> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.voxhealth.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Email assistant

> The agent that reads and replies to your inbox.

The email assistant works the way the voice agent does, on your practice inbox instead of your phone line. It reads incoming mail, works out what it is, and either replies or hands it to a person.

**Settings → Email Assistant.** Available when the `EMAIL_AGENT` feature is enabled for your practice.

## What it handles

* Appointment requests, changes, and cancellations sent by email
* Questions your [knowledge base](/agents/knowledge-base) answers
* Messages that need a person, summarized and routed rather than answered

Documents that arrive by email (referrals, records, forms) are handled separately by the document pipeline. See [Fax & email](/front-desk/fax-and-email).

## Setting it up

<Steps>
  <Step title="Connect the mailbox">
    Point the inbox at VoxHealth. Use a dedicated address rather than a personal one: `appointments@` or `info@`, not the office manager's mailbox.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Decide what it may answer on its own">
    Start with read-and-route: everything gets summarized, nothing gets auto-replied. Widen once you have read a week of what it would have sent.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set the escalation address">
    Where mail goes when the assistant decides a person is needed.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  Email is not a good channel for anything private unless your practice has a secure-messaging arrangement with the patient. The assistant does not put clinical details or account balances in an outbound email. It asks the patient to call or use the portal.
</Warning>

## Related

* [Messages](/channels/messages): two-way SMS, which is where most patient conversation actually happens
* [Notifications](/channels/notifications): scheduled reminders and confirmations, which are separate from the assistant