Write a new message in the dashboard

Agents usually send mail through the API or MCP. When a person needs to write one by hand, for example to start a conversation an agent will pick up, they can do it in the dashboard. The message goes out from the inbox you choose, exactly as if an agent had sent it.

To answer a message instead, open its thread and use the reply box at the bottom. See Reply in thread.

1. Open the composer

   Choose Compose at the top of any dashboard page. You can also:

   • choose Compose on an inbox that has no mail yet, which starts with that inbox as the sender
   • open the command palette (⌘K, Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux) and choose New message

   A New message panel opens at the bottom right, and the rest of the page is dimmed behind it. To look something up, click the dimmed page or choose Minimize: the composer folds to a bar and keeps what you wrote, even as you move between pages. On a phone it fills the screen.

2. Choose who it is from

   From starts as the inbox you are looking at, otherwise your organization’s default inbox, otherwise the first inbox that can send. Choose another inbox from the list if you need to.

   Paused and expired inboxes are listed but can’t be chosen, with the reason next to them. If no inbox can send, the composer says so and links to Inboxes.

3. Add recipients and a subject

   1. Type addresses in To, separated by commas or spaces.
   2. Choose Cc or Bcc at the end of the To row to add those fields.
   3. Add a Subject. It is optional.

   An address that isn’t valid is named under its field. A message can go to at most 50 recipients across To, Cc and Bcc.

4. Write the message

   Write in the body. The toolbar has bold, italic, strikethrough, code, links, lists and quotes. MachineMail sends both an HTML version and a plain-text version, so recipients and agents that read only text see the same words.

   To attach files, choose the paperclip at the bottom left. The attachments of one message can be at most 10 MB together.

5. Send it

   Choose Send at the bottom right, or press ⌘↵ (Ctrl+↵ on Windows and Linux). The message needs at least one valid To address.

   When Undo send is on, the send waits 5 seconds. The panel shows a countdown and an Undo button; choose Undo or press Z and the message comes back into the composer to edit. See Undo a send.

   Once sent, the composer closes and the message starts a new thread in the inbox.

Minimize, expand or close

The buttons at the top right of the panel:

On a phone, the back button folds the composer to its bar and keeps what you wrote.

Keep it for later

Close a message you have started and it is saved to Drafts. A Saved to Drafts message appears with an Open link. From the Drafts page you can edit it, send it or delete it, as described in Approve drafts before they send.

A closed message with nothing written in it is not saved.

Discard it

Choose the trash can at the bottom left. A Message discarded notice appears with Undo, which brings the message back. If you have started another message by then, that one is saved to Drafts first.

Troubleshooting

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