Connect a support inbox

The help desk can run as a shared inbox: mail sent to your support address becomes a ticket, and public agent replies are emailed back to the requester. This page is the operator setup for the email channel.

Availability

The email channel is part of the help desk. It depends on the help-desk API being enabled (helpdesk_api → helpdesk_email). On managed InfoEmu it maps to the Business tier’s shared inbox; self-hosters enable it via FEATURE_SET. See Run a help desk.

How it works

1. Your mail provider (Mailgun, Postmark, …) receives mail to your support address and forwards it as a webhook to the forum’s inbound endpoint: POST /api/helpdesk/v1/inbound-email.
2. The forum authenticates the webhook with a shared secret, then creates a new ticket — or appends to an existing one. Threading uses a plus-addressed, HMAC-signed reply address so replies land on the right ticket.
3. When an agent posts a public reply, the requester is emailed.

Configuration keys

These are application settings, so they take the BLUSET_ prefix.

Variable	Purpose
BLUSET_HELPDESK_INBOUND_SECRET	Shared secret that authenticates inbound webhooks. Until this is set, the inbound endpoint returns 404 — the channel is off by default.
BLUSET_HELPDESK_SUPPORT_EMAIL	Your public support address (the reply/from identity).
BLUSET_HELPDESK_EMAIL_DEFAULT_FORUM_ID	Which forum new email tickets are filed under.
BLUSET_HELPDESK_EMAIL_NOTIFY_AGENT	Whether to notify agents of new inbound mail.
BLUSET_HELPDESK_INBOUND_MAX_BODY_BYTES	Reject oversized inbound bodies.
BLUSET_HELPDESK_INBOUND_RATE_LIMIT	Rate-limit inbound requests.

Set these in the forum’s environment (see Environment variables) and restart.

Provider setup

The pattern is the same for any provider:

1. Add your support domain to the provider and set the required MX records so the provider receives mail for it.
2. Create an inbound route / parse webhook that forwards mail to https://your-forum.example.com/api/helpdesk/v1/inbound-email.
3. Configure the route to include the credential your BLUSET_HELPDESK_INBOUND_SECRET expects (a signing secret or a shared token, per your provider), so the forum can verify the request.

Mailgun — use a Routes rule with a forward (store & notify) action to the inbound URL. Postmark — use an inbound server/stream and set its webhook to the inbound URL.

Verify it

1. Send an email to your support address from an outside account.
2. Confirm a new ticket appears in the Tickets queue.
3. Post a public reply and confirm the original sender receives it.
4. Reply to that email and confirm it threads onto the same ticket rather than opening a new one.

If nothing arrives, check that BLUSET_HELPDESK_INBOUND_SECRET is set (or the endpoint is 404 by design), that the provider is actually delivering to the webhook, and that the provider’s credential matches what the forum expects.