I’m developing a SaaS platform for automated email campaigns and need to pause sequences when recipients respond to messages sent through my application.
From my research, it seems like Mailgun Routes should handle this functionality. I’ve configured the necessary settings including domain and MX records, but I’m having trouble getting email forwarding to work with my server.
Here’s my specific use case:
- Person X has email address ([email protected])
- Person Y has email address ([email protected])
- Person X sends message via my platform, which uses Mailgun API for delivery
- Person Y gets the message and clicks reply
- Mailgun should detect Person Y’s response and route it to my server
I don’t control the company.com or business.net domains.
What could be causing this setup to fail?
had this prob too a while ago. make sure the from address is from your verified domain otherwise mailgun gets confused. using a custom one like [email protected] helps a lot. also, don’t forget to check your route priority, they go by top to bottom!
The issue you’re encountering likely stems from the Reply-To header configuration. With Mailgun, it’s essential to set the Reply-To address to a domain that you’ve configured with MX records pointing to Mailgun’s servers. I faced a similar challenge while developing an email automation tool. I resolved it by establishing a dedicated subdomain for replies, such as replies.yourdomain.com, and ensuring the Reply-To header directed responses there, rather than to the original sender’s domain. Additionally, double-check your Mailgun route configuration; it must align with the reply pattern and include the correct webhook URL. Ensure that your server endpoint is accessible and returns a 200 status response when Mailgun contacts it. It’s also prudent to verify that your MX records have propagated correctly using tools like dig or nslookup, as DNS issues can lead to perplexing intermittent failures.
Another common pitfall is the webhook config itself. When I built something similar for my client management system, Mailgun’s route matching was super finicky with pattern expressions. Make your route pattern broad enough to catch replies - I used a too-specific pattern that missed reply formatting variations. Also, check if your webhook endpoint handles the POST data Mailgun sends properly. The payload has a stripped-text field with the actual reply content minus quoted text. One thing that caught me off guard - some email clients mess with subject lines in weird ways, so your route pattern needs to handle different ‘Re:’ and ‘Fwd:’ prefixes. Test your webhook URL manually with curl first to make sure it’s reachable externally. Firewall restrictions often block Mailgun’s servers without obvious error messages.