---
title: "Mark automated messages · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics/auto-submitted
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Mark automated messages

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [Message basics](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics)
- Rule: Add `Auto-Submitted: auto-generated` to messages a system sends on its own, such as receipts, alerts and password resets.
- How: RFC 3834 defines the header. Out-of-office replies and other auto-responders read it and stay silent, which stops mail loops. Use `auto-replied` only for replies a program sends to incoming mail. Leave it out of messages a person writes. Microsoft Exchange also reads `X-Auto-Response-Suppress`, so add `X-Auto-Response-Suppress: OOF, AutoReply` when your readers use it.
- Check: In "show original" of a receipt, `Auto-Submitted: auto-generated` appears. Turn on an out-of-office reply in a test mailbox, send a receipt to it, and no auto-reply comes back.

Example:

```text
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
X-Auto-Response-Suppress: OOF, AutoReply
```

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers email playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics/auto-submitted`.

- Previous: [Accept international addresses](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics/international-addresses)
- Next: [Keep messages small](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics/message-size)
- [Message basics](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics)