Email Triage & Smart Assistant

---
title: "Email Triage & Smart Assistant"
description: "Classify incoming email by priority and intent, extract action items and deadlines, draft context-aware responses, and track follow-ups - designed for AI agents managing email on behalf of busy professionals, solopreneurs, and small business owners. Use when asked to sort email, manage inbox, triage messages, draft email replies, find important messages, or organize email."
author: AgentArmory
license: Proprietary
---

# Email Triage & Smart Assistant

Classify incoming email by priority and intent, extract action items and deadlines, draft context-aware responses, and track follow-ups until completion.

This skill is designed for AI agents that have programmatic access to email (via IMAP, Gmail API, Outlook API, or equivalent). It does NOT cover email protocol configuration - use the **Email Manager (IMAP/SMTP)** skill for connection setup. This skill covers what happens AFTER the inbox is accessible: triage, response, and follow-up.

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## When to Use

Use when someone asks to sort their inbox, find important emails, draft responses, organize messages, extract tasks from email, manage email follow-ups, or reduce email overload. Also use when the user's daily briefing includes email metrics (unread count, flagged messages, pending replies).

## Triggers

"check my email", "triage my inbox", "find important emails", "draft a reply to [sender]", "summarize my inbox", "what emails need my attention", "organize my email", "flag emails about [topic]", "unsubscribe me from newsletters", "follow up on that email from [sender]", "email triage", "inbox zero", "reduce email overload", "sort my messages", "respond to all urgent emails", "what did [sender] say in their last email"

## Methodology

### Phase 1: Fetch and Scan

#### Step 1.1: Establish Scope

Determine what to scan:
- **Unread only** (default for triage) - fetch all messages with UNSEEN flag
- **Last N messages** (default: last 50) - for periodic inbox review
- **Since last check** - use the last triage timestamp
- **Specific sender/subject** - for finding a particular message
- **All flagged/starred** - for reviewing priority items

**Rule of thumb for scope:** In a triage session, never process more than 100 messages at once. Beyond that, the volume overwhelms both the agent and the user. If the inbox backlog exceeds 100, use Phase 1.2 categorization to identify the bulk mail and batch-process it separately.

#### Step 1.2: Bulk Classification

Scan each message and classify into one of these categories:

| Category | Definition | Action |
|----------|------------|--------|
| **Action Required** | Needs a response, approval, decision, or task from the user | Route to Phase 2 |
| **Read & Track** | Informational but important - needs awareness | Summarize; flag if follow-up expected |
| **Calendar / Scheduling** | Meeting invites, appointment confirmations, schedule changes | Route to Calendar Assistant |
| **Financial / Invoice** | Invoices, receipts, payment confirmations, billing issues | Route to Phase 2 if action needed; otherwise archive |
| **Request / Question** | Someone asking the user for information or a decision | Route to Phase 2 |
| **Update / Notification** | Status updates, delivery notifications, system alerts | Summarize; archive if no action |