Sign inGet Started
Get started
Guides
API Reference
SDKs
CLI
Knowledge Base
Changelog

Get a received email

GET
/v1/email/inbound-messages/{inbound_message_id}
bird email inbound-messages get <inbound-message-id>
Response200
{
  "id": "rem_01krdgeqcxet5s7t44vh8rt9mg",
  "from": {
    "email": "jane@acme.com",
    "name": "Jane Doe"
  },
  "to": [
    {
      "email": "jane@acme.com",
      "name": "Jane Doe"
    }
  ],
  "cc": [
    {
      "email": "jane@acme.com",
      "name": "Jane Doe"
    }
  ],
  "subject": "Re: Your receipt",
  "message_id": "<CAH+T8d5...@mail.gmail.com>",
  "in_reply_to": "<previous-message@example.com>",
  "mailbox_id": "mbx_01krdgeqcxet5s7t44vh8rt9mg",
  "authentication": "pass",
  "attachments": [
    {
      "id": "rea_01krdgeqcxet5s7t44vh8rt9mg",
      "filename": "invoice.pdf",
      "content_type": "application/pdf",
      "size": 215432
    }
  ]
}

Returns the parsed metadata for a received email:

  • Addresses.
  • Subject.
  • Threading headers.
  • The mailbox and conversation that received it, when a mailbox did.
  • Authentication results.
  • The attachment manifest.

Content is fetched separately:

Received emails are retained for 30 days. An unknown or expired message returns 404.

Parameters

inbound_message_idstring

Received email identifier. Starts with rem_.

Response Payload

id
string
required

Received message ID.

from
object
required

Sender address parsed from the message.

Show child attributes
to
array of object
required

Recipients on the message's To header.

Show child attributes
cc
array of object
required

Recipients on the message's Cc header.

Show child attributes
subject
nullable string
required

Subject line as received, or null when the message had no subject.

message_id
nullable string
required

RFC 5322 Message-ID header from the sender, or null when the sender did not include one.

in_reply_to
nullable string
required

The In-Reply-To header, which holds the Message-ID this message is replying to. null when the message is not a reply.

references
array of string

The References header, which holds every Message-ID in this conversation, oldest first. Left out when the message arrived without one.

mailbox_id
nullable string
required

Mailbox that received this message, or null when it arrived on an inbound address or domain without a mailbox.

thread_id
nullable string
required

Mailbox conversation this message belongs to, or null when it was not received by a mailbox or has since been deleted from it.

authentication
nullable string
required

DMARC result for the domain in the received message's From header.

  • pass: SPF or DKIM passed and aligned with that domain.
  • fail: DMARC was evaluated and did not pass.
  • unknown: no trustworthy verdict is available.

This follows dmarc_pass and does not verify a particular person. The receiving provider currently supplies no DMARC result, so received messages report unknown.

Possible values: pass, fail, unknown, null

spf_pass
nullable boolean
required

Whether the receiving provider reports that SPF authorized the envelope sender for the sending server. A soft failure is false. Missing, neutral and inconclusive results are null.

dkim_pass
nullable boolean
required

Whether the receiving provider verified a DKIM signature. A passing signature makes this true even when another signature fails. Missing signatures and inconclusive verification results are null.

dmarc_pass
nullable boolean
required

Whether SPF or DKIM passed and aligned with the domain in the message's From header. The receiving provider currently supplies no DMARC result, so this is null.

spam_score
nullable number
required

Content spam score when available. The receiving provider currently supplies no score, so this is null.

attachments
array of object
required

Metadata for each attachment found on the message. Empty when the message had no attachments.

Show child attributes
received_at
string
required

When the message was received.

Related resources

Continue with the documentation, guides and examples for this topic.

Try the practice and get an implementation brief