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Mail Group Conditions Are Grayed Out When Creating a Trigger in Kayako

Contents

Overview

When creating or editing a trigger in Kayako, all conditions in the Mail group appear grayed out and cannot be selected. The affected conditions include From address, From name, Reply-to, Subject, Received at, Attachment names, Number of email attachments, Raw message headers, CC recipients, and BCC recipients.

This can look like a bug — especially when Mail appears to be the only condition subset that is disabled — but it is expected behavior and is not specific to any single instance. It does not require an engineering fix.

The Mail conditions are email-channel-specific. Kayako's trigger editor only makes a channel's conditions selectable once the trigger rule itself is scoped to that same channel. When the rule's channel setting is left on Any, every channel-specific condition group is disabled — both the Mail group and the Messenger group. Filtering the condition list to "mail" can hide the fact that other channel-specific groups are greyed out for the same reason.

Prerequisites

  • An administrator account with the Manage automations permission, which is required to add or edit triggers in Kayako.

Solution

The Mail-group conditions only apply to conversations that arrive via email, so Kayako only enables them once the trigger rule is scoped to the Email channel. To make them selectable, change the rule's channel scope from Any to Email.

Conditions that become available

Once the channel is set to Email, all ten Mail conditions become selectable:

  • From address
  • From name
  • Reply-to
  • Subject
  • Received at
  • Attachment names
  • Number of email attachments
  • Raw message headers
  • CC recipients
  • BCC recipients

Resolution steps

  1. Open or create the trigger. Go to Automation > Triggers, then open the existing trigger or start a new one.
  2. Set the channel scope. Under Rule settings, locate "Trigger this rule for conversation updates made via" and change it from Any to Email.
  3. Add your Mail conditions. Return to When these conditions are met → Select a condition. The entire Mail group is now selectable (From address, Subject, CC recipients, and so on).

How to verify

  • With the channel set to Any, the Mail group appears greyed out (this matches the reported symptom).
  • Switching the channel to Email immediately enables all ten Mail conditions.

Note: Restricting a rule to the Email channel means it will fire only for email-channel conversations. This is intentional — attributes such as a From address or Subject only exist on an email in the first place, so these criteria are only meaningful for email conversations.

Tip: If you need to match on email attributes while keeping a rule running across all channels, that is a separate design question rather than a defect. If this is your requirement, request it as a product feature enhancement through Support.

Reference documentation

Frequently Asked Questions

1. The Mail conditions in my trigger are grayed out — is this a bug?
No. This is expected behavior. Mail conditions are email-channel-specific and are only selectable when the trigger rule's channel scope is set to Email. If the rule's "Trigger this rule for conversation updates made via" setting is on "Any", all channel-specific condition groups (including Mail and Messenger) are disabled.
2. How do I enable the Mail conditions (From address, Subject, CC recipients, etc.)?
Open the trigger, and under Rule settings change "Trigger this rule for conversation updates made via" from Any to Email. All ten Mail conditions become selectable immediately.
3. Why is only the Mail group grayed out and nothing else?
It usually isn't only the Mail group — the Messenger group is also disabled for the same reason. If you filtered the condition picker to "mail", you may only see the Mail group and not realize other channel-specific groups are also greyed out. All of them enable once the rule is scoped to the matching channel.
4. If I set the rule's channel to Email, will it still run for other channels?
No. Restricting the rule to the Email channel means it will fire only for email-channel conversations. This is by design, since email attributes such as From address or Subject only exist on email conversations.
5. I need to match on email attributes while the rule still runs across all channels. What are my options?
That capability is a separate design question rather than a defect. If you require it, request it as a product feature enhancement through Support.
6. Is this issue specific to a particular instance or does it require an engineering fix?
Neither. The behavior is not instance-specific and is working as designed — no engineering fix is required. It has been verified by reproducing the behavior on a clean test instance.
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