Skip to main content
The Email integration gives the Bag of words analyst its own mailbox (e.g., [email protected]) — like a teammate with an inbox. BOW connects outbound to that one mailbox: it sends via SMTP and, optionally, reads incoming mail via IMAP. It never exposes an inbound port and never logs in as your end users.
  • Outbound only — the analyst sends answers, scheduled reports, and notifications by email.
  • Inbound enabled — the mailbox becomes a full channel: users email the analyst a question and get an answer back, with the conversation saved as a BOW report.
This is a channel, not a data source. If you instead want the agent to search and read a user’s own mailbox as data, see the Gmail and Outlook Mail connectors. The two are configured separately and can be used together.

​
Authentication options

Basic Auth (passwords) is being phased out by Microsoft and Google, so BOW authenticates to cloud mailboxes with OAuth over IMAP/SMTP (XOAUTH2). Pick the method matching your environment:
The mailbox credential is separate from your SSO sign-in config — same tenant, but a distinct, least-privilege credential. Don’t reuse the Entra/Google app you configured for user login.
Everything is configured at Settings → Integrations → Email in BOW.

​
Option A: Microsoft 365

You need: Entra admin (app registration + consent) and Exchange admin (mailbox grant). ~10 minutes.

​
Step 1: Create the mailbox

In the Microsoft 365 admin center, create the address. A shared mailbox ([email protected]) is ideal — it’s free (no license), has no interactive sign-in, and app-only access works on it.

​
Step 2: Register an Entra application

  1. Go to Microsoft Entra admin center → Identity → Applications → App registrations → New registration.
  2. Name it (e.g., “BOW Analyst Mailbox”), choose Accounts in this organizational directory only, and click Register.
  3. From the app’s Overview, copy the Directory (tenant) ID and Application (client) ID.

​
Step 3: Add the mail permissions (Exchange Online, not Graph)

  1. In the app → API permissions → Add a permission → APIs my organization uses → search Office 365 Exchange Online.
  2. Choose Application permissions and add:
    • SMTP.SendAsApp — to send mail
    • IMAP.AccessAsApp — to read mail (only needed for inbound)
  3. Click Grant admin consent (required — there’s no user to consent for app-only access).

​
Step 4: Create a client secret

Certificates & secrets → New client secret → copy the Value immediately.

​
Step 5: Scope the app to this one mailbox

By default the app could access any mailbox — this restricts it to just the analyst’s. In Exchange Online PowerShell (Connect-ExchangeOnline):

​
Step 6: Connect in BOW

In Settings → Integrations → Email, choose Microsoft 365, and enter the mailbox address, Tenant ID, Client ID, and Client Secret. Toggle inbound on if the analyst should receive questions by email. SMTP/IMAP hosts default to Office 365 automatically.

​
Option B: Google Workspace

You need: Google Workspace super admin. ~10 minutes.
  1. Create the mailbox user (e.g., [email protected]) in the Google Admin console, and make sure IMAP is allowed for it.
  2. In a Google Cloud project, create a service account and a JSON key.
  3. Enable domain-wide delegation for the service account: in the Google Admin console (Security → Access and data control → API controls → Domain-wide delegation), add the service account’s client ID with the scope https://mail.google.com/.
  4. In Settings → Integrations → Email in BOW, choose Google Workspace, enter the mailbox address, and paste the service account JSON. Toggle inbound on if desired. SMTP/IMAP hosts default to Gmail automatically.

​
Option C: Username & password

For on-prem Exchange or providers that still allow IMAP/SMTP passwords (or app passwords):
  1. In Settings → Integrations → Email, choose Username & password.
  2. Enter the SMTP host/port/username/password (and security mode — STARTTLS, SSL, or none).
  3. For inbound, enter the IMAP host/port/credentials and toggle inbound on.

​
How it’s used

  • Outbound: the analyst sends answers, notifications, and scheduled report deliveries from the mailbox, as From: Bag of words Analyst <[email protected]> (the display name is configurable).
  • Inbound (if enabled): users email the analyst directly. BOW polls the inbox, matches the sender to a BOW account by email address, runs the question with that user’s permissions, and replies in the same email thread. Each thread maps to a BOW report, same as chat channels.