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Use Create Email Agent first if you are still setting up your address and provider rules. For diagnosing issues, see Troubleshooting.
Email Flow explains how OpenCX matches and processes mail after go-live. Setup steps stay on Create Email Agent.

Path Of A Message

1

Customer Sends Email

A customer emails your support address (e.g. [email protected]).
2

Forwarded To OpenCX

Your email provider automatically forwards a copy to OpenCX.
3

Matched To A Conversation

OpenCX recognizes your registered address and either continues an existing conversation or starts a new one.
4

AI Generates Reply

When Autopilot is enabled, the AI drafts an HTML-formatted reply using your knowledge base and tools, and sends it from your registered address with your signature. When Autopilot is off or the conversation is escalated, your team replies from the inbox instead.
Treat the thread in your OpenCX dashboard as the authoritative copy. Mail clients may or may not collapse replies into one visual thread depending on the mail client.

New Thread Vs Reply

SituationWhat happens
NewNo matching session token, and To includes your registered address → new email session; original subject is stored as the conversation title.
ReplySame contact From as the session and a numeric session token in the subject as [12345] or in the body as Ref: #12345 / Reference: Ticket #12345 (new sessions use five-digit tokens by default).

Outbound Format

Replies keep the original subject with a Re: prefix. A small reference number is included automatically for tracking. All outgoing emails are formatted as HTML with unsafe content removed before delivery.

Good To Know

AI replies send from the address the customer wrote to. Routing keys off To, so each registered address is matched independently. However, some human agent outbound paths may pick any connected channel as From — use one primary address if you need strict alignment for agent replies.
Previous messages in the thread are automatically separated from the new reply. Inbound attachments appear on the conversation. Outbound replies from human agents can include attachments where enabled.
Inbound mail is received securely on your behalf. Outbound replies are sent from your verified domain. For contracts or DPA questions, use your account or legal channel—not this page.

Troubleshooting

Connection failures, missing replies, and common fixes.

Human Handoff

AI to human escalation — applies to email sessions.

AI Actions

Run tools and workflows from email conversations.

Autopilot And Topics

Channel-level Autopilot, assist mode, and topic rules.