Inbox Rules

Use Inbox Rules to automatically organize incoming emails, assign conversations, notify teammates, or create cards when a message matches your conditions.

Before you start

Choose the inbox and the outcome you want to automate. Start with a narrow condition, such as a specific sender and subject.

You need access to configure rules for that inbox. If the inbox or rule controls are unavailable, ask your administrator to check your permissions. The Channel Admin permission allows automation configuration on any connected channel.

For card actions, identify the destination board and stage before creating the rule.

This guide covers email rules. For calls and SMS, see Using Inbox Rules for Phone Lines.

Creating an Inbox Rule

Open Inbox Rules at the bottom of the Inbox navigation. It is separate from Settings.

Inbox Rules navigation: 1 Add a new rule, 2 Inbox filter and search, and 3 Rules and Email Parsers tabs.

Step-by-step

Open Inbox and select Inbox Rules at the bottom of the navigation.

On the Rules tab, select Add a new rule.

Enter a descriptive Title and select the Inbox the rule should apply to. The selected inbox determines which channel's conditions and actions are available.

Under Condition, select what must match. Add OR condition or AND condition groups as needed.

Under Action, select what Aptly should do and complete that action's settings.

Choose the action frequency: Once per conversation or On every inbound.

Review the optional Execute After a Delay and Stop Processing settings before saving. These are separate from the rule's status switch in the rule list.

Select Save, then verify the rule with new test messages as described below.

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Rules are not retroactive. Allow time for a new or edited rule to take effect before testing with a new incoming message.

Conditions

Conditions define when a rule should run. You can combine multiple conditions using AND/OR logic to create more advanced workflows.

Common examples include:

Any incoming email

Specific sender or recipient

Email subject or body text

Contact types

Email conditions

Condition	Definition
Any email	Matches any incoming email in the selected inbox. Other conditions in the rule still apply.
Assignee	If the email is assigned to a specific user(s), the rule will trigger. Add the assignees to whom the rule applies.
Body	Any text in the body of the email that equals, contains, starts with, or ends with the specified words or phrases.
Contains Certain Contact Types	Matches contact types included in the conversation.
Sender in Certain Contact Types	Matches the sender’s contact type.
Certain Recipients	If any word or phrase in the recipient field of the email equals, contains, starts with, or ends with specified text.
Certain Senders	If the sender field of an email equals, contains, starts with, or ends with specified words or phrases.
Date Range	The email was received between or outside of a defined period of time (date and time).
Response SLA (Service Level Agreement)	Matches a configured waiting time for a response, measured in hours, days, or weeks.
Related Card	The email is related (connected) to a specific card or any card from a specific board(s).
Reply	The email has or has not been replied to.
Subject	The subject line equals, contains, starts with, or ends with specific text.
Time Range	Matches a time window on selected days of the week. Use Date Range for specific calendar dates.
Topics	The email is tagged with the selected topic(s).

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Your conditions can be stacked with AND/OR operators. In between each AND operator, you may group together multiple conditions using the OR operator.

Actions

Actions define what happens automatically when conditions are met.

Rule options: 1 Action and frequency, 2 Execute After a Delay, 3 Stop Processing, and 4 Save. Stop Processing is separate from the status switches in the rule list.

Common examples include:

Add topics

Assign conversations to users or teams

Create a new workflow card

Flag a conversation

You can combine multiple actions in a single rule. The actions below apply to email inboxes. Phone inboxes offer a different set; see the phone-rules guide linked below.

Email actions

Action	Definition
Add Topics	Assign one or many topic(s) to the email.
Assign To	Assign the email to a specific user, pick a user in a round-robin manner, or pick a specific team via round-robin.
AI Card Creation	Uses AI to create a card and extract email text into existing board fields when enabled for your organization. See the AI Card Creation section below.
Create Card	Create a new card for a specific board and stage. • Assign it to a specific user or conversation assignee. • Choose to always create a new card. • Archive the conversation when a card is created. • Assign the conversation to the card assignee if it is different than the original assignee.
Flag Conversation	Flag the email for a specific user. It will notify them, add a Flag icon to the email, and add it to the Flagged folder in their MINE view of the Inboxes Menu.
Forward Email	Forward the email to a specific recipient, include a template, and send as a specified user.
Move To Folder	Move the email to a specific folder.
Notify	Send an Aptly notification to a user or team and optionally add a message.
Relate To Card	Add the email to a specific card’s related tab.
Relate To Location	Add the email to a specific location’s related tab.
Remind Me	Send yourself a notification if the email has not been replied to, read, or regardless after a set number of days.
Reply To Email	Automatically send a reply to everyone or just the sender, choose a template, and send as a specific user.
Share To	Share the email with a specific user or team. This adds an @mention to the conversation and will appear in their Following view under Mine.
Update Card	Update cards on a specific board and a specified stage (if the rule only applies to a stage) by attaching the incoming email. You can choose to assign these updated cards to a new assignee or use the conversation assignee.

Managing Existing Rules

Composite of two Inbox Rules views: 1 Rules and Email Parsers tabs, and 2 rule-list status switches.

Inbox → Inbox Rules: 1 Add a new rule. 2 Filter by inbox. 3 Each row offers edit, duplicate, delete and reorder controls. Switches show rule status; no rule was changed for this screenshot.

To view or update your rules:

Open Inbox → Inbox Rules.

Use the search field or Inbox: All filter to find the rule.

From here you can:

Edit rules using the pencil icon

Enable or disable rules using the toggle

Clone rules to reuse logic

Delete rules

Reorder rules by dragging them

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Edits to existing rules can take up to 10 minutes to take effect after saving. This is separate from the Execute After a Delay setting. Verify the saved changes with a new incoming message.

Existing-rule editor notice: saved edits can take up to 10 minutes to go into effect.

Verify a rule before expanding it

Save the rule and confirm it is enabled.

Allow time for the change to take effect, then send a new test email to the selected inbox. Use a message that clearly matches the conditions.

Check the expected result: the conversation's topics or assignee, the notification, or the card on the selected board and stage.

Test a message that should not match, then test a reply in the same conversation to check the action frequency.

Review any automatic replies, forwards, or archiving before applying the rule more broadly. These actions affect real conversations.

If a rule does not behave as expected

Nothing happens: Check that the rule is enabled, the message arrived in the selected inbox, and every required condition matches. Review AND/OR groups and the action frequency.

An older message is unchanged: Rules are not retroactive. Use a new incoming message to test.

Replies do not repeat the action: Check whether the action runs once per conversation or on every inbound message.

Too many messages match: Replace broad conditions with a specific sender, subject, topic, or other relevant criterion. Check other enabled rules for overlapping actions.

A card is missing or duplicated: Check the destination board and stage, the conversation's existing related cards, and the action's new-card settings.

You need help: Give Support the rule name, inbox, an example conversation, the time and time zone, and the expected versus actual result.

AI Card Creation

If AI Card Creation is enabled for your organization, it can extract information from incoming email text into existing fields on a destination board. Normal rule conditions still apply. You can also use AI decision criteria to decide which matching emails should create cards.

Prepare the board fields first, then write separate instructions for which emails qualify and what information to extract. Review test cards for field values, contacts, stage, and assignee before broadening the rule. AI card creation runs automatically; it is not a draft-card approval workflow. If the action is missing, ask your administrator or Support to confirm availability.