---
title: "Include a plain-text part · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics/plain-text-part
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Include a plain-text part

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

- Level: Required
- Chapter: [Message basics](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics)
- Rule: Send HTML email as `multipart/alternative`, with a plain-text part first and the HTML part last.
- How: Write the text part with the same content and links as the HTML, not a placeholder. RFC 2046 says clients show the last part they can display, so the HTML goes last. Screen readers, watches, terminal clients and some filters use the text part.
- Check: In "show original", the top `Content-Type` is `multipart/alternative`. A `text/plain` part comes before the `text/html` part and holds the full message.

Example:

```text
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="b1"

--b1
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Your order 1042 has shipped. Track it: https://example.com/orders/1042
--b1
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

<p>Your order 1042 has shipped. <a href="https://example.com/orders/1042">Track it</a>.</p>
--b1--
```

**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/plain-text-part`.

- Previous: [Point replies to a mailbox someone reads](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics/reply-to)
- Next: [Encode everything as UTF-8](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics/utf-8)
- [Message basics](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/message-basics)