Mail and the AI auto-responder

A small business usually gets mail in two inconvenient shapes: the owner's personal mailbox, which suppliers and guests write to — or mail hosting that has to be bought and configured separately. The Mail section offers a third: the venue's own mailboxes right inside the panel — and a proper client to work in them.

Open: Admin panel → Mail (admin.cenaly.com/mail, the "Work" group). No extension needs to be switched on: the section is open to every role, and the only gate is section access in the role settings. The owner sees and administers every mailbox of the account, an employee sees their own (the server filters that, not the interface).

What you need to start#

Step 1. Your first mailbox#

The "New mailbox" button. The form has four fields: "Name before @" (lowercase Latin letters, digits, dot, hyphen, underscore — anna, info, orders), "Location" — a specific location (the address sits on its subdomain) or "All locations" (then the address lives on the company subdomain, which is set once), "Type", and "Display name" — what recipients will see.

Four types of mailbox:

A mailbox can be disabled (the address stops accepting mail) and deleted. Deletion is the owner's only: it frees the address for a new mailbox and erases the mail, so the confirmation shows the address in its text and cannot be undone. For the service "Calls" mailbox the panel also removes the source card in the Calls section.

Mailbox statistics (the "Statistics" tab in mail settings — an employee sees it for their own mailbox too): received, sent, how many incoming messages had attachments and how much volume — over 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days and all time. The numbers are computed on read from the message list, so they always agree with what you see in the folder.

Step 2. Your own domain#

The "Your own domain" button — a three-step wizard:

1. Enter the domain. The safest choice is a subdomain like mail.yourcompany.com: the mail that already works on the main domain keeps working.
2. Add the DNS records at your registrar. Every record has a "Copy" button, and next to them are the two warnings this step exists for:
   • an MX record on the apex (the domain itself, not a subdomain) switches off the mail service you use on it today (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and so on);
   • a second SPF record breaks the check entirely — if SPF already exists, our fragment must be added inside the existing record, not as a new one.
3. "Check". The server verifies the records and reports on each: "record found" or "record not there yet". Records usually propagate within minutes.

A verified domain appears as its own group in the mailbox creation form — from there mailboxes on it are created as usual.

Step 3. Connecting your Gmail or Yandex#

If you already have a mailbox and do not want to change the address, you can connect it: mail will arrive and be sent straight from the panel. The "Connect your own mailbox" button — again three steps:

1. The e-mail address, in full, for example info@your-restaurant.com.
2. The server detects the mail system from the domain's DNS records and shows that system's own instructions in your language: where to go and how to obtain an app password (such systems will not accept the ordinary account password). If the system could not be detected, the IMAP and SMTP server addresses can be typed in by hand.
3. The result — how many messages were fetched right away. The password goes to the server once and is never returned back.

Here you also choose who can use the mailbox: the owner and managers, or one employee.

⚠️ A connected third-party mailbox is only disconnected, never deleted: the mail stays with your provider, we do not touch it.

Step 4. Reading and writing#

On the left is the mailbox bar, next to it the folder rail: "Inbox" → your folders → "All mail" → "Sent".

List and reading. Messages load as you scroll; a message has tags, a read state and "Mark all as read". A message's foreign markup is shown in an isolated frame and cannot affect the panel. Above the list there is a search box and three filters: "Unread", "With attachments" and by tags (any of the selected ones). ⚠️ The search goes over list rows — addresses, the subject and the beginning of the message — and not over message bodies: a word from the middle of a long letter will not be found.

Compose. The "Compose" button opens a window with the usual set: "To", "Cc", "Subject", formatted text, attachments. The signature is inserted into a new message automatically (switched on in settings), and reply templates are shared across the account. A reply quotes the original: the body opens empty, the signature sits below it, and under that comes "On {date}, {sender} wrote:" and the text of the original message. The text is quoted, not the markup; a quote alone does not count as a message — "Send" waits until your own text appears.

Drafts are not lost. What you type is kept in the browser: a misclick outside the window, F5 or a drained tablet do not erase the message — on return you get a "Draft restored" banner with a "Discard" button. The draft is separate per mailbox and per reply, so a draft from a shared mailbox never surfaces in a personal one.

