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How a product is made

From the pencil to a running service.

Every product of Elchi Studios starts on paper. With EMX as the example: the first draft as it lay on the desk, the diagram it became, a piece of the code and the service that runs today.

Step 1

The sketch

Squared paper and a pencil, in the night before 9 October 2026. This is how Samuel Krauss drew the path of an email through EMX before a single box was digital. We show the draft unchanged, including what was not yet right.

Pencil sketch on squared paper titled 2026 EMX Design Doc: senders send to mx.emxmail.ch with SPF, DKIM, DMARC and spam filter, beside it Secured by EAuth at the EMX website; a box Stored with Geneva and the database in Frankfurt with two copies, below it Sealed; browser, phone, Outlook and Apple Mail with an arrow to EMX Import; and users through the EMX API to sending email to the internet.
The sketch at full size

Step 2

The diagram

It becomes a clean drawing, and on the way the facts are put straight. The draft showed four things differently from how EMX is built:

  • Reading hangs on the storage: your devices read what is kept in Geneva.
  • Outlook and Apple Mail sign in with an app password. EAuth protects the sign-in to the web client and the app.
  • Sealed is not a place of its own but a property of the mailboxes in Geneva, and you decide whether you want it.
  • The copies of the database have names: Nuremberg and Paris.
The path of an email at EMXAn email comes from a sender on the internet to mx.emxmail.ch, where SPF, DKIM and DMARC are checked and the spam filter runs. Messages and attachments are stored encrypted in Geneva, sealed if you want; the database is in Frankfurt, with copies in Nuremberg and Paris. Mail is read in the web client and the app with sign-in through EAuth, in Outlook, Apple Mail and on the phone over IMAP with an app password, and by your software through the API with a token. Our own servers deliver outgoing mail, signed with DKIM, to recipients on the internet.StoredGenevamessages and attachments,stored encryptedsealed, if you wantFrankfurtdatabaseNurembergcopyPariscopyReceivedSenderanywhere on the internetmx.emxmail.chchecks SPF, DKIM, DMARCspam filterReadWeb client and appsign-in with EAuthOutlook, Apple Mail, phoneIMAP, app passwordYour softwareAPI with a tokenSentOur servers deliversigned with DKIMRecipientanywhere on the internet The path of an email at EMXAn email comes from a sender on the internet to mx.emxmail.ch, where SPF, DKIM and DMARC are checked and the spam filter runs. Messages and attachments are stored encrypted in Geneva, sealed if you want; the database is in Frankfurt, with copies in Nuremberg and Paris. Mail is read in the web client and the app with sign-in through EAuth, in Outlook, Apple Mail and on the phone over IMAP with an app password, and by your software through the API with a token. Our own servers deliver outgoing mail, signed with DKIM, to recipients on the internet.StoredGenevamessages and attachments,stored encryptedsealed, if you wantFrankfurtdatabaseNurembergcopyPariscopyReceivedSenderanywhere on the internetmx.emxmail.chchecks SPF, DKIM, DMARCspam filterReadWeb client and appsign-in with EAuthOutlook, Apple Mail, phoneIMAP, app passwordYour softwareAPI with a tokenSentOur servers deliversigned with DKIMRecipientanywhere on the internet
The path of an email at EMX. Pointing at an area highlights its path.

Step 3

The code

Every box is code that runs. A piece of the box mx.emxmail.ch: whether the domain in the From line matches the one SPF or DKIM confirmed. Strict means equal, relaxed means the same organisation. Only then does DMARC count.

func aligned(a, b string, mode dmarc.AlignmentMode) bool {
	a, b = strings.ToLower(a), strings.ToLower(b)
	if mode == dmarc.AlignmentStrict {
		return a == b
	}
	return OrgDomain(a) == OrgDomain(b)
}
From internal/mailauth in EMX, Go.

Step 4

The service

What the diagram shows runs today at emxmail.ch. The security page names every exception, and status.elchi.dev measures whether it runs, with every outage at its real length.

EMX security status.elchi.dev

How every product is made

First on paper, then as a diagram, then as code, then measured in operation. The next sketches will be shown here.