recipe-share-and-notify

Sharing a file or folder by email isn't a single call. It involves up to three domains:

• bundles — the Share Link itself (URL, code, permissions, expiration).
• bundle-recipients — the people who are invited to a Share Link, including the option to email them at creation.
• bundle-notifications — internal Files.com users subscribed to ongoing activity emails about the Share Link.

bundles create produces the link but does not email anyone. Email delivery and notifications are separate operations.

When to use this skill

• Share a file or folder by email with one or more external addresses.
• Restrict a Share Link to specific recipients who have to receive the email to access it.
• Subscribe an internal user to ongoing activity emails (uploads, registrations) on a Share Link.
• A previous attempt to "send a share link" only created the bundle without delivering it.

Sending the invitation email

There are two ways to send the invitation. Either one creates BundleRecipient rows for the addresses involved.

Path A: create the bundle, then send

Use when you already have the bundle, or when you want to email multiple addresses at once. bundles share supports up to 50 addresses per call.

files-cli bundles create --paths=/demo/q3-report.pdf --description="Q3 report" --format=json
files-cli bundles share --id=<BUNDLE_ID> --to=bob@example.com --to=alice@example.com --note="Q3 report attached" --format=json

Path B: create and add a recipient that triggers the email

Use when adding one recipient (or each recipient one at a time). The --share-after-create=true flag on bundle-recipients create is the "send mail at creation" path.

files-cli bundles create --paths=/demo/q3-report.pdf --description="Q3 report" --format=json
files-cli bundle-recipients create --bundle-id=<BUNDLE_ID> --recipient=bob@example.com --share-after-create=true --format=json

Recipient-restricted Share Links

If the link should only be accessible to addresses that received the invitation, set --require-share-recipient at creation:

files-cli bundles create --paths=/legal/contract.pdf --require-share-recipient --format=json
files-cli bundles share --id=<BUNDLE_ID> --to=counsel@example.com --to=ceo@example.com --format=json

Subscribing an internal user to ongoing activity

bundle-notifications is a separate surface from bundles share and bundle-recipients. It subscribes an existing Files.com user to receive emails when registration or upload activity happens against the Share Link.

Notifications can only target internal Files.com users — never external contacts. External addresses go through invitation emails.

files-cli bundle-notifications create --bundle-id=<BUNDLE_ID> --notify-user-id=<USER_ID> --notify-on-upload=true --notify-on-registration=true --format=json

--notify-user-id must reference an existing Files.com user — look it up with files-cli users list --search=email@example.com --format=json first if you don't have the ID.

Gotchas

Per-recipient invitation emails are rate-limited to once every 24 hours. A repeat bundles share to the same address within that window will not re-send.

A single bundles share call can address up to 50 recipients. Beyond that, split across multiple calls.

The sender's email is the reply-to. The email address of the user who issues the invitation is used as the reply-to address.

Anti-patterns

• Don't delete and recreate the bundle to trigger an email. Creation never emails anyone; the rate limit on invitations makes a recreate-and-resend approach ineffective even if the agent thinks it might force delivery.
• Don't try to use bundle-notifications to send the initial Share Link to an external recipient. That's the wrong surface — notifications can only target internal Files.com users. Use bundles share or bundle-recipients create --share-after-create=true instead.
• Don't add bundle-recipients rows without --share-after-create=true and then expect an email to go out. Adding the recipient row alone records the access permission but does not deliver the link.

Related skills

• filescom-bundles — full reference for the Share Link surface (create/update/share/delete/find/list).
• filescom-bundle-recipients — the recipient resource, including the --share-after-create flag.
• filescom-bundle-notifications — the activity-notification subscription resource.
• filescom-bundle-downloads — audit of who downloaded a bundle.