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Inbound Email Actions

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • What inbound email actions do
  • How ServiceNow tells new emails from replies
  • How to build one that creates an incident

1 Emails that create and update records

Riya emails [email protected]: “My laptop won’t start.” A few seconds later, there’s a new incident. When she replies to the email she gets back, her reply lands in the incident’s comments. 📧 That’s inbound email actions at work.

Key term: Inbound email action

A rule that decides what to do with an incoming email, like create a record or update one. Find them in System Policy > Email > Inbound Actions.

How ServiceNow sorts an incoming email. If it contains a watermark, an In-Reply-To header, or RE: plus a record number like INC0010031 in the subject, it's a Reply, and the Reply action updates that incident with the email as a comment. If the subject starts with FW or Fwd, it's a Forward. Otherwise it's New, and the New action creates an incident with the subject as the short description and the body as the description.
Figure 1. New, Reply, or Forward decides which actions can run.

2 New, Reply, or Forward?

Type How ServiceNow knows Usual action
Reply It finds a watermark (like Ref:MSG0001234), an In-Reply-To header, or a reply prefix (RE:) plus a record number in the subject Update that record
Forward The subject starts with a forward prefix, like FW: Create a record
New Anything else Create a record

3 Key fields and the email object

  • Target table: which table to create or update, like Incident.
  • Type: New, Reply, or Forward. Action type: usually Record Action.
  • Order and Stop processing: lower order runs first. Stop processing means no other actions run after this one.
  • Conditions: like “Subject contains laptop”.
// Type: New, Target table: Incident
current.caller_id = gs.getUserID();          // the sender, if they're a user
current.short_description = email.subject;
current.description = email.body_text;
current.contact_type = 'email';
current.insert();

📝 Note: The email object holds the message: email.subject, email.body_text, email.from, and more. ServiceNow already includes inbound actions for incidents. Look at them before building your own!

⚠️ Heads up: Your instance must be allowed to receive email (check System Properties > Email Properties). If an email doesn’t create anything, look in System Logs > Emails for the email and its log.

⭐ Remember: Inbound action = Type (New / Reply / Forward) + Target table + Conditions + Script. Use email.subject and email.body_text.

4 Let’s try it: look under the hood

  1. Open System Policy > Email > Inbound Actions. Find Create Incident and Update Incident.
  2. Open each one. Which Type is it? Which fields does its script set?
  3. Open System Logs > Emails and filter for Type is received. Open one and look at its log to see which action ran.

5 Quick recap

  • Inbound email actions turn emails into records or updates
  • Emails are sorted as New, Reply, or Forward
  • Replies are matched by a watermark, an In-Reply-To header, or RE: plus a record number
  • Scripts use the email object and current
  • Check System Logs > Emails when something doesn’t work

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 How does ServiceNow know an email is a reply? Show answer

It finds a watermark, an In-Reply-To header, or a reply prefix (RE:) plus a record number in the subject.

2 Which property holds the email’s subject in a script? Show answer

email.subject

3 What does Stop processing do? Show answer

It stops any other inbound actions from running after this one.

Nice work! You finished this lesson. 🎉

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