Email Validation

Every lead is validated through a multi-stage pipeline before any send is allowed

What Superkabe Validation Does

Every lead that lands in Superkabe — from a Clay webhook, an API call, or a CSV upload — is run through the same validation pipeline before it can enter a campaign. Invalid, disposable, and high-risk addresses are blocked at the door so they never reach your sending mailboxes. This is the single biggest contributor to keeping bounce rates below the 3% threshold that triggers an auto-pause downstream.

Validation runs as a five-stage pipeline. Each stage is gated on the previous one — if a check rejects an address, the later stages are skipped. The first four stages are Superkabe-internal and free; the fifth stage (MillionVerifier API) is reserved for risky leads on Growth and Scale tiers.

Validation Status Meanings

Every validated email returns one of five statuses. The status determines how the Health Gate routes the lead.

Credit Consumption Rules

Stages 1 through 4 of the pipeline (syntax, MX, disposable, catch-all) are Superkabe-internal and consume no credits. Only the MillionVerifier call in stage 5 consumes credit, and only on Growth and Scale tiers. Each MillionVerifier call costs 1 credit. Re-validating the same email within 30 days returns the cached result for free.

Tier Interaction with the Pipeline

Not every tier runs the full five stages. Starter and Pro tiers stop at stage 4 (catch-all detection). Growth and Scale extend the pipeline to stage 5, but only for leads that came out of stage 4 flagged as risky — clean valid leads never trigger an API call.

Health Gate Routing

After validation completes, the lead is handed to the Health Gate, which classifies it as GREEN, YELLOW, or RED based on the validation status plus domain-level engagement signals.

Batch Behavior

The validation API accepts batches of up to 5,000 emails per call. Batches are processed asynchronously — the POST returns immediately with a batch_id, and you poll the results endpoint to retrieve org-wide breakdowns by status.

Re-validation Rules

Superkabe automatically re-validates leads whose last validation was more than 30 days ago when they are added to a new campaign. This prevents stale data from leaking into a fresh send. You can also trigger manual re-validation at any time by re-submitting the email through the API.

• Within 30 days: cached result returns instantly. No credit consumed.
• Beyond 30 days: full pipeline re-runs. Stage 5 charges 1 credit if the lead is risky on Growth/Scale.
• Manual re-validation: hit POST /api/v1/leads/validate with the same email — the cache is bypassed only when you set force: true.

What Blocks or Flags an Address

API Reference

Validation endpoints are available on Growth and Scale tiers. All requests require anAuthorization header carrying a live API key.

POST /api/v1/leads/validate

Submit up to 5,000 emails for validation. Returns a batch ID immediately.

curl -X POST https://api.superkabe.com/api/v1/leads/validate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_abc123..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "emails": [
      "alice@acme.com",
      "bob@example.io",
      "info@mailinator.com"
    ]
  }'

{
  "batch_id": "batch_8f3c1a92",
  "submitted": 3,
  "cached": 1,
  "queued": 2,
  "status": "processing"
}

GET /api/v1/validation/results

Poll for completed results. Returns org-wide breakdown by status plus per-email detail.

curl https://api.superkabe.com/api/v1/validation/results?batch_id=batch_8f3c1a92 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_abc123..."

{
  "batch_id": "batch_8f3c1a92",
  "status": "complete",
  "summary": {
    "valid": 1,
    "risky": 1,
    "invalid": 1,
    "unknown": 0,
    "pending": 0
  },
  "results": [
    { "email": "alice@acme.com",      "status": "valid",   "health": "GREEN",  "credits_used": 0 },
    { "email": "bob@example.io",      "status": "risky",   "health": "YELLOW", "credits_used": 1 },
    { "email": "info@mailinator.com", "status": "invalid", "health": "RED",    "credits_used": 0 }
  ],
  "credits_remaining": 59997
}

Validation as Bounce Defense

Downstream of validation, every campaign is monitored for bounces. If a campaign exceeds a 3% bounce rate after 60+ sends, the bounce protection auto-pauses it and triggers the 5-phase recovery pipeline on the affected mailboxes. In a healthy Superkabe deployment, that pause should rarely fire on validation-related bounces — invalid emails shouldn't have shipped in the first place because the validator blocked them at ingestion.