Workflows: Trigger Email

The Trigger Email workflow lets your app react to incoming emails, without any user action in the app. Unlike the New Submission, Edit Submission, or Review Submission flows (which depend on a user creating, editing, or reviewing a submission), this Trigger Email resides under Trigger Based Flows and runs independently of user activity. Click here to know more about the different flows.
Once set up, any email sent to the address generated for this workflow will trigger the steps you connect below it.

Common Use Cases

• Centralised “inbox → MIS” capture – Route all inbound emails (from vendors, customers, or partners) to the Trigger Email address and auto-create records in a Master/MIS app.
  
  
• Lead/application intake – Sales or support teams forward external emails to the Trigger Email address; your app converts each email into a submission with From, Subject, Body, Attachments, etc.
  
  
• Ticketing or requests – Let internal users email requests to the Trigger Email address; your app logs them instantly as structured submissions.
  
  
• Procurement / HR pipelines – Capture quote emails, resumes, or approvals into dedicated apps.
  
  

Who can send emails to this address?
Anyone. The generated address is not restricted and you decide where to share it.

‍

Configuring the Trigger Email

Go to Design App → Workflows → Trigger Based Flows. Click Start and choose Email.

When you add the Trigger Email to a Trigger Based Flow, you can configure it using the panel on the right.

Trigger Name

Give a clear name so you can identify it later (for example, “Leads Inbox”, “Vendor Quotes”).

Email Address Prefix

This is a required field.

Each Trigger Email shows a generated workflow email address under the input (e.g., abc123@workflow.clappia.com).

Enter a prefix to make the address meaningful, e.g., report-abc123@workflow.clappia.com.

The base part is unique per app and the same across multiple Trigger Emails in the same app; the prefix helps you (and your team) tell addresses apart.

You can add multiple Trigger Emails in one app. Even if you reuse the same prefix, they act as separate triggers; best practice is to use distinct prefixes so it’s clear which trigger is receiving which emails.

Use the copy icon to copy the full address and share it with senders.

Enable This Workflow

Turn this on to start listening for incoming emails. Turn it off to pause this trigger and all steps beneath it (you won’t lose your configuration).

‍

System-Generated Email Variables (How You Capture Email Data)

When an email is sent to the address you set up in the Trigger Email, Clappia automatically creates a set of ready-to-use variables containing different parts of that email.
These variables can be used to fill fields in the next step of your workflow. For example, in a Create Submission step, to store the email’s sender, subject, body, attachments, and more.

To see and use these variables, type @ while setting up the next step. A list will appear with all available email details, such as:

• {EmailTrigger#workflowEmailId} – The full Trigger Email address that received this message
  
  
• {EmailTrigger#from} – Sender email address
  
  
• {EmailTrigger#to} – Recipient(s)
  
  
• {EmailTrigger#cc} – CC recipients
  
  
• {EmailTrigger#subject} – Email subject
  
  
• {EmailTrigger#html} – HTML body (if present)
  
  
• {EmailTrigger#text} – Plain-text body
  
  
• {EmailTrigger#attachments} – Attachments (you can map this to a Camera, Image & Files block in the target app)
  
  
• {EmailTrigger#messageId} – Email message identifier
  
  
• {EmailTrigger#date} / {EmailTrigger#time} – When the email was received
  
  

Tip for email bodies: If you map {EmailTrigger#text} or {EmailTrigger#html} into a Single Line Text field and the body is long, it can get truncated due to that field’s character limit. For email content, use a Multi-line Text field to capture the full body.

‍

Adding Steps Below the Trigger Email

You must add at least one step under Trigger Email for it to do anything.

Create Submission

Map the email variables into the target app’s fields. For example,

• Customer Email field → {EmailTrigger#from}
  
  
• Subject field → {EmailTrigger#subject}
  
  
• Customer Details field → {EmailTrigger#text} (map to a Multiline Text field)
  
  
• Customer’s Attachments field → {EmailTrigger#attachments} (map to a Camera, Image & Files block)
  
  

You can add multiple Create Submission steps under a single Trigger Email if you want one incoming email to create multiple submissions (for example, in different apps).

Example:
Let’s say you maintain a “Leads MIS” app. Vendors/customers email leads-abc123@workflow.clappia.com. Each email automatically creates a submission in the MIS with fields filled from the email’s From, Subject, Body, and Attachments.

‍

How It Works

• Once saved and enabled, the Trigger Email listens for incoming emails sent to its configured address.
  
• Every email received triggers the steps beneath the Trigger Email.
  
• There’s no manual trigger, it runs continuously until you disable the Trigger Email or remove it from the flow.
  
