Autoresponder Action

The Autoresponder sends an automatic confirmation email to the person who submitted the form. It looks up the submitter's email address from a form field and sends a customizable reply.

Configuration

Add an Autoresponder action in the Actions tab of the form editor.

Fields

Field	Required	Default	Description
Recipient Email Field	Yes	`email`	Name of the form field containing the submitter's email
From Name	No	Site name	Display name for the sender
From Email	Yes	`admin_email`	Sender email address
Reply-To Email	No	`admin_email`	Address that receives replies
Subject	Yes	"Thank you for your submission"	Email subject line
Message	Yes	(see below)	Email body with data variables
Content Type	No	`text/html`	`text/html` or `text/plain`

Email Field Mapping

The Recipient Email Field must match the name attribute of your form's email input. Core Forms auto-detects this when you add the action:

<!-- If your form has this field: -->
<input type="email" name="your_email" required />

<!-- Set Recipient Email Field to: your_email -->

If the field is empty or contains an invalid email, the autoresponder silently skips sending.

Default Message Template

Hi there,

Thank you for contacting us. We have received your submission
and will get back to you soon.

Here is a copy of your submission:

[all]

Best regards,
{Site Name}

Data Variables

The autoresponder supports the same data variables as the Email action:

[field_name]       Value of a specific form field
[all]              All fields as name: value pairs
[all:label]        All fields with human-readable labels
[CF_FORM_ID]       Form ID
[CF_FORM_TITLE]    Form title
[CF_TIMESTAMP]     Submission timestamp
[CF_IP_ADDRESS]    Submitter's IP address

Example: Custom Confirmation

Subject: We received your application, [first_name]!

Message:
Dear [first_name],

Thank you for applying for the [position] role.

We've received your application and our team will review it
within 3-5 business days.

Your reference number: [CF_FORM_ID]-[CF_TIMESTAMP]

Here's what you submitted:
[all:label]

If you have questions, reply to this email.

Best,
The Hiring Team

Email Logging

Like the Email action, every autoresponder email is logged with status tracking:

cf_log_email( [
    'form_id'       => $form->ID,
    'submission_id' => $submission->id,
    'to_email'      => $to,
    'from_email'    => $from_email,
    'subject'       => $subject,
    'message'       => $message,
    'headers'       => $headers,
    'status'        => 'pending',
    'action_type'   => 'autoresponder',
] );

Filters

// Change the recipient
add_filter( 'cf_action_autoresponder_to', function( $to, $submission ) {
    return $to;
}, 10, 2 );

// Modify the subject
add_filter( 'cf_action_autoresponder_subject', function( $subject, $submission ) {
    return $subject;
}, 10, 2 );

// Modify the message
add_filter( 'cf_action_autoresponder_message', function( $message, $submission ) {
    return $message;
}, 10, 2 );

// Modify the headers
add_filter( 'cf_action_autoresponder_headers', function( $headers, $submission ) {
    $headers[] = 'X-Custom-Header: value';
    return $headers;
}, 10, 2 );

Validation

The autoresponder validates before sending:

email_field setting must not be empty.
The submission must contain data for that field.
The field value must pass is_email() validation.
The value is sanitized with sanitize_email().

If any check fails, the autoresponder returns false and no email is sent.

Multiple Autoresponders

You can add multiple autoresponder actions to a single form. For example:

One that sends a confirmation to the applicant's email
Another that sends a copy to their manager's email (from a different field)