS failures fail quietly.Here's why that matters. When a sending server can't set up a secure connection to you, it usually just gives up quietly. No bounce lands in anyone's inbox. From your side, everything looks fine. TLS-RPT turns that silence into a report you can actually read.
⬡ journey-flow, sender's envelope reaches your server, a lock icon flickers red, then a small "report" slip peels off and travels back to youThe way it works is simple. You publish one DNS record, and any sending server that supports TLS-RPT will mail you a daily summary. Not one message per failure, a single aggregate report per day, in a tidy JSON file, telling you how many connections succeeded and how many failed, and why.
⬡ code`
{
"policy": { "policy-domain": "thedeepsea.com" },
"summary": {
"total-successful-session-count": 9840,
"total-failure-session-count": 12
},
"failure-details": [
{ "result-type": "certificate-expired", "sending-mta-ip": "203.0.113.9" }
]
}
`
Now, one thing to be clear about. TLS-RPT does not encrypt or enforce anything itself. That's the job of its partner, MTA-STS, which is the record that says "you must use TLS with me." TLS-RPT is just the reporting companion. MTA-STS sets the rule, TLS-RPT tells you how it's going.
⬡ split-compare, LEFT "MTA-STS: enforces TLS" (lock clicks shut) vs RIGHT "TLS-RPT: reports on TLS" (clipboard fills with a daily log)⬡ title-cardSo TLS-RPT is your early warning system for encryption trouble. One DNS record, and the quiet failures stop being invisible.
If this cleared it up, subscribe, there's a whole authentication series. Next up: how TLS-RPT teams up with MTA-STS so you can turn enforcement on without breaking your mail.
⬡ end-card, Subscribe + Next: "How TLS-RPT works with MTA-STS" (003.007.002)What is TLS-RPT? TLS Reporting (RFC 8460) is the standard that tells you when other mail servers can't connect to your domain over encrypted TLS. You publish one DNS TXT record at _smtp._tls.yourdomain.com, and sending servers mail you a daily JSON summary of successful and failed TLS sessions, plus why any failed (like an expired certificate). It's diagnostics only. It reports, it doesn't enforce, that's MTA-STS's job.
In this video: the one-line definition, why TLS failures fail silently, the daily aggregate JSON report, and where TLS-RPT sits next to MTA-STS.
Note: TLS-RPT reports are about transport encryption. They're different from DMARC's rua/ruf reports, which are about authentication. Different problem, different reports.
Next: How TLS-RPT works with MTA-STS → [link 003.007.002]
Full written guide → reviewmyemails.com/emailalmanac/authentication-verification/tls-rpt-tls-reporting/what-is-tls-rpt
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