Yes, it is possible to implement a multi-step registration process with Ory, including email verification as the first step. However, the exact implementation details depend on your specific setup and requirements. Here's what we can gather from the available information: 1. Email Verification: Ory supports email verification as part of the registration process. You can configure this in your identity schema by marking the email field as verifiable [Docs > Kratos > Self-hosted > Account activation and email verification settings](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/self-hosted/account-activation-email-verification). 2. Multi-step Registration: While Ory doesn't provide a built-in multi-step registration flow, you can implement this in your own UI by breaking down the registration process into multiple steps. 3. Checking Email Existence: There isn't a specific API endpoint or SDK function mentioned in the provided knowledge sources for checking email existence before registration. However, you can implement this check in your own application logic before submitting the registration request to Ory. 4. Email Legitimacy: Ory does perform some basic email format validation, but for more advanced legitimacy checks, you would need to implement these in your own application logic. 5. API Endpoint for Verification: Once you've implemented your multi-step process and are ready to verify the email, you can use the verification flow API. For browser-based applications, you would use the

/self-service/verification/browser

endpoint, and for native applications, the

/self-service/verification/api

endpoint [Docs > Kratos > Bring-your-own-ui > Integration basics > Verification flow](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/bring-your-own-ui/custom-ui-basic-integration#verification-flow). It's important to note that the exact implementation of a multi-step registration process with preliminary email checks is not directly covered in the provided knowledge sources. You would need to combine Ory's verification capabilities with your own custom logic to achieve this specific workflow. For the most up-to-date and detailed information, I recommend consulting the official Ory documentation or reaching out to Ory support for guidance on implementing this specific use case.

I understand you want to check if an email already exists in the database before submitting a registration, as a first step in the process. Based on the available information, here's what I can tell you: 1. Ory doesn't provide a specific API endpoint or function to check email existence before registration. This is likely due to security considerations, as exposing such functionality could potentially be used for user enumeration attacks [Github Issue: Allow to check whether a username/password would be accepted by Ory without actually registering a user](https://github.com/ory/network/issues/265). 2. The standard behavior in Ory is to return an error after attempting to register with an existing email. For example, when submitting a registration flow with an existing email, you would receive an error message like this [Github Issue: Registration flow with an existing email and an insecure password returns only insecure password error](https://github.com/ory/kratos/issues/3082):

{
  "id": 4000007,
  "text": "An account with the same identifier (email, phone, username, ...) exists already.",
  "type": "error",
  "context": {}
}

3. Implementing a pre-check for email existence could potentially expose your system to account enumeration vulnerabilities. Ory's design seems to intentionally avoid this [Github Issue: Configurable Account Enumeration protection in Account Experience](https://github.com/ory/network/issues/229). 4. If you still want to implement this check, you would need to create a custom solution in your application layer, before interacting with Ory's registration flow. However, this approach is not recommended from a security perspective. 5. Instead of checking email existence upfront, a more secure approach would be to handle the registration attempt and then provide appropriate feedback to the user based on the response from Ory. This way, you maintain security while still guiding the user through the registration process. Remember, the recommended practice is to avoid exposing whether an email exists in your system before the actual registration attempt, as this helps protect against potential security threats.