# Email Trigger

> Reference for the Cascade CMS workflow Email trigger — its declaration, usage, and the mode, recipients-email, recipient-users, and recipient-groups parameters.

URL: https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/content-management/workflows/workflow-triggers/email-trigger.html
category: Content Management
article-type: reference
content-kind: article
release-availability: all
tags: workflows
updated: 2026-10-06

The Email trigger sends an email about the step that follows it in the workflow.

## Overview

Who receives the email depends on the type of the next step:

- If the next step is a **Transition** or **Edit** step, the trigger emails that step's owners.
- If the next step is a **System** step, the trigger emails whoever started the workflow — a system step carries no user or group information for the trigger to use.

The recipient parameters below add further recipients on top of that.

## Declaration

```xml
<trigger class="com.cms.workflow.function.EmailProvider" name="Email"/>
```

## Usage

```xml
<trigger name="Email">
   <parameter>
      <name>mode</name>
      <value>notify</value>
   </parameter>
   <parameter>
      <name>recipients-email</name>
      <value>a@b.com,b@c.com, d@e.com, f@g.com</value>
   </parameter>
</trigger>
```

## Parameters

All four parameters are optional. Each one changes the default behavior described above.

### mode

```xml
<parameter>
   <name>mode</name>
   <value>completed</value>
</parameter>
```

Sets which kind of email is sent. A value of `notify` sends a notification email; `completed` sends a completion email.

> **You can leave this out for notifications**
>
> `notify` is the default mode, so the parameter is only needed when you want a completion email.

### recipients-email

```xml
<parameter>
   <name>recipients-email</name>
   <value>a@b.com,b@c.com, d@e.com, f@g.com</value>
</parameter>
```

Notifies external email addresses. Give the value as a comma-delimited list.

### recipient-users

```xml
<parameter>
   <name>recipient-users</name>
   <value>user1,user2,user3</value>
</parameter>
```

Notifies Cascade CMS users. Give the value as a comma-delimited list of usernames.

### recipient-groups

```xml
<parameter>
   <name>recipient-groups</name>
   <value>group1,group2,group3</value>
</parameter>
```

Notifies Cascade CMS groups. Give the value as a comma-delimited list of group names.

## Related links

- [Workflow Triggers](https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/content-management/workflows/workflow-triggers/index.html)
- [Custom Workflow Emails](https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/content-management/workflows/custom-workflow-emails.html)