Send Email step

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Send Email step

    The Send Email step in Workflow Studio allows you to send emails to specified users or groups as part of a flow. This step is designed for users with theactiondesignerrole who want to automate email notifications linked to specific records within ServiceNow.

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    Key Features

    • Target Record Association: Emails are linked to a specific record, and replies to the email update that record automatically.
    • Recipient Specification: You can specify email recipients using static email addresses or dynamic data pills from user or group records. Group emails require either a group email address or enabling the “Include members” option to email individual members.
    • Multiple Recipient Types: Support for To, CC, and BCC fields with comma or whitespace-separated email addresses or data pills.
    • Customizable Subject and Body: Both subject and body fields accept text and dynamic data pills. The body supports inline HTML styles but no external style sheets. Partial reuse of email template content is possible with manual adjustments to replace variables with data pills.
    • Error Handling: Options exist to continue or evaluate errors if the Send Email step fails, enabling robust flow error management.

    Practical Considerations for Customers

    • Recipient Limits: The number of recipients must not exceed the limit set by the system property glide.email.smtp.maxrecipients. Adjust this property as needed for your environment.
    • Access Controls: The email sender must have appropriate permissions to send emails. When flows run as the initiating user, ensure that user can access email functionality. Testing should include impersonation of typical email senders to validate access controls.
    • Testing Emails: Email records generated by the step can be reviewed in the sysemail table. The Headers field indicates successful email generation.

    Outputs

    The step outputs an email record that can be referenced in subsequent flow steps, allowing for further automation or verification.

    Send an email to specified users or groups as an action in a flow.

    Roles and availability

    Available as an Workflow Studio action step. Users with the action_designer role can create a custom action with one or more action steps.

    Inputs

    Provide a value for each input that your flow needs. To add dynamic values, you can also drag and drop pills from the Data panel or select them from the pill picker.

    Target Record
    Data type: Document ID

    Record that the email is associated to. When a user sends a reply to your email, the target record is updated with the reply email content.

    Table
    Data type: Table Name

    Table containing the target record.

    To
    Data type: String

    The main recipients of the email. Enter a list of user email addresses separated by commas or white spaces. You can also drag data pills that contain email addresses into the field, such as a User or Group record. For example, if you want to send an email to the group assigned to the incident, drag the [Assignment group] data pill from the data panel.

    To send email to a group, you must provide a Group email address. To send email to group members, the group must have the Include members option enabled.

    Note:
    The number of email recipients must be equal to or less than the maximum number set by the glide.email.smtp.max_recipients system property. See Minimize SMTP Recipient Quantity [Updated in Security Center 1.3] for information about setting this value.
    CC
    Data type: String

    Additional recipients copied on this email. Enter a list of user email addresses separated by commas or white spaces. You can also drag data pills that contain email addresses into the field.

    BCC
    Data type: String

    Additional recipients of this email, who are visible only to the sender (blind copied). Enter a list of user email addresses separated by commas or white spaces. You can also drag data pills that contain email addresses into the field.

    Subject
    Data type: String

    Subject of the email. You can enter text or drag data pills into the field.

    Body
    The content of the message body. You can enter text or drag data pills into the field. The editor formatting options add inline styles. There is no style sheet associated with an email body. You can add your own inline style sheet to this HTML input.
    Note:
    You can partially reuse content from the Email Template [sysevent_email_template] table with some manual editing. The Send Email action can't process Email template variables, which are strings that start with the dollar sign character and include content in curly braces. You must replace email variables with references to data pills. For example, replace the string ${number} with a data pill reference to an incident record number.

    Action error evaluation

    If this step fails
    Data type: Choice

    Option to continue running the next step or go to error evaluation. To use the step status code or message for a custom action error condition, see Action error evaluation.

    Outputs

    These outputs appear in the Data panel. You can use them as inputs elsewhere in your action or flow.

    Email
    Data type: Record

    Email record created.

    Testing the email step

    To verify that the email was generated when testing the action, review the email record in the Email [sys_email] table. The Headers field indicates whether the email was successfully generated. For example:Email header generated by the Send Email action ACL restrictions apply to the Send Email action. If you configured your flow to run as the user who initiates the session, ensure that the user can access email. To test access controls for a Send Email action, impersonate a typical email sender and manually trigger the flow.