---
title: Receiving emails
description: Receive incoming emails at your verified domain and trigger automated workflows
icon: Inbox
---

Plunk can receive emails sent to your verified domain and turn them into `email.received` events. This allows you to build automated workflows that respond to inbound emails, such as support ticket systems, auto-responders, or email-based integrations.

## How it works

When someone sends an email to your verified domain (e.g., `support@yourdomain.com` or `hello@yourdomain.com`), Plunk will:

1. Receive the email through AWS SES
2. Automatically create or update a contact for the sender
3. Trigger an `email.received` event that can start workflows
4. Make the email metadata available to your workflow steps

The sender is automatically added to your contacts as a subscribed contact, allowing you to respond using Plunk's email sending capabilities.

## Setting up inbound email

<div className='fd-steps [&_h3]:fd-step'>

### Verify your domain

Before you can receive emails, your domain must be verified in Plunk. Follow the [verifying domains](/guides/verifying-domains) guide to set up the required DKIM, SPF, and MX records for sending.

### Add the inbound MX record

In your project settings, navigate to the **Domains** tab and expand your verified domain. You'll see an optional "Inbound Email" section with an MX record configuration:

- **Type**: MX
- **Name**: `yourdomain.com` (your root domain)
- **Value**: `10 inbound-smtp.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com`

Add this MX record to your domain's DNS settings. The priority value `10` ensures that inbound emails are routed to AWS SES for processing.

<Callout title="Multiple MX records" variant="warning">
  If you're already using MX records for another email service (like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365), adding this MX
  record may conflict. You can only have one primary email receiver per domain. Consider using a subdomain (e.g.,
  `mail.yourdomain.com`) if you need to maintain both services.
</Callout>

### Wait for DNS propagation

DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to fully propagate. You can verify the MX record is set correctly using:

```bash
dig MX yourdomain.com
```

You should see the AWS SES inbound endpoint in the response.

</div>

## Creating workflows with email.received

Once your MX record is configured, you can create workflows that respond to incoming emails.

### Event trigger

Create a new workflow and use `email.received` as the trigger event. This workflow will run every time an email is received at your domain.

### Available event data

The `email.received` event includes the following data that you can use in your workflow steps:

| Field                  | Type     | Description                                       |
| ---------------------- | -------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| `messageId`            | string   | Unique identifier for the received message        |
| `from`                 | string   | Email address of the sender                       |
| `fromHeader`           | string   | Full "From" header including display name         |
| `to`                   | string   | Primary recipient email address                   |
| `subject`              | string   | Email subject line                                |
| `timestamp`            | string   | ISO 8601 timestamp when the email was received    |
| `recipients`           | string[] | All recipient email addresses                     |
| `hasContent`           | boolean  | Whether the email body was captured               |
| `body`                 | string   | HTML body of the email (or plain text if no HTML) |
| `spamVerdict`          | string   | Spam check result (e.g., "PASS", "FAIL")          |
| `virusVerdict`         | string   | Virus scan result (e.g., "PASS", "FAIL")          |
| `spfVerdict`           | string   | SPF authentication result                         |
| `dkimVerdict`          | string   | DKIM authentication result                        |
| `dmarcVerdict`         | string   | DMARC authentication result                       |
| `processingTimeMillis` | number   | Time taken to process the email                   |

You can access these fields in your workflow using variable syntax, for example: `{{event.subject}}`, `{{event.from}}`, or `{{event.body}}`.

### Example: Auto-reply workflow

Here's a simple workflow that sends an automatic reply when an email is received at `support@yourdomain.com`:

1. **Trigger**: `email.received`
2. **Condition**: Check if `{{event.to}}` equals `support@yourdomain.com`
3. **Send Email**:
   - **To**: `{{event.from}}`
   - **Subject**: `Re: {{event.subject}}`
   - **Body**: `Thank you for your message. We received: "{{event.body}}". We'll get back to you soon!`

This workflow reads the incoming email body and includes it in the auto-reply response.

### Example: Forward to webhook

For more advanced processing (like ticket creation or AI analysis), you can forward the email content to your own API:

1. **Trigger**: `email.received`
2. **Webhook**:
   - **URL**: `https://api.example.com/support/tickets`
   - **Method**: `POST`
   - **Body**:
     ```json
     {
       "from": "{{event.from}}",
       "subject": "{{event.subject}}",
       "body": "{{event.body}}",
       "timestamp": "{{event.timestamp}}"
     }
     ```

Your backend receives the full email content and can process it (create a ticket, run AI analysis, etc.).

## Multi-project domains

If you have verified the same domain in multiple projects, incoming emails will be processed for **all projects** that have the domain verified. Each project will:

- Create/update the sender as a contact in that project
- Trigger the `email.received` event in that project
- Run any workflows configured for that event

This allows you to segment inbound email handling across different projects if needed.

## Limitations

- **Catch-all addresses**: Plunk receives emails sent to any address at your verified domain (e.g., `anything@yourdomain.com`). You can use workflow conditions to route emails based on the `to` field.
- **Attachments**: Email attachments are not currently captured or stored.
- **Email size**: AWS SES has a maximum message size limit of 40 MB for inbound emails.

## Security considerations

Plunk captures several security verdicts for each incoming email:

- **SPF (Sender Policy Framework)**: Verifies the sender's mail server is authorized
- **DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)**: Validates the email hasn't been tampered with
- **DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication)**: Combines SPF and DKIM for additional validation
- **Spam verdict**: AWS SES's spam detection result
- **Virus verdict**: AWS SES's virus scanning result

You can use these verdicts in workflow conditions to automatically filter or quarantine suspicious emails before processing them.

## Troubleshooting

### Emails not being received

1. **Check DNS propagation**: Verify the MX record is correctly set using `dig MX yourdomain.com`
2. **Verify domain**: Ensure your domain is fully verified in Plunk (all DKIM, SPF, and MX records for sending)
3. **Check workflow**: Create a simple test workflow with just an `email.received` trigger and a webhook to verify events are being generated
4. **Check sender**: Try sending from a different email provider as some may cache DNS records

### Duplicate events

If you have the same domain verified in multiple projects, you will receive duplicate `email.received` events (one per project). This is expected behavior. Use project-specific workflows to handle this.

### Security verdicts failing

If incoming emails consistently show failing security verdicts:

- **SPF failures**: The sender's domain may not have SPF configured correctly
- **DKIM failures**: The sender's domain may not have DKIM configured, or the email was forwarded/modified in transit
- **DMARC failures**: The sender fails both SPF and DKIM checks

These are issues with the sender's configuration, not your Plunk setup. You can choose to process these emails anyway or filter them using workflow conditions.