The fate of a sent message. In "Sent" the row carries a delivery chip: "Delivered", "Not delivered" or "Marked as spam". No field means no chip at all: "unknown" is a normal state (the event has not arrived yet), and a grey question mark would alarm people where everything is fine. "Not delivered" usually means a non-existent address on the other side, not a fault of the service.

Step 5. Folders and filing rules#

The "Folders" tab in mail settings.

Folders. Up to 30 of your own folders per mailbox: a name and a colour. A message is moved by hand with the selector in the message card, and the row shows a folder chip. As soon as the first folder appears, "Inbox" starts to mean "not filed yet" — which is why "All mail" shows up next to it: otherwise a filed message would look lost. Deleting a folder does not delete the mail — it returns to the "Inbox", and the rules that pointed at it are cleared.

Rules. Up to 20 per mailbox, and the order decides: the first matching rule wins, so important ones are moved up. A rule comes in one of two modes:

The difference is spelled out in the interface itself; the model call is paid and goes through the usual AI accounting, and on cenaly.ru a local model is used. A rule can also mark the message as read right away, and the "Apply to mail already here" button runs the rules over the top unfiled messages. A manual move beats the rules: a re-delivery and the background pass will not override your filing.

⚠️ A rule with no conditions and no AI description would take every message — the panel warns about that and will not save it.

Step 6. Staff access to a mailbox#

The "Access" tab (owner only). For every employee with a login, one of three levels:

Up to 50 people per mailbox. "Read" physically cannot send a message: the ban lives on the server, not only in the interface. The mailbox settings themselves stay with the owner in both cases. The mailbox owner and the account owner are not shown in the list — their access is full anyway.

Auto-reply#

The "Auto-reply" block in mail settings — available for every type of mailbox except the AI agent (there the agent itself is responsible for answers).

The "Answer incoming mail automatically" toggle (an enabled auto-reply is marked with a "↩" chip in the mailbox bar), "Subject of the answer" (empty — the incoming subject with "Re:" is used), "Text of the answer", the "Active from" / "Active until" window (empty dates mean no limit, both dates inclusive) and "Pause between answers to one address, hours" — the loop guard, where zero means the server default.

The answer is sent by the server at the moment the message is delivered, not by an open panel — there is no need to keep a tab open. Three independent guards stand between you and a loop of two auto-responders: recognition of auto-reply and bulk-mail markers (our own answer also goes out marked as automatic), the per-sender pause, and an "already answered" marker — a re-delivery will not produce a second answer.

⚠️ On cenaly.ru the auto-reply can be configured but does not answer — the service that executes it runs only in the AWS contour. This is the one place where a setting is saved but no action follows; see "Limitations".

AI reply assistants#

These are prompters, not automation: they write a draft, and you send the message.

Assistants are created by the owner in mail settings → "Assistants" (up to 20 per account). Each one has:

• a Name — "Sales", "Support", "Bookings";
• Instructions (up to 4000 characters) — who it is and how it answers: what to offer, what to avoid, how to react to complaints;
• a tone and a reply language ("As in the message" or a specific one);
• the location it replies on behalf of;
• Data access — toggles: "Catalogue and prices", "Sender's orders" (by their address), "Business card" (name, address, phone, opening hours) and the knowledge base (do not use / the entire base / up to three selected collections).

In the reply window an employee picks an assistant from the list, optionally adds a one-off hint ("decline politely") and presses "Suggest a reply". The assistant reads the incoming message — the one you are replying to — and returns a draft; in a new message without an original the panel says so. Nothing is sent or rewritten silently: you insert the text into the message yourself, above the signature and the quote. Phrases like "I am an AI" in a draft are highlighted with a warning.

Under the list the owner sees an "Access: …" line — which toggles the chosen assistant has on; instructions and toggles are not shown to employees. From the knowledge base the assistant takes only the documents open to clients: the answer goes outside.

