Email Inbox Triage#

Overview#

Use this skill to process incoming email in a consistent way: check the inbox, identify what matters, summarize the important parts, and prepare the next action.

Core workflow#

Follow this sequence unless the user asks for only one specific step.

1. Identify the mailbox source.

   • Prefer a connected mail tool such as Gmail when available.
   • If no connector is available, ask the user to provide exported emails, pasted email text, or screenshots.

2. Collect the target messages.

   • If the user says "new mail" or "recent email", focus on unread or recent inbox messages first.
   • If the user names a sender, company, subject, or date range, filter to those messages.
   • If the user asks for "important" email, infer importance from sender, urgency, deadlines, invoices, approvals, customer requests, and direct asks.

3. Triage the messages.

   • Classify each message into one of these buckets:
     • urgent
     • needs reply
     • needs review
     • informational
     • low priority
   • Detect explicit deadlines, meeting times, payment requests, approvals, and follow-up asks.

4. Produce a useful output. Default to this structure unless the user asks for another format:

   Inbox summary#

   • total messages reviewed
   • unread count when available
   • 1-3 sentence overall summary

Priority items#

For each important email include:

• sender
• subject
• why it matters
• requested action
• deadline or time sensitivity

Suggested next steps#

• quick bullets for what to do next

1. Draft replies when requested.
   • Keep drafts short, clear, and ready to send.
   • Match the sender's tone when appropriate.
   • If information is missing, leave clear placeholders instead of inventing facts.

Decision rules#

• Prefer concise summaries over long paraphrases.
• Surface risk early: deadlines, money, access, legal/compliance, customer escalations, or executive requests.
• Do not mark newsletters or automated notifications as urgent unless the content clearly requires action.
• When multiple related emails appear, collapse them into one thread-level summary.
• If the user asks what to do first, recommend the smallest high-impact action.

Output templates#

Template: inbox triage#

Use this default format:

Inbox summary#

[short overall summary]

Priority items#

1. [subject] — [sender]

   • Why it matters: [reason]
   • Action needed: [action]
   • Timing: [deadline or "no explicit deadline"]

Other messages#

• [short grouped summary]

Recommended next steps#

• [step 1]
• [step 2]

Template: reply draft#

Use this when the user asks for a reply:

Subject: [keep or revise as needed]

Hi [name],

[clear response]

[requested next step or confirmation]

Best, [sign-off]

Connector guidance#

• When a mail connector is available, search the inbox before answering from memory.
• Read the relevant messages before drafting a reply.
• If the user asks for counts like unread inbox totals, prefer label or folder counts when the mail tool supports them.
• If the request refers to attachments, inspect attachment metadata and read the attachment when possible.

What not to do#

• Do not invent email content, sender intent, or missing context.
• Do not send email automatically unless the user explicitly asks for sending.
• Do not expose raw internal ids or system metadata to the user.