# Inbox Agents

An inbox agent handles customer emails that are not a document: questions about prices, availability, delivery dates, shipment tracking or product data. It recognizes the request, looks up the answer in your ERP, your master data and your knowledge files, and creates a draft reply or an internal summary. Your employees see the result in the [Workist add-in for Outlook](/en/docs/data-exchange/outlook-add-in.md) next to the email.

**Managers** and **Admins** set up inbox agents. Your Workist contact can tell you whether inbox agents are part of your plan.

## How it works

1. A mailbox is connected to Workist through the [Smart Inbox](/en/docs/smart-inbox.md), usually an employee's Personal Smart Inbox, and linked to an inbox agent.
2. The Smart Inbox classifies every incoming email. Orders, RFQs, invoices and order confirmations go to your channels as usual.
3. All other emails go to the inbox agent, including those you excluded from document processing with Smart Inbox exclusion rules.
4. The agent recognizes the requests in the email, retrieves the data it needs and writes its answer.
5. When the employee opens the email in Outlook, the add-in shows the result. They can create a draft reply from it, have the agent adjust it in the chat and rate the result.

The agent matches the sender's email address to a customer and contact person in your master data. Prices and information then apply to that customer.

## Prerequisites

- **Manager** or **Admin** role to create and change agents, see [Users, roles & teams](/en/docs/administration/users-and-roles.md).
- At least one mailbox connected through the Smart Inbox. A mailbox can only be linked to one agent.
- The [Workist add-in for Outlook](/en/docs/data-exchange/outlook-add-in.md) for the employees who should use the results, ideally deployed company-wide.
- For price, availability, delivery date and tracking requests, a connected ERP, see [Skills](#step-2-skills).

## Create an inbox agent

In the left navigation, open **Agents** and click **Create Agent**. A wizard guides you through seven steps.

### Step 1: Basics

| Setting | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Name** | Required. |
| **Purpose** | For orientation only, for example "Price requests sales south". |
| **Team** | Controls who sees the agent: members of this team; **Admins** see all agents. |

### Step 2: Skills

Choose which requests the agent handles:

| Skill | What the agent provides | Requires |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Price Request** | Price of an article for the customer | ERP with price lookup |
| **Availability** | Whether an article is available | ERP with stock lookup |
| **Delivery Date** | Expected delivery date for an order | ERP with delivery date lookup |
| **Tracking Link** | Tracking link or number for an order | ERP with shipment tracking |
| **Product Specification** | Technical details from your knowledge files; the agent attaches the matching file to the reply | Knowledge files and enabled file attachments (Knowledge step) |

If your ERP cannot serve a skill, the wizard shows the notice that your ERP does not provide the required functionalities. What the ERP systems provide:

| ERP system | Price | Availability | Delivery date | Tracking link |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Oracle NetSuite | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| SAP Business One | yes | – | – | yes |
| microtech büro+ | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Sage 100 | yes | yes | yes | – |

With microtech büro+, shipment tracking only returns results if Workist has set up the tracking link field in your integration. Sage 100 requires version 8 of the Workist API extension, see [Sage 100](/en/docs/data-exchange/connectors/sage-100.md#erp-features-of-the-agents).

### Step 3: Integrations

| Integration | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| ERP | The ERP system and, if there are several, the connection. You can choose from your company's ERP integrations. |
| **Master Data (Email automation)** | A channel whose master data the agent uses to find senders, articles, contacts and addresses. |
| **Order History** | Past orders from the same sender as context for the answer. |
| **Microsoft SharePoint** | Syncs folders and files from SharePoint as knowledge, for example price lists or technical documentation. Choose the **SharePoint connection**, **Site**, **Document library** and the knowledge sources. An **Admin** or a user with the **IT** role creates the connection under **Settings** › **Integrations** › **Microsoft SharePoint**. |
| **Document creation (Email automation)** | Default channels for orders, order confirmations, RFQs, invoices and delivery notes. The agent submits documents here: in the add-in, when an email turns out to be an order or RFQ after all, and in [automations in Worki](/en/docs/agents/worki.md#automations). |

Without integrations, the agent relies only on knowledge files and expert knowledge; results are then less accurate.

### Step 4: Knowledge

| Setting | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Expert knowledge** | Rules that are not in your data, in separate sections. For example "Customer ABC always gets 15 % discount" or "Products starting with A need a handling fee of €5". |
| **Knowledge Files** | Supported formats: .c, .cpp, .cs, .css, .csv, .doc, .docx, .go, .html, .java, .js, .json, .md, .pdf, .php, .pptx, .py, .rb, .sh, .tex, .ts, .txt. |
| **Knowledge URLs** | Up to 10 addresses starting with `https://`, for example product catalogues or data sheets. Workist refreshes the content every few hours. |
| **File Attachments** | The agent may attach matching knowledge files to replies. This only works if the mailbox's Smart Inbox has the latest admin consent. |

### Step 5: Response

| Setting | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Response** | **Auto**: the agent decides per email; a draft when it could answer the request, an internal summary otherwise. **Draft Email**: always a draft reply to the customer. **Summary**: always an internal summary for review. |
| **Output Instructions** | Tone, style and things to avoid, for example "Use a formal tone" or "Respond in the same language as the customer". |

### Step 6: Users

Choose the mailboxes whose emails the agent handles. Only mailboxes connected through the Smart Inbox appear here. Employees with a Personal Smart Inbox can also connect themselves to an agent of their team, or disconnect, on their profile page. If a mailbox is already linked to another agent, connecting it moves it to this agent.

### Step 7: Summary

Review the settings and create the agent. The summary points to the Outlook add-in settings, where you deploy the add-in in your company.

## Manage agents

Under **Agents** you see all agents of your teams with their status, **Active** or **Paused**. In an agent's menu:

- **Manage** (in the agent's history: **Manage agent**): change all sections from the wizard; save with **Save**.
- **Pause** and **Resume**: a paused agent does not handle new emails.
- **Delete**: removes the agent permanently.

The agent's project with instructions and knowledge is also available in [Worki](/en/docs/agents/worki.md#inbox-agent-projects).

## History

Click an agent to open its **History**: all handled emails with sender, subject, status and duration. Filter by status, sender, creator and time range, or search by subject.

| Status | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Thinking** | The agent is still working. |
| **Response ready** | The result is available. |
| **No actions identified** | The email contained no request the agent can handle. |
| **Failed** | Processing failed. |

Click an entry to see **Received data**, **Identified actions**, **Generated response text**, the **Agent reasoning** and the employees' **Feedback**. In an entry's menu, choose **Retry** (after a failure), **Reprocess** (with the current settings) or **Delete**.

## AI notice

The agent's answers are AI generated and can contain mistakes. The agent does not reply to incoming emails by itself: your employees review the draft in the add-in and send it. The exception is [automations in Worki](/en/docs/agents/worki.md#automations), where the agent carries out your instruction without asking.