Email Agents

Email Agents turn a shared inbox into a managed customer-service workflow. They can sort incoming messages, answer routine questions, prepare replies for review, route leads and support requests, and complete approved follow-up tasks while your team stays in control of what is sent automatically.

Navigation: Open Email & Messaging in the left sidebar, then select Email Agents.

Create an Email Agent

Create an Email Agent for a clear inbox purpose, such as sales enquiries, customer support, appointment requests, or order and delivery coordination.

Select Create Email Agent.
Enter a clear agent name.
Save the initial General settings.
Open Inbox and connect or attach the mailbox the agent should monitor.
Configure reply behavior while keeping automatic sending off.
Assign knowledge and test the agent.

Use the Email Agents list

Use the list to see which inbox workflows are active, which need attention, and where to review their results. Search by agent name or inbox. Each card shows inbox count, status, selected role, connected CRM or delivery indicators, and whether Auto-Reply is enabled. An Auth Error badge means one or more inboxes need reconnection.

Use View Emails for processed mail, the analytics action for reports, Test for a safe test conversation, and Settings to edit the agent. A feedback count opens pending quality feedback.

General settings

Use General to define how the inbox is organized and what the agent is responsible for. Categories let different messages follow different workflows—for example, a qualified lead can receive a prompt reply and enter CRM, while spam is ignored and a sensitive support request is sent to a person. Categories should be mutually understandable, such as Qualified Lead, Support Request, Spam, and Other.

Agent Roles can prepare starting categories and instructions. Review Agent roles and instructions before changing roles on an existing agent, because applying new role defaults can require Auto-Reply and CRM mappings to be configured again.

Use Draft while setting up, Active when the configuration is ready, and Disabled when the agent should stop processing.

Connect inboxes

Connecting an inbox gives the agent a specific mailbox to monitor, so you can separate purposes such as sales@, support@, and orders@. Open Inbox to view connected and available inboxes. An account must first be connected under General → Integrations. Reconnect an inbox if the page reports that authorization needs attention.

Only add mailboxes the agent is intended to monitor. If multiple inboxes are attached, check the inbox filter when reviewing processed mail.

Advanced identity override rules are useful when a website form or another system sends messages on behalf of the real customer. Configure these only if the sender address is predictable and the customer identity is present in the email body.

Choose a safe reply mode

Reply modes let you introduce automation gradually without risking immediate customer-facing mistakes. Open Auto-Reply and enable only the categories you want the agent to handle. Each category can use a different mode:

Dry Run records what the agent would do without creating or sending a reply.
Drafts creates a draft for human review.
Sending sends the reply automatically.

Start with Dry Run, review results, then move trusted categories to Drafts. Use Sending only after repeated testing and review.

Configure reply protections

Reply protections keep automation from interrupting a teammate, handling old mail unexpectedly, or sending when confidence is too low. Review these safeguards before activation:

confidence threshold;
start date for eligible incoming mail;
pause after a human reply;
skip when a draft already exists in the thread;
sender exclusion or blacklist behavior;
post-processing actions such as marking mail read or adding labels.

Use clear incoming and outgoing labels so your team can recognize mail handled by the agent.

Configure behavior and tools

Use AI Behavior when the agent should do more than write an answer. For example, it can recognize that no reply is needed, alert a teammate about a sensitive request, book a meeting from an enquiry, capture a lead in CRM, or collect an order and prepare its delivery.

Depending on your connections, the agent may be able to skip messages that need no reply, request human handover, forward mail, book meetings, use commerce information, capture customer details, or prepare CRM and delivery actions.

For human handover, choose one or more enabled Notification Channels. For calendar booking, select the correct connected calendar and configure working hours and meeting defaults.

Assign knowledge

Assign approved knowledge so replies stay consistent with your current policies, products, and service information. Open Knowledge Base and choose only the folders this agent needs. Test common email questions after any assignment change. See Knowledge Base.

Configure CRM and delivery

CRM turns a useful email into structured follow-up work—for example, routing a qualified enquiry to the sales pipeline with the customer’s details and message context. Open CRM to select a connected CRM and map email categories to the appropriate pipeline stages when needed. Review CRM behavior using test mail before automatic sending.

Delivery lets an orders inbox collect recipient, product, payment, and destination details and prepare a shipment, including for businesses that take orders without Shopify. The Delivery tab requires an active CRM connection and a verified delivery integration. Keep delivery actions disabled unless this email agent is expected to collect and confirm order details.

Review emails

Email activity lets your team confirm how messages were classified, what response was prepared or sent, and which cases need correction. From an agent card, open its email activity. You can search by sender and filter by inbox, classification, reply status, or blacklist status.

Available actions may include:

synchronize recent mail;
classify unprocessed mail;
generate a reply for review;
add or remove a sender from the exclusion list;
create the connected CRM record when eligible.

Check the current status before repeating an action.

Review analytics and quality

Analytics shows whether the inbox workflow is saving time and where customers still need human help. Open it to review volume, response behavior, handovers, response time, sentiment, and estimated time savings. The Analytics settings tab controls reporting definitions such as default period, handover definition, working days, and service-level thresholds.

Use quality feedback to mark good and poor outcomes and add context for your team. See Activity and quality.

Disable or delete an Email Agent

Use Disabled when you want to stop processing while keeping settings and history. Use the Danger tab to delete only after reviewing connected inboxes, generated drafts, analytics, CRM routing, and delivery settings. Deletion is not a substitute for disconnecting an inbox that another agent still needs.

Troubleshoot an Email Agent

New mail does not appear

Confirm the inbox connection, agent status, and selected mailbox. Use one manual sync and wait for it to complete.

The agent does not create a reply

Check category mode, confidence, start date, existing drafts, human replies, and sender exclusions. Dry Run intentionally does not create a draft or send mail.

The wrong category is chosen

Make category names and instructions more distinct. Reclassify a small sample and review the results before changing reply modes.

A reply uses incorrect information

Correct the assigned knowledge or instructions, then test with the same email in a safe mode. Do not move the affected category to Sending until the issue is resolved.