Email mailbox

Mailbox or Gmail integration?

An Email channel reads incoming mail through IMAP and answers through SMTP. The Gmail integration is a separate connection for agents to search, read, draft and send when you ask. Connecting Calendar does not connect either one. See Email and signatures for Gmail and local sender signatures.

Connect a mailbox

1. Prefer a mailbox dedicated to the agent. Enable IMAP with the provider and create an app password where required (for example Gmail, iCloud or Yahoo); an ordinary account password may not work.
2. Open Settings › Channels › Add channel › Email. Enter the address, app password and optional display name.
3. Known providers fill the IMAP and SMTP servers. Otherwise enter each host, port and security mode. Typical secure choices are IMAP 993 with SSL/TLS and SMTP 465 with SSL/TLS or 587 with STARTTLS; use your provider’s actual settings.
4. Set the sign-in name if it differs from the email address. Connect and check the status before testing.
5. Send a short message from another mailbox, approve its pairing request as the appropriate person and verify a reply.

None security is only for local mail servers, not an internet connection. APX stores the password as a secret; it does not display it again. Changing server details or password reconnects the mailbox.

Restrict incoming mail

Who may write accepts individual addresses or a domain such as @example.com. An empty list allows incoming senders to reach the normal stranger-handling flow; it does not automatically approve everyone. Start with a narrow allowlist and review Strangers and the supervised reply mode.

By default APX drops messages whose sender domain the mail server could not verify with DKIM, SPF or DMARC. Read unverified mail weakens that protection: enable it only if you understand why your server does not check senders. A From address is not proof that you authorized an instruction. Incoming email remains outside content.

Replies, signatures and recovery

Replies stay in the mail thread and send from the configured mailbox. Set its local signature in the mailbox’s own settings (see below); this does not change your mail provider’s signature. Ask for a draft or use supervision if every outgoing answer needs review. A sent email cannot simply be taken back.

If nothing arrives, check IMAP access, app password, allowlist and sender verification before disabling safeguards. If reading works but sending fails, check SMTP separately: the two services can have different ports and policies. Inspect the channel error and outbox rather than assuming a queued message was delivered.

Several mailboxes and signatures

Gmail integration and an Email channel are separate connections. Gmail uses Google’s API; an Email channel reads IMAP and sends SMTP with a mailbox’s app password. Configuring a signature changes only local APX settings, not Gmail settings, existing drafts or messages already written.

Gmail

In Resources › Integrations, open Gmail. Edit connection changes its connection or sign-in; Configure integration opens the new mail check and the connected account’s signature. Which projects use it is chosen on the integration’s own page, under Where it is used. An integration with nothing to configure has no Configure integration button.

The signature has two forms: Formatted (the HTML, with a preview as you type) and Plain text (for mail without formatting, required while the signature is on). With Gmail connected on your own Google client, Bring from Gmail fills both with the signature Gmail adds; what APX cannot keep (styles, tables, fonts) gives way to plain lines, and nothing is saved until you save. With APX’s Google client Gmail’s settings cannot be read: paste the signature instead. APX never changes Gmail’s signature, and sending an existing Gmail draft does not append or replace its signature.

SMTP mailboxes

Open Settings › Channels › Email. The Email account selector switches between configured mailboxes; Add email account connects another without replacing the first. Each has its own servers, credentials, answering agent, access preferences and signature. Selecting a mailbox does not change another mailbox’s signature.

When writing through an agent, specify the intended email channel if more than one account could reach the person. Signatures stay stored after disconnection and can be reused when the same Gmail identity or SMTP channel identity is configured again. They are not copied into the global default.

SMTP delivery is covered by local fake-server tests; this is not verification against a real mail provider.

Optional default signature

Settings › Account › Default email signature is editable even before connecting a mailbox. It can include plain text and optional basic HTML, with links and hosted HTTPS images. An enabled signature requires plain text; APX rejects unsupported HTML rather than executing it or silently rewriting it.

APX chooses one signature, never both:

1. A saved account signature overrides the default.
2. Turning automatic signing off for that account and saving explicitly disables both signatures for that account.
3. Use default signature removes the account override. APX then uses the enabled global default, if any.
4. Ask to omit a signature for one message to bypass either choice. This does not remove a signature already in the message body.

You can also ask your super-agent to configure these settings. It reads the saved value and asks for approval before changing it. If another edit happens in the meantime, the stale change is rejected. Use Reload signature before editing again; reloading discards unsaved changes in the form.