Email and RSS Automations

An email trigger or an RSS trigger starts work in a Space from an inbound message or a feed update. Use these triggers when the work starts outside a connected app.

Email triggers

Type does not make an inbound email address automatically when you make a Space. Create an inbound email address before you send email to the Space.

Create an email address

1. Open the Automations page of the Space. If the page is in settings in your layout, open Space settings → Automations.
2. Add an email source. If you see New Synced Event, select it, then select Email.
3. Select the destination channel.
4. Enter an email username.
5. Select Create email address.
6. Copy the full address that Type shows.
7. Send a test email to that address from your email app.
8. Open the destination channel. Make sure that the email arrived. You can continue the work with Type in that thread.

Change or remove the address

• A Space can have one inbound email address.
• You cannot change the destination after you create the address. To change the destination, remove the email source from its menu. Then create the email source again with the new destination.
• When you remove the email source, Type stops future delivery through that address. Type does not delete existing Type messages.
• After you create the email source again, give the new address that Type shows to your senders. Also change your forwarding rules to the new address.

When to use email

• Requests from vendors or customers.
• Forwarded alerts.
• Intake from tools that can send email but cannot send webhooks.

RSS triggers

An RSS trigger monitors a feed. When the feed has new posts, the trigger tells the managed agent in the Space to summarize the posts or react to them.

Use RSS for:

• Product changelogs.
• Competitor blogs.
• News feeds.
• Public job posts or release notes.

Feed URL rules

An RSS feed URL must be a public HTTP or HTTPS URL. Type blocks localhost, private network, link-local, metadata, and internal hostnames.

Recover a disabled RSS feed

Type disables an RSS feed after five consecutive fetch errors. If the feed returns HTTP 410 Gone, Type disables it immediately. Type does not poll a disabled feed. These failures are feed-fetch failures. They are different from failures in a response of the managed agent.

1. Open the Automations page of the Space. Find the RSS source. The source shows Disabled or Paused. The label depends on the view.
2. Open the feed URL in a browser or a feed reader. Make sure that the URL still serves a public RSS or Atom feed.
3. If the publisher returned 410, find a replacement feed URL.
4. If the same URL works, open the menu of the source and select Resume task. Or turn the enable control of the source on again. This clears the saved fetch-error count and message.
5. If the URL changed, remove the old RSS source. Then add a new RSS source with the replacement URL. A change to the instructions does not change the saved feed URL.
6. After the next poll, examine the destination channel for new entries. When you resume the feed, a new post does not always appear immediately.

Caution

Fix the feed before you resume it. Another 410 response disables the feed immediately. Repeated fetch failures disable the feed again.

Limitations

• A private test in the editor does not verify an email address or feed availability. Test real email and feed delivery separately. See Test Automations.
• Email and RSS triggers are for instruction automations only. Code automations cannot use them. A code automation accepts only schedules, Slack, GitHub, and custom webhook adapters. See Code automations.