Catch direct emails to your sending mailboxes and send them to Clay

When someone emails a sending mailbox directly, outside any sequence, a webhook sends the lead to your Clay table, where you dedupe, enrich and qualify it.

Data out

ClayRevOpsTeam plan

When

Incoming MessageAll channels

Only if

Campaign name is empty

Then

Send a webhookSend name, email, company, message text and thread URL to your Clay table webhook

Why teams run it

Forwards and direct emails never reach the sequencer, so they are lost unless something catches them.

Set it up in Master Inbox

In Master Inbox, open Settings, then Workflows, and click Add a workflow.
Name it Catch direct emails to your sending mailboxes and send them to Clay.
Set the trigger to Incoming Message and choose All channels.
Add a condition: Campaign name is empty.
Add the action Send a webhook: Send name, email, company, message text and thread URL to your Clay table webhook.
Save the workflow and switch it to Active.

Or create it with the API

Everything in the workflow builder is also in the Master Inbox API. This request creates the same workflow. Replace the example ids with your own label, list and campaign ids from GET /workflows/filter-fields. This workflow also uses conditions: add them under trigger_config.conditions, as shown on the conditions page.

curl -X POST https://api.masterinbox.com/api/api-webhook/v1/api/workflows/create-workflow \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MASTER_INBOX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "name": "Catch direct emails to your sending mailboxes and send them to Clay",
  "trigger_type": "incoming_message",
  "trigger_config": {
    "channel_ids": [
      "-1"
    ]
  },
  "action_configs": [
    {
      "action_type": "webhook",
      "webhook_url": "https://hooks.example.com/master-inbox",
      "webhook_payload_variables": [
        "name",
        "email",
        "company_name",
        "label_names",
        "thread_url",
        "text"
      ]
    }
  ]
}'

Full reference: workflow API guide and API docs.

Or ask Claude, ChatGPT or Grok to build it

Our workflow guide is written for AI agents to read. Give your assistant your API key and this prompt:

Read https://app.masterinbox.com/public-workflow-api.md and use my Master Inbox API key to create this workflow: "Catch direct emails to your sending mailboxes and send them to Clay". First call GET /workflows/filter-fields and look up my label, list and channel ids, then create the workflow and tell me what you set up.

Questions

What does an empty campaign name mean?

The message was not part of a sequencer campaign, such as a forward or a new email to your mailbox.

Will warm-up emails get through?

Not if your warm-up tags or codes are in Exclusions.

Can I build this workflow through the API?

Yes. Send the create-workflow request shown on this page with your Master Inbox API key. The API checks the payload first and lists every problem by field if anything is off.

Which plan includes this?

This workflow works on the Team plan. Every plan has unlimited users and starts with a free 7-day POC.