> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.1club.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Messaging

> A unified inbox for outbound and inbound conversations with members, leads, and staff. Email, SMS, and push messages live alongside replies in the same threaded view.

The **Messages** section is a unified inbox: every email and SMS you send, plus every reply or inbound message that lands in 1Club, shows up here in one chronological list. Open a conversation to read the full thread, draft a reply, or generate one with AI.

Outbound messages can go to a single contact, a hand-picked group, or every contact matching a filter (type plus tags). Templates speed up repetitive sends, and the AI assistant can suggest a reply grounded in the original message and your organization's context.

## What you can do here

[Compose a message](/messaging/compose) to one contact, a list of contacts, or everyone matching a contact-type and tag filter. Pick **email** or **SMS** per message; emails use a block editor with templates and variables, SMS is plain text.

[Manage the inbox list](/messaging/message-list) which combines outbound and inbound messages into conversation rows. Each row shows the recipients (single avatar, paired avatars, or a group with a `+N` badge), the latest snippet, the time, and a thread counter when there are replies.

[Maintain templates](/messaging/templates) for common manual messages so you stop retyping welcome notes, reminders, and announcements. Templates are separate from the system templates that drive transactional emails and receipts under **Settings > Communication > Templates**.

## How a message becomes a conversation

Sending creates one **message** record per outbound action and one **message\_recipient** record per recipient. The inbox lists only top-level messages: replies (anything with a `replyToMessageId`) roll up into the thread of their original.

Inbound messages, including replies to your outbound sends and submissions from the website's contact form, arrive as new top-level messages tagged with `direction: inbound`. Selecting a draft opens the compose pane; selecting any other message opens the thread view with an inline reply box.

## AI-assisted replies

Inside a thread, the compose pane has a **Generate AI reply** action. It calls `POST /v1/ai-messages/{messageId}/suggest`, which uses LangChain plus pgvector retrieval over your organization's data to draft a response. The suggestion lands in the editor as paragraph blocks (and a subject if the type is email); you can edit before sending. The feature only works for replies, not new sends.

## Permissions and access

The inbox respects two scopes. Admins and managers see the organization-wide inbox and can compose new messages and pick from custom templates. Instructors see a club-scoped view: only conversations involving members at their club, no audience filters, no template picker.

The relevant permissions are `messages.read.own` for viewing the inbox and `messages.create.own` for composing. Audience filters and templates additionally require the broader org-level access.

## Plan limits

Outbound email sends count against your plan's email quota. Hitting the limit returns a `PLAN_LIMIT_EXCEEDED` error and surfaces a dialog rather than a generic toast. The quota check runs through the `requireEmailCapacity` middleware on the server and applies to email only; SMS sends are not gated by this middleware.

## Related

* [Compose a message](/messaging/compose) - The send flow, recipient filters, and template usage.
* [Message list](/messaging/message-list) - The inbox view, conversation rows, and thread management.
* [Templates](/messaging/templates) - Reusable manual-send templates and the variable picker.
* [Automations](/marketing/automations) - Scheduled, trigger-based sends that run automatically, instead of manual messaging.