Overview

Convert emails to tickets with each Ravenna channel’s unique inbound email address, supporting customer feedback and multi-channel support flows.

Each Ravenna channel gets a unique email address that automatically converts incoming emails into tickets. Use email integration to handle support requests, collect feedback, or manage inquiries from users who prefer email over other channels.

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Enable email for a channel

1. Open channel settings

   Select your channel from the sidebar and click Settings.

2. Navigate to inbound email

   In the left navigation, click Inbound Email.

3. Enable inbound email

   Toggle on Allow inbound emails to be sent to this Channel.

4. Copy your channel email address

   Your unique email address appears in this format:

   [e-mail]
   

   Copy this address to share with users or configure email forwarding from your existing support inbox.

   Configure email forwarding from Google, Microsoft, or other providers

Each channel has a unique email address. Emails sent to this address automatically create tickets in that specific channel.

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How email-to-ticket conversion works

When an email arrives at your channel’s email address:

1. Ravenna receives the email and extracts the sender, subject, and body
2. Thread detection checks if this email replies to an existing ticket
3. New ticket creation happens if no matching thread exists
4. Guest user creation occurs automatically if the sender is external to your organization
5. CC recipients are added as followers to keep stakeholders informed
6. Notifications are sent according to your channel’s notification settings

The ticket inherits properties from your channel configuration, including assigned agents, forms, and workflows.

CC recipients as followers

When an inbound email includes CC recipients, Ravenna automatically adds them as followers on the ticket. This keeps stakeholders informed about ticket activity without requiring manual follower management.

How CC follower processing works:

• Existing users in your organization are added as followers immediately
• New external users are created as guest users (if guest users are enabled) and added as followers
• System addresses (@mail.ravennahq.com) are automatically filtered out
• The sender’s email is excluded since they’re already the ticket author
• Duplicate emails are deduplicated before processing

Interaction with channel settings:

Setting	Behavior
Guest users disabled	Only existing users from CC are added as followers. Unknown email addresses are skipped.
Guest users enabled	New guest accounts are created for CC recipients not in your organization.
Allowlist configured	CC recipients must match your allowlisted emails or domains to be added as followers.

CC recipients are processed for both new tickets and replies to existing tickets. Each reply can add new followers from its CC list.

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Email threading and replies

How email threads map to tickets

Ravenna preserves email conversation context by mapping email threads to ticket threads:

New tickets are created when:

• The email subject doesn’t match any existing ticket
• The sender starts a new conversation
• The email doesn’t contain reply headers referencing an existing ticket

Existing tickets are updated when:

• The email replies to a previous message in the thread
• Email headers (In-Reply-To, References) match an existing ticket
• The subject line contains a ticket reference like [HELP-123]

All replies appear as messages in the ticket timeline, maintaining the complete conversation history.

Outbound email replies

When team members reply to tickets created from email:

• Replies are sent to the original sender’s email address
• The sender name appears as configured in your channel settings
• Email formatting is preserved (plain text and HTML)
• Attachments from Ravenna tickets are included in the email
• Reply-to headers ensure responses thread correctly

Team members can reply to email-based tickets from Ravenna, Slack, or any integrated channel. All replies route to the requester’s email address.

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Outbound email configuration

Sender name

Customize the sender name that appears in the “From” field of outbound emails. This helps recipients identify where the email came from.

By default, outbound emails use your workspace name. Configure a custom sender name in your channel’s inbound email settings to:

• Match your brand or team name
• Distinguish between different support teams
• Provide clearer context for external recipients

Example: “Acme Support Team” instead of “Acme Workspace”

Email footer

Add a custom footer that appears at the bottom of all outbound emails from a channel. Use email footers to include:

• Legal disclaimers or confidentiality notices
• Contact information for your team
• Links to your help center or website
• Brand-specific messaging

The footer editor supports rich text formatting including bold, italic, links, images, lists, and headings. Footer content is separated from the email body by a horizontal line.

To configure an email footer, navigate to your channel’s Inbound Email settings and enter your content in the Email footer field.

Bounce email handling

Enable bounce email notifications to receive alerts when emails fail to deliver. Bounce handling helps you:

• Identify invalid email addresses
• Detect delivery failures
• Update contact information for requesters
• Monitor email deliverability issues

When enabled, Ravenna sends bounce notifications to your configured notification channels or workspace administrators.

