Creating a Send Email Action on a Workflow Task

A Send Email action lets you send templated emails to members as part of an automated workflow. For email campaigns, you attach this action as the entry item on the first task of a workflow — when a member enters the task, the email fires automatically.

How it fits together: "Send Email" is an Action type in Gravity Rail. In a campaign workflow, you assign it as the entry action on your first task. When a routine triggers the workflow for each targeted member, the member enters the first task, which fires the Send Email action and delivers the email.

Prerequisites

• A workflow with at least one task (see Workflows)
• An inbox configured in your workspace (see Email & Inboxes) — this determines the "from" address for the email
• Your email content ready (subject line and body)

Steps

1. Open your campaign workflow

Navigate to Workflows and open the workflow you'll use for the campaign. If you don't have one yet, create a new workflow and add at least one task (this will be the task that sends the email).

2. Navigate to the Actions page

Go to Actions in your workspace.

3. Create a new action

Click New Action.

4. Configure the trigger

Set the trigger to Task Entered and select the first task of your campaign workflow. This ensures the email fires when a member enters the task — which happens automatically when the routine starts the workflow for each member.

5. Select "Send Email" as the action type

In the action type dropdown, select Send Email. The email configuration form will appear.

6. Select the inbox

Choose the inbox that will send the email from the From dropdown. This determines the "from" address and reply-to behavior. Saving the action requires that you can send from the inbox; the member it runs for needs no inbox access. Replies to this email will be received by this inbox (and can trigger a reply-handling workflow — see the main tutorial).

If the Inbox does not exist yet, select Create Inbox from From. After you save the new Inbox, it is selected and your email draft stays intact. This option requires permission to create Inboxes.

To defaults to The Current Member, meaning the Member running the action. Choose Custom Recipients... to enter addresses instead.

Workflow defaults to No workflow. Selecting a Workflow creates a Chat for the current Member when the action runs. Replies to that Chat continue its Workflow, even if the Inbox has no default Workflow. With No workflow, the action sends a standalone email; a reply follows the Inbox's new-thread routing, including its default Workflow if configured. No workflow does not disable the Inbox's reply automation.

A selected Workflow sends its own opening message. If you also supply a custom Subject and Body, those are sent as a separate email. A saved custom recipient for a Workflow-only action stays visible but disabled until both fields are set.

7. Enter the subject line

In the Subject field, enter your email subject. You can use template variables for personalization:

{{member.first_name}}, your enrollment update is ready

8. Enter the email body

The Body field shows a preview of your current message. Click it (or the Edit email button that appears on hover) to open the full Edit email body dialog.

The dialog's editor is a rich text editor by default — format your message with the toolbar: headings, bold/italic/underline/strikethrough, bulleted and numbered lists, blockquotes, a divider, left/center/right alignment, and links. Insert template variables either by typing {{ for autocomplete or from the Variables dropdown in the toolbar, the same {{member.first_name}} syntax used in the subject line.

Hello {{member.first_name}},

We're reaching out about your enrollment in the program.

If you have any questions, simply reply to this email and our team will assist you.

Need formatting the toolbar can't express? Click Raw HTML in the toolbar to edit the HTML source directly; click Edit to go back. If switching back would change your markup (TipTap simplifies some hand-written HTML), you'll be asked to confirm first — Cancel keeps your source exactly as typed.

Click Preview in the toolbar to see a full-width rendering of your current draft with sample values for template variables. The preview uses the outbound body assembly, including the footer and layout, but it cannot guarantee how each recipient's email client will display the message. External images are blocked in the preview. Click Edit to go back, or start formatting again — clicking a formatting control leaves preview and applies that action. Your draft is unchanged either way.

Click Done to apply your changes and close the dialog, or Cancel to discard them (you'll be asked to confirm if you've made unsaved edits).

Insert an image from the toolbar's Image button — upload a new file, pick one already in your workspace, or paste an external URL. A workspace image is embedded in the email by default, so it shows up for every recipient even offline; you can switch it to a link instead, but only once the file is public and shareable (change that from the file's own Share dialog on the Files page — the image dialog links there for you). Embedded images are capped at 2 MB each and 6 MB total per email, and an email may reference at most 20 workspace images in total — embedded or linked; the live preview checks these limits, along with sharing and file format, before you send. It can't catch everything, though — a failure reading the file's bytes or a delivery error only shows up after you send, in the email record. One preview caveat: images hosted on external sites are not loaded in the preview at all, so check those in a test send. Give each image alt text in the dialog so screen-reader users get a description; select an inserted image to set its width, alignment (left or centered), edit its source, or remove it.

9. Set an email override (optional)

If you want the email to go to specific addresses instead of the member's email on file, choose Custom Recipients... in To and enter up to 20 addresses separated by commas. Each eligible unique destination receives a separate email, so recipients do not see one another's addresses. Duplicate destinations are sent only once, and an address that resolves to the member is skipped when that member has disabled email notifications. Keep The Current Member selected for campaigns to send to each targeted Member's email address.

If delivery succeeds for one address and a later address fails, Gravity Rail records a partial-delivery error. Review the individual email records before retrying; retrying the entire action could send duplicates to recipients who already received it.

10. Save the action

Click Save to create the action. The action is now linked to your workflow task and will fire whenever a member enters that task.

Template Variables

You can personalize both the subject and body with template variables using {{variable}} syntax. Commonly used variables for email campaigns:

Variable	Example Value
{{member.first_name}}	"Jane"
{{member.last_name}}	"Smith"
{{member.name}}	"Jane Smith"
{{member.email}}	"jane@example.com"
{{member.phone}}	"+1 555 123-4567"
{{member.date_of_birth}}	"1980-06-15"
{{member.age}}	45
{{member.data.SLUG.FIELD}}	Custom form data
{{assistant.name}}	"Support Bot"
{{task.name}}	"Customer Onboarding"

For conditional content, use Jinja2-style blocks:

{% if member.data.profile.company %}
Company: {{member.data.profile.company}}
{% endif %}

For the full list of available variables, see Template Variables.

Email Formatting Tips

• Use the preview before saving — it applies sample values and shows the assembled body with the footer and layout. Email clients can render it differently, and external images are blocked; send a test email when you need to check the delivered message.
• Keep it single-column — the editor doesn't support multi-column layouts, which is a feature, not a limitation: complex layouts break in many email clients anyway.
• A plain-text version goes out automatically — Gravity Rail generates the plain-text fallback for you from the formatted body, so recipients who view email in text-only mode still get readable content.
• Images are embedded by default — a workspace image inserted via the toolbar's Image button is attached to the email itself, so it renders even for a recipient reading offline. Linking to the file instead requires making it public and shareable first; an external URL inserts an externally hosted image — no upload needed, but recipients' mail clients must be able to fetch it from that host.