openclaw/docs/channels/agentmail.md
2026-01-27 22:33:00 -08:00

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AgentMail email channel support, capabilities, and configuration
Working on AgentMail/email channel features

AgentMail

AgentMail is an email API service designed for AI agents. Clawdbot connects to AgentMail via webhooks to receive incoming emails and uses the AgentMail API to send replies. This enables email as a conversation channel for your AI assistant.

Status: supported via plugin. Direct messages (email threads), media (attachments as links), and threading are supported.

Plugin required

AgentMail ships as a plugin and is not bundled with the core install.

Install via CLI (npm registry):

clawdbot plugins install @clawdbot/agentmail

Local checkout (when running from a git repo):

clawdbot plugins install ./extensions/agentmail

Details: Plugins

Setup

  1. Install the AgentMail plugin:

    • From npm: clawdbot plugins install @clawdbot/agentmail
    • From a local checkout: clawdbot plugins install ./extensions/agentmail
  2. Create an AgentMail account at agentmail.to

  3. Get your API key from the AgentMail dashboard

  4. Create an inbox (or use an existing one) and note the inbox ID

  5. Webhook setup:

    • Automatic: During onboarding, provide your gateway's public URL and the webhook will be auto-registered
    • Manual: Register in the AgentMail dashboard with URL https://your-gateway/webhooks/agentmail and event type message.received
  6. Configure credentials:

    • Env: AGENTMAIL_TOKEN, AGENTMAIL_EMAIL_ADDRESS
    • Or config: channels.agentmail.token, channels.agentmail.emailAddress
    • If both are set, config takes precedence.
  7. Restart the gateway (or finish onboarding)

  8. Send an email to your AgentMail inbox to test the integration

Minimal config:

{
  channels: {
    agentmail: {
      enabled: true,
      token: "am_***",
      emailAddress: "you@agentmail.to",
    },
  },
}

Configuration

Key Type Description
name string Account name for identifying this configuration
enabled boolean Enable/disable the channel (default: true)
token string AgentMail API token (required)
emailAddress string AgentMail inbox email address to monitor (required)
webhookUrl string Gateway public base URL (e.g., https://gw.ngrok.io)
webhookPath string Custom webhook path (default: /webhooks/agentmail)
allowlist string[] Allowed sender emails/domains
blocklist string[] Blocked sender emails/domains

Sender Filtering

AgentMail supports allowlist and blocklist filtering for incoming emails. Both lists accept email addresses and domains.

Allowlist/Blocklist Logic

  1. If sender is on the blocklist, the message is labeled blocked and ignored
  2. If sender is on the allowlist, the message is labeled allowed and triggers Clawdbot
  3. If allowlist is empty and sender is not blocked, the message is allowed (open mode)
  4. If allowlist is non-empty and sender is not on it, the message is ignored

Example Configuration

{
  channels: {
    agentmail: {
      enabled: true,
      token: "am_***",
      emailAddress: "clawd@agentmail.to",
      // Allow specific emails and domains
      allowlist: ["alice@example.com", "trusted-domain.org"],
      // Block specific emails and domains
      blocklist: ["spam@bad.com", "bad-domain.net"],
    },
  },
}

Domain Matching

Domain entries match any email from that domain:

  • example.org in allowlist allows alice@example.org, bob@example.org, etc.
  • bad.com in blocklist blocks spam@bad.com, anything@bad.com, etc.

Thread Context

When an email arrives, Clawdbot fetches the full email thread to provide conversation context to the AI. This enables the assistant to understand prior messages in the thread and provide contextually relevant replies.

Thread context is automatically included when:

  • The incoming email is part of an existing thread
  • The thread has more than one message

The plugin uses AgentMail's extracted_text field which contains only the new content from each message (excluding quoted reply text). This provides cleaner context without duplicated quoted sections.

Environment Variables

Variable Description
AGENTMAIL_TOKEN AgentMail API token
AGENTMAIL_EMAIL_ADDRESS AgentMail inbox email address
AGENTMAIL_WEBHOOK_PATH Custom webhook path

Webhook Security

AgentMail webhooks should be configured with HTTPS endpoints. Ensure your gateway is accessible from the internet and properly secured.

For local development, you can use tools like ngrok to tunnel webhooks to your local machine:

ngrok http 18789

Then register the ngrok URL as your webhook endpoint in the AgentMail dashboard.

Capabilities

Feature Supported
Direct messages Yes
Groups/rooms No
Threads Yes
Media (attachments) Partial (links only)
Reactions No
Polls No

Troubleshooting

Messages not being received

  1. Verify the webhook is registered in AgentMail dashboard
  2. Check that the webhook URL is correct and accessible
  3. Ensure token and emailAddress are configured correctly
  4. Check the gateway logs for webhook errors

Replies not being sent

  1. Verify the API token has send permissions
  2. Check the gateway logs for outbound errors
  3. Ensure the email address is correct

Sender not allowed

  1. Check the allowlist and blocklist configuration
  2. Verify the sender email matches the expected format
  3. Check if the sender's domain is blocked