Email delivery status on messages

Outbound email messages on a ticket display a delivery status badge so agents can see, at a glance, whether each email reached the recipient.

The badge appears on the message card next to the sender details and updates as new delivery information arrives from the email provider. Use it to:

• Confirm that a reply was successfully delivered
• Spot bounced or failed emails directly in the ticket timeline
• Decide when to follow up through another channel

The badge applies only to outbound emails sent from Ravenna. Inbound emails and messages on non-email channels do not show a delivery status.

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Guest users

When inbound email is enabled with guest users allowed, emails from addresses outside your organization automatically create guest user accounts.

What are guest users

Guest users are external contacts who submit tickets via email. They receive:

• A user record in Ravenna for tracking and identification
• Email notifications when their tickets are updated
• The ability to reply to tickets via email
• No access to your Ravenna workspace or web interface

Guest users appear in ticket requesters, notifications, and user searches, but cannot log in to Ravenna or view other tickets.

Guest user permissions

Guest users have restricted permissions:

What guest users can do:

• Create tickets by emailing your channel address
• Reply to their own tickets via email
• Receive email notifications about their tickets

What guest users cannot do:

• Access the Ravenna web interface
• View other users’ tickets
• Use Slack integration features
• Access internal notes or private information

Guest user creation requires the Guest users setting to be enabled in your channel’s inbound email configuration.

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Security and filtering

Control which email addresses can create tickets in your channel using allowlists.

Default behavior

By default, Ravenna only accepts emails from addresses matching your organization’s domain. This prevents unauthorized ticket creation while allowing internal users to submit requests.

When guest users are enabled without allowlists configured, all external email addresses can create tickets.

Allowlisted emails

Specify individual email addresses permitted to create tickets. Use allowlisted emails to:

• Grant access to specific partners or vendors
• Allow select external users to submit requests
• Create a controlled list of authorized senders

Add email addresses one per line in the allowlisted emails field.

Example:

[e-mail]
[e-mail]

Allowlisted domains

Specify entire domains permitted to create tickets. Use allowlisted domains to:

• Allow all users from a partner organization
• Accept emails from customer domains
• Enable access for external teams

Add domains using the @domain.com format, one per line.

Example:

@partnercompany.com
@customerdomain.org

Workflow email replies bypass queue settings

When a workflow sends an email to an external recipient, replies to that email bypass certain queue security settings.

How it works:

Workflow-sent emails include a special reply address in the format [e-mail]. When someone replies to this address (either in the To or CC field), Ravenna processes the reply regardless of:

• Guest user settings - Ravenna accepts the reply even if guest users are disabled for the queue
• Email allowlists - Ravenna processes the reply regardless of configured email and domain allowlists

Why this behavior exists:

When a workflow explicitly sends an email to someone, that action represents an intentional decision to communicate with that person. Blocking their reply would break the expected email conversation flow. Because the workflow chose to email them, their reply is allowed through.

This bypass only applies to direct replies using the ticket+TICKETID@ format. New emails to your channel’s standard address still respect all queue settings.

If allowlists are defined, only emails from specified sources will be processed. All other emails will be rejected. Ensure your allowlists include all necessary addresses and domains before enabling.

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Troubleshooting

Emails not creating tickets

If emails aren’t creating tickets, check:

• Inbound email is enabled in channel settings
• Email address is correct and matches your channel’s unique address
• Sender is allowlisted if allowlists are configured
• Guest users are enabled if the sender is external to your organization
• Email isn’t being rejected by allowlist rules

Review your channel’s inbound email settings and verify the sender meets all requirements.

Email replies creating new tickets

If email replies create new tickets instead of updating existing ones:

• Ensure the subject line includes the ticket reference (e.g., [HELP-123])
• Check that reply headers (In-Reply-To, References) are preserved by the sender’s email client
• Verify the email is sent from the same address as the original ticket requester

Some email clients strip reply headers. Ask senders to preserve the subject line with the ticket reference for reliable threading.

External users not receiving notifications

If external users aren’t receiving email notifications:

• Verify Guest users is enabled in channel settings
• Check that the sender’s email address is valid
• Look for bounce notifications indicating delivery failures
• Ensure the user’s email provider isn’t blocking emails from @mail.ravenna.ai

Ask external users to check spam folders and add @mail.ravenna.ai to their allowed senders list.