Last updated: 2026-05-21

The email hold list

Some recipients should never get outbound mail from Anchorlet — your own address if Elliot might accidentally reply to you instead of the tenant, an ex-tenant whose case is in legal hands, anyone you've decided to keep off automated communication for any reason. The Email hold list is the durable place to put them.

The block is enforced by the database, not by any single feature. Once an address is on the list, every outbound mail path in Anchorlet — Elliot sends, the Mail composer, the contractor dispatch flow, anything user-attributable — checks it before sending. No single feature can route around the list, by design.

Find the list at Settings → Email holds.

How the block works

The list is scoped to each workspace. When you add someone@example.com to your portfolio's list, it only blocks sends from that workspace — your contractors and tenants in other workspaces (or other landlords' workspaces you've been invited into) are unaffected.

Any time Anchorlet is about to send mail on your behalf, three checks fire in order:

  1. The UI checks the list when it draws the send button — disabled with an amber banner if the recipient is held.
  2. The server action checks the list before invoking the send helper — fail-closed if anything's wrong with the lookup.
  3. The send helper checks the list one more time before handing the email to the mail provider.

All three checks read the same database table, so the block can't drift between layers. Even if a stale browser tab tries to push a send through, the server-side checks stop it.

System-seeded addresses

Some rows are pre-populated by the Anchorlet team rather than added through the form. They show Added by System in the metadata line instead of a person's name.

The most common case: if you're working in a beta-customer workspace, your own email may already be on the list when you log in for the first time. This is intentional — when Orla is chatting with Elliot and types "reply to Aoife about the boiler", the recipient Elliot resolves should be Aoife — but if Elliot ever got the routing wrong, the recipient might default to Orla herself, and the reply would land in Orla's own inbox instead of going to Aoife. Holding Orla's address by default makes that mistake impossible.

If you don't want a system-seeded row (e.g. you want to test the send flow by emailing yourself), you can remove it — see the warning copy in Removing an address below.

Adding an address

  1. Click Add address.
  2. Enter the email (lowercased and validated for shape before saving).
  3. Enter a reason (e.g. "Beta PM — never send automated mail", "Legal hold — disputed deposit", whatever fits).
  4. Click Add to hold list.

The list refreshes immediately. Any in-flight Elliot drafts to that address have their Approve button disabled.

Removing an address

  1. Find the row.
  2. Click Remove.
  3. Confirm in the modal.

Removal takes effect immediately — the next send to that address goes through normally.

System-seeded rows get extra-emphatic warning copy on remove: "This is a system-seeded entry — removing it lets Elliot and other automated paths send to this address. Make sure that's what you intend." The seed exists for a reason; remove it deliberately.

A real example

Orla is the PM on Padraig's portfolio. She opens Settings → Email holds for the first time and sees one row already there: her own address orla.hughes@anchorlet.ie, reason "Beta PM — never send automated mail", Added by System.

Later that day Padraig's tenant Aoife emails about a boiler issue. Orla has been chatting with Elliot about a few different tenants this morning — different properties, different tradespeople. She asks Elliot to send a reply about the boiler, and Elliot — pulling context from the wrong thread — drafts the email but routes the recipient to Orla's own address. The approval card renders normally — except:

  • The From line shows orla.hughes@anchorlet.ie
  • The To line shows orla.hughes@anchorlet.ie
  • An amber banner reads "This recipient is on your hold list (Beta PM — never send automated mail)."
  • Approve and send is greyed out.

Orla spots the wrong recipient before sending, cancels the draft, re-prompts Elliot with Aoife as the recipient, and the reply goes to the right place. The hold-list seed turned a silent misroute into a visible block.

Things to know

  • Per-workspace, not global. Adding an address to one workspace's list doesn't affect any other workspace you have access to. Each portfolio's list is its own.
  • Only owners and PMs can manage the list. Row-level security enforces this at the database — no UI workaround.
  • Removal is immediate. No grace period. The next send attempt to that address checks the current state of the list.
  • The list only affects Anchorlet's outbound paths. Held addresses still receive your regular non-Anchorlet email — it's not a contact-level block, just a guard on what Anchorlet sends on your behalf.

Next steps