It appears you're having an issue with authentication credentials for Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) when configuring email delivery for Ory Kratos. The error "535 Authentication Credentials Invalid" typically indicates that the credentials you're using for SMTP authentication are not being accepted. Based on the knowledge sources, there are a few potential issues to check: 1. URL Encoding Issues: If your SMTP username or password contains special characters, they need to be properly URL-encoded. This is a common cause of authentication failures. As mentioned in the [Invalid SMTP courier URL format](https://www.ory.sh/docs/troubleshooting/smtp-courier-OTA-112022-01) troubleshooting guide, special characters in usernames or passwords must be URL-encoded. For example:

# Incorrect    <smtp://username:pass/word@some-email-service.com:587>        # Correct    <smtp://username:pass%2Fword@some-email-service.com:587>

2. Alternative Email Delivery Method: If you continue to have issues with SMTP authentication, you might consider using HTTP-based email delivery instead. Ory Kratos supports HTTP-based email delivery as an alternative to SMTP. As shown in the [HTTP based email delivery](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/self-hosted/email-http#configuration) documentation, you can configure Kratos to use an HTTP API for sending emails:

yaml    courier:      delivery_strategy: http      http:        request_config:          url: <https://api.crm.com/email>          method: POST          body: file://.mail.api.request.jsonnet          headers:            "Content-Type": "application/json"          auth:            type: basic_auth            config:              user: YourUsername              password: YourPass

To resolve your issue: 1. Double-check your SES credentials 2. Ensure any special characters in your username or password are properly URL-encoded 3. Verify that your SES account is out of the sandbox mode if you're sending to non-verified email addresses 4. Consider using HTTP-based email delivery if SMTP continues to be problematic If you need to URL encode your credentials, you can use JavaScript's

encodeURIComponent()

function or an online tool (being cautious with sensitive credentials).

Based on the knowledge sources, I can provide information about using Amazon SES with Ory Network. To use Amazon SES as your email provider with Ory Network, you'll need to configure a custom SMTP server. This is especially important if you're using custom domains, as it helps prevent email deliverability issues. ## Configuring Amazon SES with Ory Network You can configure your Amazon SES SMTP server in Ory Network through either the Ory Console or the Ory CLI: ### Using Ory Console: 1. Go to Authentication → Email templates in the [Ory Console](https://console.ory.sh/projects/current/email-templates) 2. Configure your SMTP settings with your Amazon SES credentials ### Using Ory CLI: 1. Get your current identity configuration:

ory get identity-config --project <project-id> --workspace <workspace-id> --format yaml > identity-config.yaml

2. Update the configuration with your Amazon SES SMTP settings:

yaml courier:   smtp:     connection_uri: <smtps://username:password@your-ses-smtp-endpoint:587/>

Make sure to URL-encode any special characters in your username or password. As noted in the [Invalid SMTP courier URL format](https://www.ory.sh/docs/troubleshooting/smtp-courier-OTA-112022-01) documentation, special characters must be properly encoded to avoid authentication issues. 3. Update your configuration:

ory update identity-config --project <project-id> --workspace <workspace-id> --file identity-config.yaml

## Important Considerations 1. Custom Domains: If you're using a custom domain with Ory Network, it's highly recommended to use your own SMTP server (like Amazon SES) that matches your domain. This helps prevent emails from being marked as spam, as mentioned in the [Custom Domains guide](https://www.ory.sh/docs/guides/custom-domains#automated-emails). 2. Email Templates: You can customize email templates for various flows (recovery, verification, etc.). These must be base64-encoded in Ory Network as mentioned in the [Email templates documentation](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/emails-sms/custom-email-templates#using-custom-message-templates). 3. Security Settings: When configuring your SMTP connection, make sure to select the appropriate security setting (StartTLS or Implicit TLS) based on your Amazon SES requirements. Using your own SMTP server like Amazon SES generally provides better email deliverability compared to the default Ory Network email sender.