  

To stop processing emails:

• Disable the Trigger Email (pauses this trigger and everything below it), or
  
• Remove it from the flow.

‍

Replying to Emails in the Same Thread Using Message ID

Clappia workflows allow you to maintain a continuous email thread when sending replies through the regular Email Workflow. This is done by capturing the Message ID of the incoming email and using it when generating outgoing emails. By reusing this Message ID, the system ensures that responses appear in the same email thread instead of creating new, separate conversations.

How it works

When an email triggers a workflow, Clappia provides several system-generated variables about the incoming message. One of these is the Message ID {EmailTrigger#messageId}, which uniquely identifies the email. This value can be stored inside the submission and later mapped to the Email Workflow so that replies continue the same thread.

Suppose a Trigger Email is followed by a Create Submission, which automatically creates a new record in the selected app. As part of this setup, you can map the Message ID to a field in the app. For example, in a customer support app, you may have a field named “Thread Reference” to store the Message ID associated with the conversation.

Step 1: Capturing the Message ID in Create Submission

Let’s say your workflow begins with a Trigger Email that receives an incoming email such as a customer query. If you have added a Create Submission, then each incoming email automatically creates a new support ticket (new submission) in the app.

In the Create Submission's set up, for the field mapping, map the system-generated {EmailTrigger#messageId} into the Thread Reference field. This ensures that every submission created from an incoming email stores the Message ID for that conversation. Just type @ to pull a list of variables and select this message id variable.

Step 2: Using the Message ID to Reply in the Same Thread

After the submission has been created and the Message ID is stored in the Thread Reference field, the next part of the workflow involves sending replies.
For example, if a user has to update the submission (for example, adding a response or changing the status) and an email needs to be sent automatically, then an Email Workflow can be placed in the Edit Submission Flow.

When configuring this Email, you will see an option called Reply-To Message ID. This is where you specify which Message ID the outgoing email should refer to. You simply map the Thread Reference field into this option. Type @ followed by the field name to get the right variable. By doing this, the Email workflow uses the Message ID from the original incoming email, allowing the reply to continue the same thread.

As a result, each time the submission is updated and the Email workflow runs, the outgoing message is sent as part of the existing conversation rather than starting a new email chain. This keeps all communication related to the submission grouped together in a single thread.

‍

Important Notes

• The Trigger Email is independent of user activity; it doesn’t rely on someone creating/editing/reviewing a submission in the app.
  
• Anyone can send to the address you configure. Share it only with the sources you trust.
  
• Multiple Trigger Emails cannot be chained in series in the same flow, but you can create separate parallel flows, each with its own Email trigger, within the same app.
  
• If you add new fields to the Create Submission target app later, incoming emails will still be processed. The new fields remain empty until you update the Create Submission mapping to include them.
  
• For long email bodies, map {EmailTrigger#text} or {EmailTrigger#html} to a Multi-line Text field to avoid truncation.
  
• Use distinct prefixes for clarity when you create more than one Trigger Email in the same app.
• The Trigger Email itself has no separate cost and is available on the free plan. However, if you’re on the free plan, make sure you don’t exceed your monthly workflow usage limit, as Trigger Email executions count toward it.
• Like all other workflow activities, Trigger Email runs are recorded in Workflow Logs. For example, if it’s configured with a Create Submission, the log will show “Submission created with Submission ID” when successful, or display an error if something went wrong. To view logs go to App Home > Logs > Workflow Logs.
  

Important Notes for Capturing Message ID for Email Threads

1. You can map the Message ID directly into an Email Input field. This captures the Message ID correctly in its original format. This approach works only if the submission is not edited and saved again later. Since the Message ID is not a valid email address, resaving a submission that contains this value in an Email Input field can fail validation and prevent the submission from being saved.
   Because of this constraint, using an Email Input field to store the Message ID is suitable only when the submission is created once from the incoming email, and no further edits or saves are expected.
2. If the submission needs to be edited and saved later, the Message ID should instead be stored in a Single Line Text field. In this case, use a Calculation & Logic block to clean up the value by replacing encoded characters such as &lt; and &gt; with < and >.
   This cleaned value can then be safely reused later when sending reply emails, without causing validation issues during resave.
   This approach requires an additional field for the cleaned Message ID but avoids the resaving limitation of Email Input fields.

List of Supported Workflow Steps

The following workflow steps can be used after the Trigger Email step:

Create Submission
If
Code
Rest API
Email
Slack
Mobile Notification
WhatsApp
Sms
Microsoft Teams
Wait
Repeat
AI
Database
Edit Submission
Archive Submission
Find Submissions