Add support for configuration_set_name parameter in SES v2

[marckohlbrugge]

Feature Request

Summary

The aws-actionmailer-ses gem's SES v2 implementation does not support passing configuration_set_name to the AWS SES v2 API, which is needed for event tracking, reputation monitoring, and delivery customization.

Current Behavior

The gem only passes content, from_email_address, and destination parameters to Aws::SESV2::Client#send_email:

# lib/aws/action_mailer/ses_v2/mailer.rb
def deliver!(message)
  params = { content: { raw: { data: message.to_s } } }
  params[:from_email_address] = from_email_address(message)
  params[:destination] = {
    to_addresses: to_addresses(message),
    cc_addresses: message.cc,
    bcc_addresses: message.bcc
  }

  @client.send_email(params)
end

Expected Behavior

The gem should support passing configuration_set_name to enable event tracking, similar to how it supports custom ARN headers.

Proposed Solution

Option 1: Global setting in ses_v2_settings

config.action_mailer.ses_v2_settings = {
  region: 'us-east-1',
  configuration_set_name: 'my-config-set'
}

Option 2: Per-mailer header (though this may not work with SES v2 API)

class MyMailer < ApplicationMailer
  default headers: { 'X-SES-CONFIGURATION-SET' => 'my-config-set' }
end

Option 3: Both
Support both global and per-message configuration sets, with per-message overriding global.

Workaround

Currently, the only workaround is to set a default configuration set on the verified identity in the AWS SES Console, which applies to ALL emails from that domain.

AWS SDK Reference

The AWS SDK for Ruby SESv2 Client supports configuration_set_name as a parameter:

client.send_email({
  configuration_set_name: "ConfigurationSetName",
  # ... other params
})

Use Case

Configuration sets are essential for:

• Event tracking (bounces, complaints, deliveries, opens, clicks)
• Reputation monitoring
• Dedicated IP pool management
• Custom MAIL FROM domains
• Different tracking settings per email type (transactional vs marketing)

Impact

Without this feature, users cannot:

• Track email events per mailer/email type
• Use different IP pools for different email types
• Have granular control over email delivery settings

Would appreciate support for this feature! Happy to contribute a PR if there's interest.

[jterapin]

Thank you for the feature request. I agree that this is a feature that we should implement. We'll add this to our backlog but If you're interested in contributing, we'd welcome a pull request.

[jterapin]

Hi @marckohlbrugge

Thank you for the pull request! I did some testing on my end to see what currently works without gem changes (I was curious to see if other headers worked accordingly). I was able to do the following:

Using default headers

class MyMailer < ApplicationMailer
  default 'X-SES-CONFIGURATION-SET' => 'my-config-set'

  def welcome_email
    mail(to: user.email, subject: 'Welcome')
    # Automatically uses 'my-config-set'
  end
end

Per-email override

def special_email
  headers['X-SES-CONFIGURATION-SET'] = 'special-config'
  mail(to: user.email, subject: 'Special Email')
end

Could you try these approaches and let us know if they work for your use case?

Regarding global configuration_set_name, this would be an one-way door decision that will affect the gem's configuration API, so we're holding off on adding this feature for now. However, we'll keep this issue open to track interest.

[marckohlbrugge]

Hi @jterapin, Thanks for looking into this! I actually tried the X-SES-CONFIGURATION-SET header approach before opening the issue, but for some reason it didn't work at the time. I just tried it again and it works fine now. I'm not sure what the problem was originally. You're right that the gem already supports this, so the PR seems redundant now. Feel free to close both the issue and PR. Thanks for your help!

[github-actions]

This issue is now closed. Comments on closed issues are hard for our team to see.
If you need more assistance, please open a new issue that references this one.

[shmokmt]

Hi, @jterapin

I would like to make the same request regarding this issue.
I'll leave it to the maintainers to decide when to implement it, but I would appreciate it if you could reopen the issue.

[jterapin]

Hi @shmokmt

I want to confirm - are you looking for the global configuration_set_name configuration option that was mentioned
earlier?

Regarding global configuration_set_name, this would be an one-way door decision that will affect the gem's configuration API, so we're holding off on adding this feature for now. However, we'll keep this issue open to track interest.

Or is there a different use case that the X-SES-CONFIGURATION-SET header approach doesn't address? Just want to make sure that I'm on the same page.

[shmokmt]

@jterapin
Thank you for reply.
Yes, I'm looking for the global configuration_set_name option.

In our use case, we want to apply the same configuration set to all emails sent from our
application for consistent monitoring and analytics. A configuration set is essentially an
infrastructure-level concern (event tracking, IP pools, etc.), so it makes more sense to
configure it at the delivery method level rather than in each individual mailer.

[jterapin]

Thanks for clarifying. I've reopened the issue. We need to discuss the global setting approach with the team before moving forward. I'll update this thread once we have a decision.