Email Agent Setup
Bind an AI email agent to a subdomain of your business domain, then forward mail from your existing inboxes into it. Your regular mail keeps working.
1. Pick a subdomain
In Settings > Email > Sending Domain, add a subdomain like `agent.yourdomain.com`. Do not use your root domain. This keeps your existing mail flowing through your normal mail provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, cPanel, etc.). If you add your root domain, all mail to that domain will route through Staffify and your existing inboxes will stop receiving mail.
2. Add the DNS records
Staffify shows you a set of records to add at your DNS provider: outbound (SES verification TXT, three DKIM CNAMEs, MAIL FROM, SPF, DMARC) and inbound (one MX record). Full reference on the DNS records page.
3. Wait for verification
Once the records propagate (usually a few minutes, up to an hour), Staffify auto-verifies them. You will see green "Verified" badges next to Outbound and Inbound.
4. Create your email agent
Go to Email > Agents > New agent. Pick a local-part like `support`, `hello`, or `appt`. The full address becomes `<localpart>@agent.yourdomain.com`.
5. (Optional) Forward existing inboxes into the agent
If you want your existing address `[email protected]` to be answered by the AI, add a forward rule in your existing mailbox that forwards to `[email protected]`. See the forwarding recipes for step-by-step instructions per provider.
How replies work
Replies from the agent go out from the subdomain address (e.g. `[email protected]`). Customers who reply hit the subdomain directly on subsequent messages, so no forwarding is needed after the first contact.
Booking appointments by email
An email agent with appointment booking only offers free times from its schedule. It skips existing appointments in its Calendar Group, blocked time, times proposed to other customers and events in the linked Google or Outlook calendar. Times are always in the time zone set on the agent. If a customer asks for a time that is taken or falls between two slots, the agent proposes the closest free time. More about availability
Integrations in the email agent
Integrations that only look something up (for example an order status) can always be used by the agent, also in autopilot. Integrations that change something (for example creating a lead or adding a note) wait in draft mode until you press Send. In autopilot they only run when you switch on autopilot for that specific integration. In your own integrations you can use the variable {{customer_email}} for the address of the customer who wrote in. All integration variables
Writing style
The agent writes in the style of the example reply you add to the agent (Example reply field), together with your own instructions. Paste a real reply you sent recently, without customer details. The agent never uses emails to other customers as an example.
When your AI agents are paused
If your AI agents are paused because of a payment problem, new emails still arrive in your inbox. The agent does not answer them: they get the label "AI paused: payment" and wait for you. Once the payment is sorted, you can let the agent write a draft for such an email with "Create AI draft". About billing
Follow-up reminders
With follow-up reminders on, the agent sends one short reminder when a customer has not replied for a while. A reminder is never sent to someone who unsubscribed, whose address bounced or who marked an email as spam; that conversation goes to you instead. If sending fails, the agent tries again a few times and then stops. When the customer replies, a new reminder can follow later in that conversation. A reminder is only charged when it is actually sent or drafted.
Privacy: retention and erasure
If you set a retention period on an agent, older emails are anonymized automatically: the text, the original email and its attachments are deleted. Once every email in a conversation is anonymized, the customer address and subject of the conversation are removed as well. When you erase the email history of a customer on their contact page, Staffify removes their address and emails everywhere in the email agent, including notes, attachments and saved action details, and the agent will not send AI emails to that address again. If that person writes to you again, a new conversation starts.
Who can turn on autopilot or forwarding
Only the account owner or a team member with the Admin role can turn on autopilot for an agent or set a forward address. Other team members can still switch an agent back to draft mode or remove the forward address. The owner always receives an email when autopilot or forwarding changes, also when the owner makes the change.
Hourly and daily limits
In the agent settings you can set a maximum number of AI replies per hour or per day. Empty means no limit. When the limit is reached, new emails get no AI reply: they move to "needs a person" with the label "AI limit reached", and the account owner gets one email per agent per day with the number of waiting emails. Clicking "Create AI draft" in a conversation always works, also while the limit is reached.
Contact forms and automatic messages
Website forms (Webflow, Squarespace, Wix and others) often send from a no-reply address. The agent then answers the customer address from Reply-To, or from a form field called Email, E-mail, E-mailadres, Emailadres, Your email or Mail. A customer address from a form is not proven, so the agent asks verification questions before showing personal data, and on autopilot changes are saved as a draft. If no single customer address can be found, the mail waits for you with the label "Form without customer address". A mail whose subject only looks like an automatic reply (for example "Out of office") waits for you with the label "Possibly an automatic message".