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Use › Inbound email › Notifications › Configure core features › Administer the ServiceNow AI Platform
Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Create an inbound email action

Create inbound email actions to define the actions that the system takes when an email is received.

Before you begin

Role required: admin

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > System Policy > Email > Inbound Actions.

  2. Select New.

  3. Fill in the fields as described in the table.

    Note: You might need to configure the form to see all fields.

FieldDescription
When to run
NameEnter a descriptive name for this email action.
Target tableSelect the table where the action adds or updates records.
Action typeSelect the type of action the instance takes. Select Record Action to modify a record in the instance, or select Reply Email to have the instance send an email back to the source of the inbound email.
ActiveSelect the check box to activate the inbound email action. Clear the check box to disable the action.
Stop processingSelect this check box to help prevent the system from running additional inbound email actions after this action runs.
Redact sensitive dataSelect this to mask sensitive data such as personal details, SSN, credit card details.Note: Available only when Sensitive Data Redaction for Inbound Emails plugin is activated.
TypeSelect the message type required to run the action. The action runs only if the inbound email is of the selected type. Available types are:- New: An email that is not recognized as a reply or forward. - Reply: An email with a watermark with an In-Reply-To email header, or whose subject line begins with a recognized reply prefix. - Forward: An email whose subject line begins with a recognized forward prefix, even if the email also contains a watermark or In-Reply-To header. Note: By default, inbound emails of the Forward type always generate new incidents regardless of the presence of a watermark. If this behavior doesn’t match your business logic, you can change the recognized reply and forward prefixes to treat forwards like replies.
Required rolesSpecify required roles that the sender must have to trigger the inbound action.
OrderEnter a number that specifies when this inbound action runs relative to other inbound actions that use the same target table. The instance processes the action with the lowest order number first.
FromSelect the user required to run the action. If a user is selected, the action runs only when the email sender matches the user name. Leave this field empty to perform the action for all users.Note: If the selected user is later archived or deleted, the restriction is removed and anyone can trigger the inbound email action.
ConditionSpecify the condition that must evaluate to true to trigger the inbound action. Build a condition with the choice lists or enter a statement that determines when the inbound email action runs. For example: 
email.subject. startsWith ( "chg:" )
Actions
Field actionsThis field appears if the Action type is Record Action. Specify how information in the email is inserted into the record. For example, select [Created by] [From email] [Sender], so that when the request is inserted, you can see who it is for.
Reply emailThis field appears if the Action type is Reply Email. compose the email message to send to the source that triggered the inbound email action.
Script

Enter the script that the action runs. Typically, this script uses the validators script include and email variables. A template is provided:

```

(function runAction(/GlideRecord/ current, /GlideRecord/ event, /EmailWrapper/ email, /ScopedEmailLogger/ logger) {

// Implement email action here

})(current, event, email, logger); ```

The following objects are available:

  • current: access the record referred to by the inbound email. For example, current.assigned_to accesses the person assigned to the task.
  • event: access one of the parameters of the originating event. For example, event.parm1 accesses the first parameter of the event or event.parm2 for the second parameter. See Events for more information.
  • email: access the inbound current email record. For example, email.subject accesses the content in the subject line of the email. See Accessing email object variables for more information.
  • logger: add a message to the log file with the source set to email.<Sys ID of incoming email>. For example: logger.log ("Some information")
Description
DescriptionEnter a detailed explanation of what this inbound email action does.
Other fields
OrderEnter a number to define the order in which this email action should be processed. Actions with lower numbers are processed first. The Ordered Email Processing plugin does not activate this field.

Parent Topic:Use Inbound email actions