Inbox Setup

How Inbox Integration Works

Inbox connections are inbound only — they receive leads and track replies. Outbound AI responses are sent through your sending provider (Resend, SendGrid, or Mailgun).

When you connect an inbox, Pounce can:

1. Receive new leads by email — When someone emails your business, Pounce catches it as a lead
2. Track conversation replies — When a lead replies, Pounce sees it and continues the conversation
3. Mark emails as read — Keeps your inbox clean without deleting anything

Connecting Resend (Recommended)

Resend works differently from Gmail and Outlook — it uses webhooks instead of OAuth. No browser redirect needed.

1. Go to Settings → Integrations
2. Select Resend as your inbox provider
3. Enter your Resend API key (re_...)
4. Enter the sender email address you want to monitor (e.g., hello@yourdomain.com)
5. In your Resend dashboard, configure an inbound route:
   • Domain: your verified domain
   • Route: forward to your Pounce webhook URL: https://your-pounce-domain.com/api/webhook/resend
   • Or match a specific address (e.g., hello@yourdomain.com)
6. Save the integration

Pounce will show Webhook ready in the integrations panel when the API key is set.

How it works: When an email arrives at your domain, Resend sends a webhook to Pounce with the message metadata. Pounce then fetches the full email content (body, headers, reply-to) from the Resend API. This means your API key must have read access to inbound emails.

Recipient filtering: Pounce only processes emails sent to your configured sender address. Emails to other addresses on the same domain are ignored.

Connecting Gmail

1. Go to Settings → Integrations
2. Select Gmail as your inbox provider
3. Click Connect Gmail
4. You’ll be redirected to Google’s OAuth consent screen
5. Grant read and modify permissions (Pounce never asks for send access)
6. You’ll be redirected back to Pounce with the connection confirmed

Scopes requested:

• gmail.readonly — Read your emails
• gmail.modify — Mark as read, apply labels

Connecting Outlook

1. Go to Settings → Integrations
2. Select Outlook as your inbox provider
3. Click Connect Outlook
4. You’ll be redirected to Microsoft’s OAuth consent screen
5. Grant mail read and modify permissions
6. You’ll be redirected back to Pounce with the connection confirmed

Scopes requested:

• Mail.Read — Read your emails
• Mail.ReadWrite — Mark as read, move to folders
• offline_access — Keep the connection alive

Monitoring Modes

Mode	How It Works	Latency
Push (recommended)	Webhooks notify Pounce instantly	~1-2 seconds
Polling	Pounce checks your inbox every 5 minutes	Up to 5 minutes

Push mode requires your Pounce instance to be accessible from the internet (for webhook delivery). Polling works behind firewalls and NAT.

Note: Resend always uses push mode (webhooks). Gmail and Outlook support both push and polling.

Using Forms Only (No Inbox)

You don’t have to connect an inbox. If you only use lead forms, Pounce works entirely through form submissions. Inbox integration is optional.

Disconnecting

Go to Settings → Integrations and click Disconnect next to your inbox provider. Pounce stops monitoring your inbox immediately. Previous leads and conversations are preserved.

Troubleshooting

Resend not receiving emails:

• Verify the inbound route is configured in your Resend dashboard
• Check that the webhook URL is correct and publicly accessible
• Ensure your Resend API key has the right permissions
• Only emails sent to your configured sender address are processed

Gmail connection keeps timing out:

• Make sure your Google Cloud project has the Gmail API enabled
• Check that your OAuth redirect URI matches your Pounce URL exactly

Not receiving leads from inbox:

• Check that monitoring is enabled in Settings → Integrations
• For push mode, verify your Pounce instance is publicly accessible
• For polling mode, wait up to 5 minutes for the next check

See also: Troubleshooting for more help.