Email piping connects one or more support inboxes to Aysali Bot so that:

• Incoming mail becomes chat conversations (source em)
• Agents and users can reply by email as well as in the widget or admin panel

Configure mailboxes under Settings → Notifications → Email piping (repeater — add a row per inbox). The help link on Email piping points here.

Activation

1. •

   Configure IMAP/POP3

   In Email piping, enable Active and enter Host, Username, Password, and Port (993 for IMAP SSL is typical).

2. •

   Configure SMTP

   Open Settings → Notifications → SMTP. The Sender email should be the same mailbox you read via piping (or a coordinated set of addresses — see reply-to below). See Email notifications.

3. •

   Save and synchronize

   Save settings, then click Synchronize now on the piping row to test ingestion.

Field	Purpose
Active	Enable this mailbox for piping
Host / Username / Password / Port	POP3/IMAP server login
Delimiter	Inserts “reply above this line” marker to strip quoted replies
Convert all emails	Import every new inbox message as chat (see risks below)
One conversation per user	Reuse the user’s latest email conversation instead of creating a new one each time
Disable cron job	Turn off automatic polling in the admin UI (use external cron only)
Department	Assign new email conversations to a department
Tags	Apply tags to new email conversations
Filters	Comma-separated keywords — if found in subject, body, or sender, the email is skipped
Synchronize now	Manual fetch

You can add multiple rows to sync several addresses.

SMTP, sender, and reply-to

• Sender email (SMTP) should match the piping mailbox when possible.
• If sender and piping addresses differ, or you use several piping accounts with Username set as an email, Aysali Bot adds a Reply-To header pointing at the correct piping address so user replies stay on the right thread.

When piping is active, User email notifications and Agent email notifications are treated as enabled for piping workflows. When agents reply in the admin panel, users always receive email for email-sourced conversations.

Reply threading

Outbound notification subjects include a token such as Re: \{conversation_id\} | SB{conversation_id}-\{code\} in the display name (e.g. Aysali Bot | SB2457-4734 <[email protected]>). Email clients must preserve that recipient display name when the user clicks Reply or Reply all — Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and Outlook Web are supported.

Replies must reference that token so the message attaches to the existing conversation instead of opening a new one.

Convert all emails

When Convert all emails is on:

• Every new message in the inbox can become a chat — including spam and marketing mail. Use Filters to reduce noise.
• Mail from agent/admin addresses registered in Aysali Bot is ignored.
• Each new message to the piping address without a thread token can start a new conversation.
• Do not use the piping mailbox for agent replies — agents must reply from their registered profile email.
• Agents receive notification email only when offline.

Delimiter

Delimiter adds a visible line: ### Please type your reply above this line ### (translated per user language). Content below it is discarded to avoid duplicated quoted text. When enabled, do not use ### in the message body itself.

Attachments from email are imported into the conversation.

Departments and routing

If a conversation has a department, email notifications to agents follow the same department rules as push and email notifications.

If the incoming message has a Reply-To header, that address is used as the user’s primary email for notifications.

Chatbot (Dialogflow)

If the Artificial Intelligence app is enabled and human takeover applies, outbound emails are skipped when the bot can answer — same as other notification channels.

Optional: allow the chatbot to reply to user emails when the answer is known (Dialogflow email piping setting in the chatbot area).

Gmail / Google Workspace

• Use an App Password instead of your normal Google password.
• IMAP: host imap.gmail.com, port 993.
• Ensure Workspace admins allow IMAP/SMTP for third-party apps if using a custom domain.

Cron and polling

The admin panel can trigger piping about once per minute while an agent has the dashboard open (unless Disable cron job is on).

For production, schedule a server cron job:

https://your-bot-host.example/include/api.php?piping=true

Example:

*/59 * * * * wget -q -O /dev/null "https://your-bot-host.example/include/api.php?piping=true"

Use your workspace bot host (same origin as admin.php). If you run an external cron, enable Disable cron job in piping settings to avoid duplicate polling.

You can also force a run via the admin Synchronize now button or the AJAX action email-piping (used internally).

Requirements checklist

• PHP IMAP extension installed on the bot host
• Valid SMTP (custom or Use Aysali SMTP where available)
• HTTPS admin and widget URLs for linked notifications
• Agents reply from their registered email, not the shared piping inbox

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