The Inbox is the workspace's shared queue for work that has not been placed in a project yet. Any workspace user can open it, route a message into a project as a ticket, or merge it into a ticket that already exists. The page's own instruction: "Select a message to route or merge. j and k move through the list, Enter opens the selected message."
What lands in the Inbox
- Email that matches nothing. A new conversation to the workspace mailbox becomes an Inbox ticket, with the message as its first shared comment and the sender as reporter (a contact record if they have no login).
- Replies that SAQ cannot append. A reply that references a ticket but comes from someone not on it (for example, a forwarded thread answered by a third person) becomes a new Inbox ticket rather than a comment on the original.
- Tickets started by client users without a project. A client user can always create a ticket with Project: Inbox; it waits here until a workspace user routes it.
- Quarantined messages from senders whose identity could not be verified, and paused messages stopped by the loop guard (below).
The Inbox has no billing client and no project; time cannot be logged on an Inbox ticket. Below the message queue, the page lists the Inbox tickets themselves.
Before you start
- You need to be a workspace user (Owner, Admin, or Member). Client users never see the Inbox, even when elevated.
- An API token sees Inbox tickets in ticket lists only when it has the Triage scope and is not restricted to named projects. Routing and merging are done in the browser.
- Open Inbox in the sidebar (shortcut
gi). The badge shows how many messages wait.
Reading a message
The list shows the sender, their domain, the subject, and a summary line with the client the sender is known for, the audience, attachments, and age. The detail pane shows the message body, then:
- "This message remains visible to: {audience}." Mail is Shared unless it references an internal or staff thread.
- "The matcher points at {ticket} · {title}. No access has been granted by the match itself." shown when the message references a ticket (by SAQ's own reference, by a
[ACME-184]tag in the subject, or by plus-addressing) but could not be appended. - "The sender is a known contact of {client}." when the address belongs to a contact.
- A quarantine notice for unverified senders: "Sender identity is unverified. Routing creates a ticket without granting the sender any access; merging appends the content to an existing ticket."
Route
Route turns the message into a ticket in a project (or moves an Inbox ticket there).
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Projects | "Choose a project". Any project; you do not need to be a member of it. |
| Kind | Defaults to the workspace's inbound kind (Support in a default workspace). |
| Assignee | Unassigned or a workspace user. |
| Billing client | Internal or one of the target project's billing and collaborating clients. Suggested: the sender's client when it is on the project, otherwise the project's billing client. |
Kind, assignee, and billing client are set together with the move because, once the ticket is in a project you are not a member of, you can no longer edit it. The same move is available from the ticket page as Route to project….
Merge into an existing ticket
Merge into existing ticket… appends the message as a comment on a ticket that already exists.
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Target ticket ID | Prefilled with the matcher's candidate when there is one; type an id such as ACME-184 or search by title. |
| Audience of the merged comment | The message's own audience or higher. A merge can raise the audience (Shared → Internal → Staff), never lower it. |
| Add an explicit viewer (optional) | Do not add a viewer, or a person to add as viewer of the target. |
| Put the sender on the ticket | "a person with a login becomes a viewer, a contact without one may reply in the shared audience and receives shared mail. Unverified senders cannot be added." Disabled for quarantined messages. |
The rule under the form: "Merging requires that you may read this message and comment on the target ticket at the chosen audience. Inbox triage alone is not enough." Being a viewer of the target is enough to comment at Shared.
After a merge the comment appears on the target attributed to the verified sender (or to you, for an unverified one), with the message's attachments, and a system event records the merge. If the message had created its own Inbox ticket, that ticket is archived.
Rules
- Quarantine. An unverified sender gains nothing: routing creates a ticket with no reporter, no viewer, and no contact, so the sender is mailed nothing; merging pulls the text in but cannot grant them access.
- Loop guard. More than ten messages from one address on one ticket within ten minutes pause further appends: "This address has sent more than ten messages on that ticket in ten minutes, so appends are paused. Review it and merge it explicitly."
- Matcher hints grant nothing. A
[ACME-184]tag only appends the message when the sender is already the reporter, a viewer, or a contact on that ticket. - After routing, normal visibility applies. The ticket is visible to the project's members and, if billed to a client, to that client's elevated users; the reporter keeps access as reporter.
- Notifications. Every workspace user whose preference is Everything I can see is mailed "New ticket in the Inbox: {ticket} · {title}" when an Inbox ticket is created.
- Messages sitting in restricted review show only as a count here: "{n} items in restricted review. Open Review to see what you are allowed to read." See Restricted review.
Keyboard
j and k move through the list from anywhere on the page, Enter opens the selected message, g i jumps to the Inbox.
Common problems
"You may not comment on that ticket at this audience, so it cannot be merged there. Ask someone on the target ticket, or choose another target." You are not a member of the target's project (or a viewer of the ticket) at that audience. Pick a lower audience if allowed, or ask a member.
"The action failed. Check the target ticket and try again." The target id does not resolve or the message was already handled by someone else; the list refreshes on its own.
The sender cannot be put on the ticket. The message is quarantined (unverified sender). Verify their address by adding them as a client user or by fixing sender verification on the mailbox, then wait for their next message.
A customer's reply created a new Inbox ticket instead of a comment. They replied from an address that is not on the ticket. Merge it and tick Put the sender on the ticket so future replies append.