This guide explains how to read inbound email content and attachments once messages have reached a MailSlurp inbox.

For advanced receive orchestration (, webhook strategy, and CI patterns), see receive emails in code.

Step 1: capture inbound email

Create or select an inbox, then send a message to its address. MailSlurp stores inbound messages under that inbox ID.

Step 2: list messages

Use inbox listing methods to retrieve message previews, then fetch full content by email ID.

Message previews are good for selecting candidates; full message fetch is required for complete body/header analysis.

Step 3: inspect content

In dashboard and API workflows, you can inspect:

  • Envelope and headers (, , )
  • Plain text body
  • HTML body
  • Raw source for low-level analysis

Dashboard examples:

email overview

email text content

Step 4: retrieve attachments

Attachments are stored separately and retrieved by attachment ID.

Dashboard attachment view:

receive attachments

Step 5: verify deliverability quality

Use spam and authentication diagnostics when message quality is part of the test objective:

Dashboard analysis example:

email analysis

Practical receive checklist

  • Use a dedicated inbox per test or environment.
  • Add timeout-aware receive assertions.
  • Validate links/codes and key headers.
  • Download and verify attachment MIME types.
  • Track failures via webhooks for async systems.

Next step

Continue with send emails in code or build end-to-end assertions in Cypress.