Send email from a workflow

A workflow can send an email to anyone, from your own domain, using a template you control. Setting that up is three jobs: verify a sending domain so your project can send as you, write an email template, then add a Send An Email step that picks the template and fills in its variables from the workflow's data.

Anythink also sends its own system emails, such as account confirmation and password reset. They use the same template editor, so you can restyle them in the same place.

Set up a sending domain

Workflow emails go out from an address on a domain you've verified. Until a domain is verified and a sender address exists, a Send An Email step has nothing to send from. System emails don't need this: with no default sender they're sent from Anythink's own address.

Add and verify a domain

Register the domain, add the DNS records Anythink shows you at your DNS provider, then check them.

Rules for domains

• Enter a bare hostname. It's stored in lower case.
• Each hostname can be registered once per project.
• Anythink's own domains and placeholder names such as localhost, example.com and test can't be registered.
• You can't delete a domain while a sender address still uses it. Remove the address first.

Set sender addresses and the default sender

A sender address is a full address on a verified domain, with an optional display name that recipients see before the address. One address is the default. A Send An Email step uses the default unless the step sets its own From address.

How the From address is chosen

For a workflow email Anythink picks the first of these that sits on a verified domain:

1. The From address set on the step.
2. The default sender address.

If neither is usable, the email isn't sent. A From address on a domain you haven't verified is ignored and the default is used instead.

Gmail can show a small image next to your name. Each verified domain can have a public image file as its sender avatar, set from the same tab. Other mail apps ignore it.

Create and edit email templates

A template is a subject and an HTML body. The body is wrapped in a shell that supplies the header, footer and brand colours, so you only write the content.

anythink fetch /email-templates --method POST --body '{
  "template_type": "order_confirmation",
  "subject": "Your order {{ order_ref }} is confirmed",
  "content": "<h2>Thanks, {{ first_name }}</h2><p>Order {{ order_ref }} is on its way.</p>"
}'

anythink fetch /email-templates/order_confirmation --method PUT --body '{
  "subject": "Order {{ order_ref }} confirmed",
  "content": "<h2>Thanks, {{ first_name }}</h2><p>Order {{ order_ref }} is on its way.</p>"
}'

Template variables

Write a variable as {{ name }} in the subject or the body. Spaces inside the braces are optional and names aren't case-sensitive, so {{first_name}} and {{ First_Name }} are the same. A variable with no value is left in the email as written, so check the spelling.

Two kinds of variable are available.

Your own variables. The Send An Email step supplies them. A template for a welcome email might use {{ first_name }} and {{ order_ref }}. Each value is sent as text.

Built-in variables. Anythink fills these in for every email, and they take priority over a variable of the same name.

In the dashboard, the Preview tab shows the template with sample values, and the Variables tab lists every variable the template uses so you can give each a sample. Samples are only for the preview and aren't saved.

The email shell

Every template's body is inserted into one shared shell: header, footer and styles. The shell is listed above your templates as Shell template. Its Design tab changes colours, corners, header and footer without writing HTML, and Source edits the HTML directly. Reset to default restores Anythink's shell. The shell must keep the {{Content}} placeholder, because that's where each template's body goes.

System templates

These templates are created for every project, and Anythink sends them itself when the matching event happens.

Run anythink fetch /email-templates to see each one's type. You can edit a system template's subject and body, and the new version is used the next time that email is sent. You can't delete one, and the template type can't change. Keep the link variable the email depends on, such as {{ ConfirmationUrl }}, {{ InviteUrl }}, {{ PasswordResetUrl }} or {{ MagicLinkUrl }}, or the person has no way to complete the action. System templates also use {{ OrgName }} and, for Added to Organisation, {{ AccessLevel }} and {{ LoginUrl }}.

The Send An Email step's template list shows only your own templates, so create a template for workflow emails.

To restyle every email at once, change the shell instead of each template.

Send an email from a workflow

The Send An Email step queues one email for one recipient. It has no subject or body fields of its own: the subject and body come from the template you name.

Anythink reads each key in payload as a variable name. A key the template doesn't use is ignored.

anythink workflows step-add 42 send_confirmation \
  --name "Send confirmation" \
  --action SendAnEmail \
  --start --enabled \
  --params '{
    "to": "{{ $anythink.trigger.data.email }}",
    "template_type": "order_confirmation",
    "payload": "{\"first_name\":\"{{ $anythink.trigger.data.first_name }}\",\"order_ref\":\"{{ $anythink.trigger.data.order_ref }}\"}"
  }'

Use trigger data as variables

The workflow's trigger data and earlier steps' output are available in to, from and every value in payload. See Template syntax for the full set of expressions.

{{ $anythink.trigger.data.email }}
{{ $anythink.trigger.data.customer.first_name }}
{{ $anythink.steps.lookup_order.data.reference }}

If a value can't be found, the variable is empty, so a template reads Hello , order rather than failing. If it's the to address that can't be found, the step fails (see below).

Attach files

Attach files from your project's file storage. Each attachment has:

{
  "to": "{{ $anythink.trigger.data.email }}",
  "template_type": "order_confirmation",
  "payload": "{\"first_name\":\"{{ $anythink.trigger.data.first_name }}\"}",
  "attachments": [
    { "file_id": "{{ $anythink.trigger.data.invoice_file_id }}", "disposition": "attachment" }
  ]
}

In the dashboard, open the step's Attachments tab. It counts files out of 10 and lets you pick files from storage or enter an id or expression, with an Attached or Inline (CID) switch. Images you insert into a template's body are sent inline automatically.

A file_id that doesn't resolve to a number is skipped, and the step log says so. The email still goes out without it.

What happens when a send fails

A Send An Email step checks its inputs and queues the email; the email itself is sent straight afterwards.

These problems fail the step and the job, with a message in the job's error:

• to is empty, still contains an unresolved {{ }} expression, or isn't an email address.
• from is set but still contains an unresolved expression or isn't an email address.
• template_type is empty, more than 10 attachments are set, or a disposition isn't attachment or inline.
• payload isn't valid JSON.

When the checks pass, the step logs Successfully queued email to … and finishes.

For the email to go out, make sure that:

• the template type exists;
• the project has a verified sending domain with a default sender, or the step's From address is on a verified domain;
• the project is within its daily email allowance for its plan;
• attachments can be read and are 25 MB or less in total.

To react to a failed step, link the step's failure path to another step such as a Slack message or a record update:

anythink workflows step-link 42 575 --on-failure 576

In the dashboard, set the step's failure path to the step that should run instead.

See what was sent

Anythink doesn't keep a list of sent emails. Open the workflow's job history to see that each email was queued.

anythink workflows jobs 42

anythink fetch /workflows/42/jobs

Limits

Next steps

• Step types: the other steps you can combine with an email
• Template syntax: every {{ }} expression a step accepts
• Triggers and scheduling: start a workflow from a record change, a schedule or an HTTP call
• Secrets: keep credentials out of your steps and emails
• Upload and manage files: store the files you attach
• Roles and permissions: control who can manage email settings