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Use Connect Email 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 Connect Email.

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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 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.

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New Thread Vs Reply

OpenCX first checks the email’s reply headers and the session references in its quoted body. A visible REF #12345 also works when email formatting places the number inside a link. The sender must be the original customer or an existing email participant. If those checks cannot identify a session, OpenCX can join two separate customer replies to the same original email, even when that original email never reached OpenCX. This fallback requires:
  • The same customer and receiving inbox within your organization.
  • The same subject after removing leading Re: prefixes.
  • Exactly one matching session with a customer reply received within the previous seven days.
Automatic responses and messages treated as spam do not use this fallback. Missing reply information or multiple possible sessions leave the email unmatched, so normal new-session rules apply. Matching by subject alone is never enough. The shared-parent fallback applies to emails received after this update; older messages are not retroactively linked. Existing reply-header and session-reference matches keep priority.

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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. When forwarding a session from the inbox, your note and email signature appear above the forwarded history. Custom email templates place that history at {{quoted_content}}; keep this placeholder below your signature. Without that placeholder, the history follows the template. The {{agent_name}} placeholder uses the forwarding agent’s customer-facing name, even when the new session is assigned to someone else.

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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 and topic rules.