Work routing

Route an email request for sign-off.

Send an email-based approval, acknowledgement, or text-response request to several people and record their replies.

Token first

Make sure the agent has these scopes.

Create a new token or update the agent's current token before trying the calls below.

Required token scopes

work_routes:read work_routes:write email:read sequences:write

Outcome

What this gives you.

A quote, invoice, decision, or email request gets routed to the right recipients with status, reminders, and reply evidence attached.

Use when

The operational shape.

  • An email request needs approval, acknowledgement, or written input from more than one person.
  • Recipients should respond by email instead of logging into another system.
  • You need ordered or parallel sign-off with a route record and route events.

API sequence

The calls to make.

01

Read route options

GET/v1/work-routes/reference/

Load supported request types, routing modes, completion rules, and failure modes.

02

Create and start the route

POST/v1/work-routes/

Create a parallel or ordered email route tied to the source message.

Default example
Use parallel approval when every recipient should be active at once and all required responses must arrive.
{
  "creator_inbox_id": "inb_123",
  "title": "Approve vendor quote",
  "description": "Reply APPROVE, REJECT, or CHANGES with notes.",
  "request_type": "approval",
  "routing_mode": "parallel",
  "completion": "required",
  "failure_mode": "block",
  "due_at": "2026-06-18T12:00:00Z",
  "start": true,
  "source": {
    "type": "email",
    "message_id": "msg_123",
    "thread_id": "thr_123",
    "subject": "Vendor quote"
  },
  "response_detection": {
    "phrases": {
      "approve": ["approve", "approved", "ship it"],
      "reject": ["reject", "hold"],
      "request_changes": ["changes", "revise"]
    }
  },
  "recipients": [
    {"kind": "contact", "contact_id": "ctc_finance", "reminder_sequence_id": "seq_remind"},
    {"kind": "email", "email": "legal@example.com"}
  ]
}
Ordered legal then finance route
Use ordered routing when later recipients should wait until earlier sign-offs are complete.
{
  "creator_inbox_id": "inb_123",
  "title": "Approve contract addendum",
  "request_type": "approval",
  "routing_mode": "ordered",
  "completion": "required",
  "failure_mode": "block",
  "due_at": "2026-06-18T12:00:00Z",
  "start": true,
  "source": {
    "type": "email",
    "message_id": "msg_contract_addendum",
    "thread_id": "thr_contract_addendum",
    "subject": "Contract addendum"
  },
  "recipients": [
    {"kind": "email", "email": "legal@example.com", "order": 1},
    {"kind": "email", "email": "finance@example.com", "order": 2}
  ]
}
Acknowledgement route
Use acknowledgement when you need recipients to confirm they received or reviewed something, not approve it.
{
  "creator_inbox_id": "inb_123",
  "title": "Acknowledge updated vendor instructions",
  "request_type": "acknowledgement",
  "routing_mode": "parallel",
  "completion": "required",
  "failure_mode": "cancel",
  "due_at": "2026-06-18T12:00:00Z",
  "start": true,
  "recipients": [
    {"kind": "email", "email": "ops@example.com"},
    {"kind": "email", "email": "ap@example.com"}
  ]
}
03

Record recipient replies

POST/v1/work-routes/{route_id}/responses/

Store approve, reject, request-changes, acknowledgement, or text responses detected from email replies.

Default example
Use this shape when your parser or operator has confirmed what the recipient's email reply means.
{
  "recipient_id": "rr_123",
  "action": "approve",
  "evidence": {
    "source": "email_reply",
    "message_id": "msg_reply_123",
    "confidence": 0.96,
    "matched_text": "approved"
  }
}
04

Review route events

GET/v1/work-routes/{route_id}/events/

Inspect who responded, when, and what evidence was attached.

Controls

Review points.

  • Use Work Routes for people replying by email; use webhooks when software should receive an event.
  • Email-only recipients can be routed, but contact recipients can also receive reminder sequences.