What’s “SPF permerror” and how does it tank deliverability?

SPF permerror explained:

What it is:

Permanent error in SPF evaluation

Cannot be retried

SPF result is undefined/fail

Common causes:

More than 10 DNS lookups in SPF chain

Syntax errors in SPF record

Multiple SPF records for same domain

Circular references

Deliverability impact:

SPF fails for all mail

DMARC alignment fails (SPF side)

Must rely on DKIM alone

Many receivers penalize or reject

Fix:

Reduce lookups (flatten, consolidate)

Fix syntax errors

Remove duplicate SPF records

Permanent documentation error prevents any verification. Must be corrected at the source.