Reclaim a dormant mailbox

See Sponsored mailboxes for what a sponsored mailbox is. This page covers the sithbit mailbox reclaim-dormant command, the sponsor’s way to take back the rent of a mailbox its owner never used.

sithbit mailbox reclaim-dormant <owner> \
  [--keypair <funder keypair>] \
  [--skip-preflight] \
  [--tx-version <legacy|v1>]

The wallet recorded as the mailbox’s funder signs. The command closes the owner’s mailbox, moves its whole balance to the funder, and releases the mailbox from its domain’s sponsor counter, which takes it out of the count against the domain’s cap.

Arguments

• <owner> (required) — the address of the mailbox’s owner (the wallet the mailbox account is derived from).
• --keypair <funder keypair> (optional, -k) — the signing keypair, which must be the mailbox’s recorded funder. Defaults to the keypair in your Solana CLI config when omitted. It also pays the transaction fee.
• --skip-preflight (optional) — submits the transaction without a local simulation pass first.
• --tx-version <legacy|v1> (optional) — the transaction format, described once under Choosing the transaction version.

The command reads the mailbox first to find the domain whose sponsor counter to release, and passes that domain’s account and counter to the program.

When a mailbox is reclaimable

All of these hold, checked in this order on-chain:

1. The signer is the mailbox’s recorded funder (NotMailboxFunder, error 114).
2. The funder is not the owner: only a sponsored mailbox qualifies (ReclaimRequiresSponsoredMailbox, error 116). An owner closes their own mailbox with mailbox close.
3. The owner never activated the mailbox — no update or close request — and it has received no mail (MailboxNotDormant, error 112).
4. The dormancy grace window has passed: 30 days (MAILBOX_DORMANCY_GRACE_SECS) after the mailbox’s created_at (DormancyGraceNotElapsed, error 113).

A missing domain account or sponsor counter is refused with SponsorCounterAccountInfo (error 115). The program reference lists the refusals and the account order.

What it closes

Only the mailbox account. The owner’s encryption-key account, if one exists, is the owner’s and stays. Closing is final within its transaction.

Example

sithbit mailbox reclaim-dormant maiLtdkxym8CCmo9TwDuXywqd9DXaK3tB6toKFVeBFR \
  --keypair <path to funder keypair>
Reclaimed the dormant mailbox of maiLtdkxym8CCmo9TwDuXywqd9DXaK3tB6toKFVeBFR
https://explorer.solana.com/tx/…

Related commands

• Create a mailbox — the sponsored create that records the funder.
• Set a domain’s sponsor policy — the cap that a reclaim frees room under.
• Close a mailbox — the owner’s timelocked close.