SPF record contains an unrecognized term
The SPF record on `your domain` contains the value termthe value that match no valid SPF mechanism or modifier — most often a typo in a mechanism name, a missing colon, or a stray character from a copy-paste.
Why it matters
The SPF record on `your domain` contains the value termthe value that match no valid SPF mechanism or modifier — most often a typo in a mechanism name, a missing colon, or a stray character from a copy-paste. RFC-compliant receivers treat a record containing a term they cannot parse as a permanent error, which discards the whole record — every legitimate mechanism in it stops being honoured, not just the broken term.
How ShipReady detects it
Email-authentication DNS records (DMARC / SPF). Almost every AI-built SaaS sends transactional email — password resets, magic links, receipts — through Resend, SendGrid or Postmark. Setting that up gets the mail delivered; it does not stop anyone else sending mail that claims to come from the same domain. Without a DMARC policy, a receiving server has no instruction to reject a forgery, so an attacker can send "reset your password" from the product's own domain and the message will land in the inbox looking authentic. This check is almost entirely DNS rather than HTTP — one exception is MTA-STS, whose policy is only half-published in DNS; the other half is a file fetched over HTTPS (see _check_mta_sts). Nearly everything else here is the most deterministic kind of check the scanner has: a record either exists or it does not, so there is no heuristic and no false-positive surface. The one place judgement is required is deciding WHICH domain to ask about — see _organizational_domain.
Detection is deterministic. ShipReady reports this only when it observes the condition directly, and prefers to miss a real problem over inventing one. Rule version 1.10.0.
How to fix it
This is the prompt ShipReady puts in your report — written to be pasted straight into Cursor, Claude Code, or whichever assistant built the app.
The SPF record on your domain contains one or more terms that do not match any valid SPF mechanism or modifier: one or more unrecognised entries. A receiver that cannot parse every term in the record treats the whole thing as a permanent error, which silently disables SPF entirely rather than just the broken part. Check each flagged term for a typo in the mechanism name (a, mx, ptr, ip4, ip6, include, exists, all), a missing colon before its value (e.g. `ip4192.0.2.0/24` should be `ip4:192.0.2.0/24`), or a stray character left over from copy-pasting.
Frequently asked questions
- What does "SPF record contains an unrecognized term" mean?
- The SPF record on `your domain` contains the value termthe value that match no valid SPF mechanism or modifier — most often a typo in a mechanism name, a missing colon, or a stray character from a copy-paste.
- How serious is it?
- ShipReady rates this medium. Fix soon. Meaningfully weakens a defence or degrades how the site works.
- How do I fix it?
- Paste the fix prompt on this page into Cursor, Claude Code or your AI editor. It is the same prompt ShipReady puts in your report.
- Can I check my own site?
- Yes — ShipReady scans up to ten pages of any public site for free and reports this alongside every other check. The free report lists every issue it finds and shows full evidence and a fix prompt for the critical and high-severity ones; medium and low findings are counted and unlock on Pro.
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