Rules you write yourself
Sorted on the way in.
Write conditions and actions on an address’s Rules tab or over the API, and they run on mail arriving at any address on your own domains.
In short
What is an email rule?
An email rule, or filter, checks each arriving message against conditions you set, such as who sent it, then does what you would otherwise do by hand.
21
fields a condition can test
11
actions a rule can take
100
rules per mailbox
How it works
Ask about any part of it
Sender, envelope, any header, attachments, size, spam verdict or arrival hour. Require all conditions or any, with NOT on each.
A numbered list, read top down
Lowest first. “Stop after this rule” ends the pass, and where two rules file a message, the later one wins.
Try it on mail you already have
Test runs a rule over recent inbox mail, changes nothing, and names each field stored mail cannot answer exactly.
What a rule can do
As the API names them.
What you get
In the product today
Refusal needs the envelope
A From-header match alone files to Spam instead of bouncing a list.
Every match recorded
Each message keeps the actions applied, the ones refused and why.
Failure still delivers
If the engine cannot answer, the message arrives as it would have.
Good practice
Getting the most out of it
- 01
Stop early on purpose
Put narrow rules first with “Stop after this rule” on, so broad ones never see that mail.
- 02
Dry-run new rules
Save it switched off, run Test, then turn it on.
- 03
Split, do not nest
(A and B) or C is two rules, and reads better six months later.
Where it stands
Good to know
- Forwarded copies
- Rebuilt copies lose the sender’s DKIM signature, and over 5MB the original silently stays behind.
- Tests on stored mail
- Of 21 fields, 11 answer differently or not at all, so a refusing rule can preview as matching nothing.
Questions
Asked often
Keep going
Works well with
Start
Your domain,
your mail.
Point a domain at OpenEmail and read it in a mailbox built around it. The free plan covers one domain.
