# Email a Ready-Made Address

Every employee you hire gets a real email address the moment they start. Send them an email, or CC them on a thread you already have going, and they read it, do the work, and the reply lands back in your inbox. No provider to configure, no forwarding rules, nothing to switch on.

## TL;DR

Each employee owns a personal inbox on `mail.sista.ai`, ready the day you hire them. Email it or CC it on any thread and the employee picks the work up in the background. Nothing to set up, the address exists from day one.

## How It Works

Mailbox gives each employee a dedicated address on a single shared domain, plus-addressed per employee so every reply routes to the right thread. When mail arrives, the employee reads it, does the work, and answers from the same address.

- **Ready on hire.** The address is assigned automatically. You never create or configure it.
- **Straight into the thread.** Replies route into the employee's chat thread, so email and web chat are one continuous conversation.
- **Shared memory.** A request that starts by email is in the employee's memory the next time you talk on the web app, and back again.
- **Clean bounces.** A bounce auto-suppresses that one mailbox without touching your account email or any other employee.

## What You Can Do

| Action | How it works |
|---|---|
| **Email an employee directly** | Copy the address from **Settings, Communications, Mailbox** and send. The employee reads it and replies. |
| **CC on an existing thread** | Add the employee's address to any external email thread to pull them in mid-conversation. |
| **Hand off from web chat** | Start a task in the web app, forward the relevant email to the employee, and it continues with full memory. |
| **Copy the address** | Each employee's address sits on the Mailbox panel with a one-click copy button. |

## How to Set It Up

There is nothing to set up. Every employee already has an address, shown on the Mailbox panel under **Settings, Communications**. Copy it, send an email, and you are done. If an address shows as pending, the shared mail domain is still finishing DNS verification, the address is reserved for that employee and starts delivering the moment it is live.

Mailbox is different from the **Email Webhook** channel. Mailbox is the ready-made personal address that works out of the box. Email Webhook is for routing mail from your own provider into an employee through an endpoint you configure, see the [Email guide](/guide/channels/email) for that.

## Tips and Tricks

- **CC to bring an employee in.** The fastest way to hand off real work is to CC the employee on a live thread. They see the full context and reply in place.
- **One address per employee.** Every employee has its own address, so mail lands with the right person and stays cleanly separated.
- **Use web chat for big work.** File uploads, long tasks, and the full execution timeline are best in the workspace. Mailbox is for quick, email-shaped requests.

## What It Costs

| Cost | What it covers |
|---|---|
| **Token credits** | Same as web chat. Billed per call the employee makes. |
| **Runtime credits** | 1 credit per minute of processing time. |
| **Workflow credits** | 1 credit per email the employee handles. |

There is no per-message fee. You pay only for the work the employee does.

## Is It Safe

- **Per-mailbox isolation.** Each address belongs to one employee in one workspace. Mail to one never reaches another customer's employee.
- **Bounce containment.** A bounce suppresses only that one mailbox and never affects your account email.
- **Channel gate.** The Mailbox toggle on the Communications page is the master switch. Turn it off and the addresses stop accepting mail.

## Good to Know

- **On from day one.** Mailbox is enabled for every workspace by default, no plan upgrade needed.
- **Replies come from the employee's address.** Answers arrive from the same address you wrote to, so the thread stays clean.
- **Text first.** The employee reads the email body and replies in text. For files and rich work, use the web app.

## Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: Do I have to set anything up to email an employee?**
A: No. The address exists the moment you hire the employee. Copy it from the Mailbox panel and send.

**Q: How is this different from the Email Webhook channel?**
A: Mailbox is a ready-made personal address that works out of the box. Email Webhook is for forwarding mail from your own email provider into an employee through an endpoint you set up.

**Q: Will an emailed request show up in web chat?**
A: Yes. Email routes into the employee's chat thread, and memory is shared, so the conversation continues in the web app and back.

**Q: What if the address shows as pending?**
A: The shared mail domain is finishing DNS verification. The address is already reserved for that employee and starts delivering as soon as it is live.