Farscry > Referral Team Projects > td-72aac8
td-72aac8

Verify: candymail.com tag is fully removable when custom email is configured

in_progress task P2 Parent: td-00e401
Created Apr 16, 2026 7:44 PM Updated Apr 18, 2026 9:05 PM
Description
**Why this matters:** Identity-based brand campaign (Q2 candidate, see projects/shadow-marketing-team/ops/campaign-brief/2026-04-16-brand-identity-product-input.md) targets merchants who care about how RC visually shows up in their referral journey. Validation research surfaced Authors (Intercom 215471193633936, 2025-10-07) — merchant completed DKIM + custom domain setup but was still hitting the 'via candymail.com' attribution tag. If the campaign attracts more brand-conscious merchants and they hit the same gap after configuring, we accelerate post-sale churn risk in exactly the segment we're trying to win. **Scope (Reid grooms, then hands to Glenn's team):** 1. Reproduce Authors' configuration: DKIM + custom domain set, custom email enabled. 2. Verify whether 'via candymail.com' tag still appears in any outgoing email surface. 3. If yes: identify the surfaces where it persists and whether it's removable via existing config or requires engineering work. 4. Output: short note on Reid → Glenn handoff with reproduction steps + scope of fix if needed. **Source signal:** 2026-04-16 selling-better-sync 'thinking bigger for marketing' conversation → Q2 brand-identity campaign scoping → merchant-kb validation research (Authors support transcript). Reid is grooming this so Glenn's team receives a clean engineering ticket. **Out of scope:** the broader '/ref/' landing page brand coverage gap (separate workstream).
Handoff
Done
Session Log (5 entries)
Apr 16, 7:44 PM
lg-16b443f6 ses_683334
progress
Started work
Apr 16, 7:44 PM
lg-ccaf04e3 ses_683334
progress
Created from brand-identity campaign validation research. Authors merchant (Intercom 215471193633936) hit the via candymail.com tag persistence after completing DKIM + custom domain setup. Risk: post-sale churn for merchants attracted by Q2 brand-identity campaign. Reid will groom; engineering verification handed to Glenn's team.
Apr 16, 9:54 PM
lg-1f2b6d0a ses_683334
progress
Codebase-researcher finding 2026-04-16: the via candymail.com tag is controlled by the sendmail_via_candymail bitmask flag (separate from DKIM, email_settings, and white-label add-ons). Authors completed DKIM + custom domain setup but emails still routed through CandyMail. Re-pointing scope: verify (1) what conditions cause sendmail_via_candymail to be true vs false for a given client, (2) whether merchants who complete DKIM setup get their flag flipped automatically or whether it's a manual config, (3) what surfaces still show 'via candymail.com' even after the flag is correctly set. This is now the actual scope for Glenn's team.
Apr 16, 9:54 PM
lg-83dd75c2 ses_683334
progress
Related finding: remove_powered_by_anafore add-on (ID 4) does not actually remove RC branding from Classic theme email templates - the 'Powered by RC' image is hardcoded with no conditional gate in referral_email.liquid, reward_successful_email.liquid, and others. Separate workstream for Glenn's team if we want to honestly sell 'RC branding removed' for the Q2 brand-identity campaign. May warrant its own td.
Apr 16, 9:59 PM
lg-fc048b27 ses_683334
progress
Update from Zach 2026-04-16: white_label add-on (ID 1) is deprecated, not in use. Classic email templates are no longer the merchant default - current themes ship with RC branding removed. So the previously-flagged Classic email hardcoded 'Powered by RC' image gap is moot. The remaining real issue is the sendmail_via_candymail routing flag, framed by Zach as 'minor.' Re-scoping td: verify what conditions cause the flag to be true vs false after a merchant completes custom email setup, and whether Glenn's team can ensure it's flipped consistently. Lower priority than originally framed but still worth closing for the brand-identity campaign's email-domain proof point to land cleanly.
Git State
Started d4b227a (master) Current e05a42a (master)
Sessions Involved