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Email Auto-Responders

Auto-responders (also known as respondent email notifications) allow you to send an instant, pre-formatted email to the person who submitted your form.

This is the perfect way to build brand trust immediately, verify that you received their message, and outline what the next steps are (e.g. “We’ll get back to you within 24 hours”).

How It Works

Section titled “How It Works”

Every time a user fills out your form:

  1. Lucid Forms checks for a form field named email or Email in the submitted payload.
  2. If found, we extract that address as the recipient.
  3. We generate an email using your configured subject and body templates.
  4. We swap dynamic field placeholders (like {name}) with the actual values submitted by the user.
  5. The confirmation email is dispatched instantly.

Setup Instructions

Section titled “Setup Instructions”

Setting up auto-responders only takes a minute:

  1. Ensure Your Code has an Email Input

    Section titled “Ensure Your Code has an Email Input”

    Your form HTML code must contain an input field with the name set to exactly email or Email:

    <input type="email" name="email" required placeholder="yourname@domain.com" />

  2. Enable Auto-Response in the Dashboard

    Section titled “Enable Auto-Response in the Dashboard”

    Navigate to the Lucid Forms Dashboard, select your form, and click the Settings tab. Scroll to the Email Auto-Response section.

  3. Customize Your Template

    Section titled “Customize Your Template”

    Configure your email details:

    • Sender Name: Your company name (e.g. Lucid support).
    • Subject Line: Write a friendly subject line. You can use dynamic variables here (e.g. Thanks for reaching out, {name}!).
    • Email Body: Write your message. The body editor supports markdown and plain text. Include dynamic variables to make it feel personalized.

  4. Save Changes

    Section titled “Save Changes”

    Click Save Settings to activate the auto-responder.

Dynamic Variables

Section titled “Dynamic Variables”

You can inject any form field value directly into the email subject or body by surrounding the field’s name attribute in curly braces:

  • {name}: Renders the submitter’s full name.
  • {message}: Summarizes the text they sent you.
  • {submission_id}: Appends the unique reference code for their submission.

Example Template:

Section titled “Example Template:”
Hi {name},


Thanks for contacting us! We've received your request and our team is already reviewing it.


Here is a summary of the details you submitted:
Message: {message}


If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to reply directly to this email.


Best regards,
The Lucid Forms Team

Best Practices

Section titled “Best Practices”
  • Set a Reply-To: Make sure your primary notification email or support email is configured as the account sender so that if a customer replies to the auto-response, it routes back to your support inbox.
  • Provide Actionable Next Steps: Let users know what they can do while waiting (e.g., direct them to your product documentation, a blog post, or a calendar scheduler link).
  • Keep it Simple: Avoid bloated styling templates that might trigger spam filters in major inbox providers like Gmail or Outlook. Clean, text-based layouts look more natural and deliver better.