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KEIKI

Email agents

Setup guide

How to connect an AI agent to email

Create the agent in Keiki, then create its inbox on the Channels page — on the managed domain, or on your own domain once its DNS records verify. The agent owns that address outright: it reads what arrives, replies in the same thread, and never touches your personal mailbox or asks for your password.

Takes about 10 minutesUpdated

Create a free accountOr start from the Orchid template

Before you start

What you need before you start.

  • A Keiki account, which is free to create
  • A decision on the address: the managed domain, or a domain of your own
  • DNS access for that domain, if you want the agent to send from your brand
  • No IMAP credentials, no app password, and no access to your personal mailbox

Step by step

Six steps from no address to an inbox that answers.

  1. Step 1

    Create a Keiki account

    Sign up at onkeiki.com. Email is the cheapest channel to connect: there is no number to buy and no third-party app to register.

  2. Step 2

    Start from a template instead of a blank agent

    Open the Orchid template. It arrives able to triage a full inbox, answer the routine threads, and put the ones that need you into a morning digest rather than a notification pile.

  3. Step 3

    Choose the address the agent will own

    On the Channels page, create an inbox. Use the managed domain if you want an address in a minute, or add your own domain to send from your brand. Each agent owns one inbox, so its replies always come from the same place.

  4. Step 4

    Verify your domain if you brought one

    Adding a domain shows the DNS records to publish. Add them at your registrar and wait for verification — only verified domains can be selected for an inbox, which is what keeps replies out of spam folders.

  5. Step 5

    Send it a real email

    Write to the new address the way a customer would, including an attachment and a vague question. Check the reply in the thread, and that the follow-up you asked for landed as a follow-up rather than a new message.

  6. Step 6

    Publish or forward to the address

    Put it on your site, or forward an existing alias like hello@ into it so nothing needs reprinting. The morning digest tells you what was handled and what is waiting, and you can take over any thread from Conversations.

More on what your Email agent does

Questions

Questions people ask while connecting an agent to email.

Does the agent need access to my existing mailbox?
No. It gets its own inbox and its own address, so there is no IMAP password to hand over and no app password to generate. Your personal mail stays yours, and the agent only ever sees what was sent to it.
Can the agent send from my own domain?
Yes. Add the domain on the Channels page, publish the DNS records it shows, and once it verifies you can create the inbox on it. Until it verifies, the managed domain is available so you are not blocked waiting on DNS.
Does it reply in the same thread?
Yes, in-thread with the right references, so the conversation reads normally to the person on the other side rather than arriving as a stack of disconnected messages.
Can one agent have several addresses?
Each agent owns one inbox, which keeps a single identity on every reply. Run a second agent for a second address — support@ and billing@ are usually different jobs anyway.
What happens to email it should not answer?
It stops rather than guessing. Anything that needs a decision, a price or a promise you have not made goes into the digest for you, with the thread and its own suggested reply attached.
How long does the whole setup take?
About ten minutes on the managed domain. Bringing your own domain adds however long DNS takes to propagate, which is usually minutes but is out of anyone’s hands.

An inbox that has already read itself.

Create the agent, give it an address, forward your alias. Tomorrow morning the routine threads are answered and the rest is one digest.

Get early accessOr open the Orchid template