I kept setting up a sending domain + SPF/DKIM/DMARC + SES/SendGrid just to email myself app notifications (contact forms, cron failures). But I wasn't trying to reach anyone else's inbox, just my own.

inbox-beam skips sending entirely: it uses the IMAP APPEND command to write the message straight into your mailbox. No SMTP, no deliverability. It shows up unread and searchable.

It's explicitly NOT email delivery — it only writes to a mailbox you control, so it can't reach third parties, and keeps no send log. For that you still want real SMTP. npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/inbox-beam