The moment it happens

Get bounces and spam complaints in Slack

Support sees each bounce or complaint with the address, type and subject, once.

Runs: The moment it happens
Apps: Postmark
AI: Not needed
Access: Server token

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when Postmark reports a bounce or spam complaint on my Transactional server, post the email address, bounce type and subject to #support in Slack.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A customer requests a password reset or opens a purchase receipt, and the Postmark message bounces because of a typo or a full mailbox. From their side you ignored them. Support usually finds out hours later, when the same person writes in annoyed or opens a chargeback, and by then the failed message is buried in the Postmark activity feed.

Each time Postmark reports a bounce or a spam complaint, a Slack message appears with the recipient address, the bounce type, the message subject and the stream it was sent on. Postmark gives every event an ID, so a webhook retry does not produce a second post. It runs the moment the event arrives.

Teams that send transactional email such as receipts, invites and password resets get the most from it, because one undelivered message there is a blocked customer.

What you get out of it

Support reaches the customer first
When a receipt or login link bounces, someone can phone, text or resend from another address the same hour. The customer hears from you before they have time to decide the product is broken or that you ignored their request.
Spam complaints get read quickly
A spam complaint means a recipient actively marked your mail unwanted. Seeing it in Slack the same day lets you suppress that person and review what you sent, before the complaint rate creeps toward levels that hurt delivery.
Hard and soft bounces stay distinguishable
The bounce type is in the message, so a dead mailbox is not confused with a temporary full inbox. You remove the first from your list and leave the second alone, which keeps your sending list accurate.
Sender reputation is protected
Mailbox providers judge you on bounce and complaint rates. Cleaning bad addresses within a day keeps those numbers low, so password resets and invoices keep landing in the inbox instead of drifting toward spam.
Repeated webhook deliveries stay quiet
Postmark retries a webhook that does not get a quick response. Because each event ID is remembered, the channel shows one post per event, so people keep trusting the alerts instead of muting the channel.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Each time Postmark records a bounce or spam complaint, it tells ClickRuntime straight away.
It skips any event it has already posted.
A message goes to #support with the address, the bounce type and the email's subject.

Before it runs live

Connect Postmark
Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens

Get bounces and spam complaints in Slackjust nowSucceeded

Slack · #supportPostmark Bounce: lee@acme.example Type: HardBounce Subject: Reset your password

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Postmark steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

bounce_and_spam_complaint_alerts.pyexample

from clickruntime import on_event, notify

@on_event
def handle(event):
    body = event.json or {}
    kind = body.get("RecordType")
    if kind not in ("Bounce", "SpamComplaint"):
        return {"skipped": kind}
    detail = body.get("Type", kind)
    notify.slack(f"Postmark {kind}: {body.get('Email')}\nType: {detail}\n"
                 f"Subject: {body.get('Subject', '(no subject)')}\n{body.get('Description', '')}",
                 channel="#support")
    return {"posted": True, "type": detail}

FAQ

Common questions

Which Postmark events trigger the Slack post?

Hard bounces, soft bounces and other delivery failures that Postmark records as bounces, plus spam complaints. Postmark sends these through its Bounce and Spam Complaint webhooks. You add the webhook URL in the server settings of your Postmark account, and events start flowing from then on.

Does it cover both transactional and broadcast streams?

Postmark webhooks are configured per message stream, so you choose which streams report. The Slack message includes the stream name, which lets your team tell a failed receipt on the transactional stream from a bounced newsletter on a broadcast stream.

Can I send only hard bounces to the channel?

Yes. Bounce events carry a type field, and the filter can keep hard bounces and spam complaints while skipping temporary ones. Many teams do this when volume is high and soft bounces would drown out the failures that need action.

What permissions does it need?

Server token. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run for each event the app sends.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Daily