How do I manage threaded conversations?

Threads are how AgentMail organizes conversations. Every time your agent sends a new email, a thread is created. Replies are automatically grouped into the same thread, giving your agent full conversation context.

How threads work

1. Your agent sends an email, and a new thread is created automatically
2. The recipient replies, and the reply is added to the same thread
3. Your agent replies back, and it is added to the same thread
4. The full conversation history stays organized in one place

You never need to create threads manually. AgentMail handles threading automatically using standard email headers (Message-ID, In-Reply-To, References).

Listing threads

Per inbox

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threads = client.inboxes.threads.list(
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    inbox_id="agent@agentmail.to"
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)
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for t in threads.threads:
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    print(f"Thread: {t.subject} ({t.message_count} messages)")

Across your entire organization

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# Get all threads from every inbox in your organization
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all_threads = client.threads.list()

This org-wide query is useful for building supervisor agents that monitor conversations across a fleet of other agents, analytics dashboards, or routing systems that escalate conversations between agents.

Getting a full thread

Retrieve a thread by its ID to access all messages in the conversation:

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thread = client.threads.get(thread_id="thread_abc123")
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for message in thread.messages:
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    print(f"From: {message.from_}")
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    print(f"Subject: {message.subject}")
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    print(f"Body: {message.text}")

Replying in a thread

To continue a conversation, reply to the most recent message in the thread:

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# Get the thread and find the latest message
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thread = client.threads.get(thread_id="thread_abc123")
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last_message = thread.messages[-1]
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# Reply to continue the conversation
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client.inboxes.messages.reply(
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    inbox_id="agent@agentmail.to",
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    message_id=last_message.message_id,
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    text="Thanks for your message! Here's what I found...",
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    html="<p>Thanks for your message! Here's what I found...</p>"
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)

Handling quoted text in replies

When people reply to emails, their email client often includes the entire previous conversation as quoted text. AgentMail provides extracted_text and extracted_html fields on received messages, which contain only the new reply content without the quoted history.

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# Use extracted_text to get only the new content
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new_content = message.extracted_text
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# Falls back to full text if extraction isn't available
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content = message.extracted_text or message.text

This prevents your agent from re-processing the entire conversation history on every reply.

Using labels to track conversation state

Combine threads with labels to manage your agent’s workflow. For example, you can track which threads need a reply:

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# Find threads that need a reply
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unreplied = client.inboxes.threads.list(
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    inbox_id="agent@agentmail.to",
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    labels=["unreplied"]
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)
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for thread in unreplied.threads:
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    thread_detail = client.threads.get(thread.thread_id)
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    last_message = thread_detail.messages[-1]
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    # Process and reply
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    reply_text = your_agent.process(last_message)
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    client.inboxes.messages.reply(
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        inbox_id="agent@agentmail.to",
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        message_id=last_message.message_id,
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        text=reply_text,
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        html=f"<p>{reply_text}</p>"
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    )
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    # Update labels
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    client.inboxes.messages.update(
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        inbox_id="agent@agentmail.to",
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        message_id=last_message.message_id,
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        add_labels=["replied"],
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        remove_labels=["unreplied"]
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    )

Tips

• Use threads to maintain context in multi-turn conversations, so your agent can reference what was said earlier
• Query org-wide threads with client.threads.list() to build dashboards or route conversations between agents
• Use labels like unreplied, replied, escalated, and resolved to track conversation state
• Always reply to the last message in a thread to keep email headers correct