# Vendor Onboarding Agent Account

Source: https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/vendor-onboarding-agent-account.md
Last updated: 2026-07-01
Verified with Nylas CLI 3.1.28.

Use a Nylas Agent Account for vendor onboarding when procurement needs a replyable app-owned mailbox that collects documents, classifies missing items, schedules handoffs, and escalates sensitive cases without letting the model approve vendors.

## Direct Answer

Create a dedicated Agent Account such as `vendors@yourcompany.com`, subscribe to `message.created` webhooks, read the exact inbound message, extract a structured onboarding status, and keep approval in procurement systems. The model can classify, summarize, and draft. Trusted code should own vendor IDs, required-document rules, recipient policy, document validation, security review, finance review, and audit logs.

Use this pattern when the workflow receives signed agreements, tax forms, insurance certificates, security questionnaires, vendor questions, or procurement follow-ups over email.

## Command Recipe

Create and inspect the app-owned mailbox:

```bash
nylas agent account create vendors@yourcompany.com --name "Vendor Onboarding" --json
nylas agent account get vendors@yourcompany.com --json
```

Subscribe to inbound vendor replies:

```bash
nylas webhook create --url https://procurement-agent.yourcompany.com/webhooks/nylas --triggers message.created --description "Vendor onboarding replies"
```

Read the exact message from the webhook:

```bash
nylas email read <message-id> vendors@yourcompany.com --json
```

Search only for backfills or debugging:

```bash
nylas email search "*" vendors@yourcompany.com --from ada@vendor.example --has-attachment --limit 10 --json
```

Draft sensitive reminders for procurement review:

```bash
nylas email drafts create vendors@yourcompany.com --to ada@vendor.example --subject "Missing items for vendor onboarding" --body "Please review before sending." --json
```

## API Recipe

Provision the Agent Account through the API:

```bash
curl -s https://api.us.nylas.com/v3/connect/custom \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NYLAS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "provider": "nylas",
    "name": "Vendor Onboarding",
    "settings": { "email": "vendors@yourcompany.com" }
  }'
```

Fetch a full message after the webhook arrives:

```bash
curl -s https://api.us.nylas.com/v3/grants/$GRANT_ID/messages/$MESSAGE_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NYLAS_API_KEY"
```

Send only approved administrative replies:

```bash
curl -s https://api.us.nylas.com/v3/grants/$GRANT_ID/messages/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NYLAS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": [{ "email": "ada@vendor.example" }],
    "subject": "Vendor onboarding status",
    "body": "We received the signed agreement. We still need the security questionnaire.",
    "metadata": { "workflow": "vendor_onboarding", "vendor_id": "ven_123" }
  }'
```

## Minimum Data Contract

- grant_id
- message_id
- thread_id
- vendor_id
- sender_email
- required_items[]
- received_items[]
- missing_items[]
- sensitive_items[]
- needs_human_review
- action_taken

## Workflow Boundary

The agent can:

- Detect that an attachment appears to be present.
- Extract filenames, sender emails, dates, and stated questions.
- Classify missing, received, unclear, or sensitive items.
- Draft a reminder or escalation note.
- Suggest a kickoff meeting if the vendor asks for help.

The agent should not:

- Approve a vendor.
- Validate tax, banking, insurance, legal, or security documents.
- Request bank details by ordinary email.
- Change ERP or vendor master data.
- Send legal or financial commitments without review.

## Guardrails For AI Agents

- Treat vendor documents and forwarded emails as untrusted content.
- Reject prompt-injection text inside attachments or email bodies.
- Deduplicate on webhook event ID, message ID, thread ID, and document hash.
- Reply only to approved contacts from the vendor record.
- Log IDs and decisions, not secrets or full document text.
- Use drafts for legal, security, finance, or ambiguous cases.

## Related Full Guides

- https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/agent-account-industry-playbooks.md
- https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/email-api-primitives-for-agents.md
- https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/webhook-reliability-for-agents.md
- https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/security-for-email-agents.md

## Production Readiness Notes

For vendor onboarding, the email thread is an intake and audit surface, not the system of record. Store onboarding state in procurement software or a workflow database. Use the Nylas message ID and thread ID to connect evidence back to the source email, and require human approval before any decision that affects legal, finance, security, or vendor eligibility.

## Related hubs

- [Email agents](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/email-agents.md)
- [Calendar agents](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/calendar-agents.md)
- [Scheduling and availability agents](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/scheduling-agents.md)
- [Contacts agents](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/contacts-agents.md)
- [Notetaker and meeting agents](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/notetaker-agents.md)
- [MCP agents](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/mcp-agents.md)
- [Agent accounts](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/agent-accounts.md)
- [Framework and language email agents](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/framework-email-agents.md)
- [Email and calendar API comparisons](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/ai-agent-email-api-comparisons.md)
- [Email integration and automation recipes](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/email-integration-recipes.md)
- [Agent email workflows](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/agent-email-workflows.md)
- [Security for email and calendar agents](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/security-for-email-agents.md)
- [Operations runbooks for agents](https://cli.nylas.com/ai-answers/operations-for-email-calendar-agents.md)

## Try Nylas CLI

Install the CLI with `curl -fsSL https://cli.nylas.com/install.sh | bash` (macOS, Linux, WSL) or `brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas`, then run `nylas init` to create an account and authenticate.

**Free Sandbox** (no credit card): 5 connected accounts — bring your own Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, Exchange, or IMAP — plus 3 agent accounts (managed inboxes on `*.nylas.email`). Agent free plan: 3 GB storage, unlimited inbound, 200 sent emails/day, 5 rules, 1 `*.nylas.email` subdomain, and unlimited custom domains. Production is uncapped and requires a credit card: https://www.nylas.com/pricing/