The mailbox AI agent#

If a mailbox was created with the "AI agent" type, it sorts the incoming mail itself. Its settings have five tabs:

There are two buttons for checking: "Test run" — the rules are run without a single message leaving, and the result lands in the log; "Run the agent" — hand a particular message to the agent once more under the current settings.

The agent's access to private knowledge base documents is switched on per document — with the "available from mail" toggle.

Links to tasks and CRM#

• A message from a task. The "✉️ Write" button in a task card opens the compose window over the task — the person is not thrown out of the task and out of the conversation — and the sent message is remembered in it: you can see that the supplier has already been written to and whether they answered. See Shift tasks.
• A message in a counterparty card. A delivered incoming message lands as an activity in the counterparty card in Companies and invoices — matched by address, switched on with a toggle in the CRM "Automation" section. From the card a link leads straight back to the message, into the right folder.
• The AI assistant spark is present on three of the more complex mail surfaces — "Folders", the AI agent settings and "Your own domains": it explains that particular block.

Limitations#

• The search does not look inside message bodies. It covers addresses, the subject and the beginning of a message; a folder list is capped and held entirely in the tab's memory.
• There are no server-side drafts. A draft lives in the browser: you will not see it on another device, and one older than a week is not offered.
• On cenaly.ru there are no AI agent mailboxes, no auto-reply and no delivery chip. An "AI agent" mailbox cannot be created there; auto-reply settings are saved, but there is nobody to answer the mail; delivery and spam-complaint events arrive only in the AWS contour. Everything else — mailboxes, folders, rules, assistants — works in both clouds.
• "AI decides" rules do not fire instantly — they run within a few minutes of delivery, and every pass is billed as an ordinary AI call. Rules by conditions work immediately and for free.
• A connected third-party mailbox is disconnected, not deleted — its mail stays with the provider. Deleting your own mailbox, on the contrary, is irreversible: the address is freed and the mail is erased.
• Caps: 30 folders and 20 filing rules per mailbox, 50 people per mailbox in "Access", 20 assistants per account, assistant instructions up to 4000 characters. A mailbox also has a daily sending limit and a cap on recipients — the panel will tell you if you hit them.
• A domain is not verified instantly. In the first minutes after the domain's first mailbox is created, sending may be rejected with a "the domain is still being verified by the mail provider" note — that is normal.

Troubleshooting#

A symptom-by-symptom walkthrough lives in troubleshooting; if nothing helped, write to us — see how to get help.

FAQ#

Do I need to buy mail hosting?#

No. Mailboxes like anna@location.cenaly.com work straight away, without a domain and without a third-party provider. Your own domain is only needed if the address has to look like yours.

Can I keep my Gmail and still work in the panel?#

Yes — the "Connect your own mailbox" wizard fetches mail over IMAP in three steps and sends through your SMTP. The address and the messages stay with your provider.

How is a reply assistant different from the AI agent?#

An assistant is a prompter: it writes a draft, and you send the message. The agent is a separate type of mailbox: it sorts incoming mail by your rules and, if you allow it, answers on its own. The agent exists only in the AWS contour.

Does the auto-reply work on cenaly.ru?#

It can be configured, but no automatic answers go out there: the service that replies to mail runs only in the AWS contour. So far this is the one place in the section where a setting is saved but no action follows.

Who can read a shared mailbox?#

The people the owner granted access to in the "Access" tab, and the owner themselves. The "Read" level really only reads: the ban on sending lives on the server.

What happens to the mail if I delete a mailbox?#

It is erased, and the address is freed for a new mailbox. That is irreversible, which is why the confirmation shows the address in its text. If you only want to stop receiving mail — disable the mailbox instead of deleting it.

Related articles#

• Employees and shifts — the logins mailboxes are created for and access is granted to
• Team chat and guests — internal messaging and guest conversations, not to be confused with mail
• Shift tasks — a message sent straight from a task card
• Companies and invoices — an incoming message as an activity in a counterparty card
• Knowledge base — where the assistants and the agent take facts from
• AI models and your own key — which provider powers the AI features of mail
• Calls — the service "Calls" mailbox and call transcripts
• Data and security — where mail lives and who has access to it