Point support@yourapp.ai at a route with action "agent" and a prompt, and MailKite reads every inbound message, replies in-thread, and escalates anything it can't resolve to a human address you choose. No webhook, no server to run.
Set a route's action to "agent" with a prompt describing what to answer and when to escalate — there's no handler to deploy or maintain.
The agent's reply goes out through the same Send API with proper In-Reply-To/References, so the sender sees one clean conversation, not a new email.
Set agentForwardTo and anything outside the prompt's scope forwards to a human address instead of getting a bad automated answer.
It's a route on a domain you already control — swap it for a webhook or forward at any time without changing the address your customers use.
Describe what the agent should answer, how it should reply, and what to escalate — in the dashboard or via the API.
Set action to "agent" on the address you want to automate, with the prompt and an agentForwardTo escalation address.
Inbound mail to that address is read, answered in-thread, or forwarded to the human address — nothing else to deploy.
No webhook to write — the route, the prompt, and an escalation address are the whole setup.
Dashboard → Routes → [ + New route ]
Match support@myapp.ai
Action AI agent
Prompt Answer billing and account questions for myapp.ai.
Reply in-thread. Escalate anything you can't
resolve to humans@myapp.ai.
Forward to humans@myapp.ai
Click [ Save ]Turn support@myapp.ai into an AI inbox agent: answer billing and
account questions for myapp.ai, reply in-thread, and escalate
anything it can't resolve to humans@myapp.ai.import { MailKite } from "mailkite";
const mk = new MailKite(process.env.MAILKITE_API_KEY);
// One route turns an address into an AI inbox agent — the prompt
// is the program, and unresolved mail escalates to a human.
await mk.createRoute({
match: "support@myapp.ai",
action: "agent",
agentPrompt:
"Answer billing and account questions for myapp.ai. Reply in-thread. " +
"Escalate anything you can't resolve to humans@myapp.ai.",
agentForwardTo: ["humans@myapp.ai"],
});import os
from mailkite import MailKite
mk = MailKite(os.environ["MAILKITE_API_KEY"])
# One route turns an address into an AI inbox agent — the prompt
# is the program, and unresolved mail escalates to a human.
mk.createRoute({
"match": "support@myapp.ai",
"action": "agent",
"agentPrompt": (
"Answer billing and account questions for myapp.ai. Reply in-thread. "
"Escalate anything you can't resolve to humans@myapp.ai."
),
"agentForwardTo": ["humans@myapp.ai"],
})<?php
$mk = new \MailKite\Client(getenv('MAILKITE_API_KEY'));
// One route turns an address into an AI inbox agent — the prompt
// is the program, and unresolved mail escalates to a human.
$mk->createRoute([
'match' => 'support@myapp.ai',
'action' => 'agent',
'agentPrompt' => 'Answer billing and account questions for myapp.ai. '
. "Reply in-thread. Escalate anything you can't resolve to humans@myapp.ai.",
'agentForwardTo' => ['humans@myapp.ai'],
]);MailKite mk = new MailKite(System.getenv("MAILKITE_API_KEY"));
// One route turns an address into an AI inbox agent — the prompt
// is the program, and unresolved mail escalates to a human.
mk.createRoute(Map.of(
"match", "support@myapp.ai",
"action", "agent",
"agentPrompt", "Answer billing and account questions for myapp.ai. "
+ "Reply in-thread. Escalate anything you can't resolve to humans@myapp.ai.",
"agentForwardTo", List.of("humans@myapp.ai")
));mk := mailkite.New(os.Getenv("MAILKITE_API_KEY"))
// One route turns an address into an AI inbox agent — the prompt
// is the program, and unresolved mail escalates to a human.
_, err := mk.CreateRoute(map[string]any{
"match": "support@myapp.ai",
"action": "agent",
"agentPrompt": "Answer billing and account questions for myapp.ai. " +
"Reply in-thread. Escalate anything you can't resolve to humans@myapp.ai.",
"agentForwardTo": []string{"humans@myapp.ai"},
})require "mailkite"
mk = Mailkite::Client.new(ENV["MAILKITE_API_KEY"])
# One route turns an address into an AI inbox agent — the prompt
# is the program, and unresolved mail escalates to a human.
mk.createRoute(
"match" => "support@myapp.ai",
"action" => "agent",
"agentPrompt" => "Answer billing and account questions for myapp.ai. " \
"Reply in-thread. Escalate anything you can't resolve to humans@myapp.ai.",
"agentForwardTo" => ["humans@myapp.ai"]
)curl https://api.mailkite.dev/api/routes \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $MAILKITE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"match": "support@myapp.ai",
"action": "agent",
"agentPrompt": "Answer billing and account questions for myapp.ai. Reply in-thread. Escalate anything you cannot resolve to humans@myapp.ai.",
"agentForwardTo": ["humans@myapp.ai"]
}'No — that's the point of this route action. MailKite reads the inbound message, runs it against your prompt, and sends the reply or escalation itself.
Set agentForwardTo to a human address; anything outside the prompt's scope is forwarded there instead of getting a wrong automated reply.
Yes — this is a built-in agent you configure with a prompt and no code. For a custom agent you build and control yourself, connect it to a mailbox over MCP — see Email for AI agents.
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