Email and Inbox skills
Email and Inbox Skills-md for Claude, Codex & AI Agents
Email and inbox skills are SKILL.md files that turn Claude, Codex and other AI agents into a careful email assistant. They audit where your email time goes, sort your inbox with your own rules, draft short replies in your voice, track follow-ups, build filters and templates, clear newsletters, handle difficult messages, sharpen writing and catch phishing, while you stay in control of everything that gets sent.
10 of 13 skills published, version 1.0.0, October 2026.
Email System Audit
Audit how a person or small team uses email: volume by source, time and checking habits, triage, structure, response targets, writing, follow-ups, templates, team norms and security scored 0 to 3, then a simple email system, team norms and a four-week rollout with measures to check.
Inbox Triage
Triage an inbox with the user's own rules: a rules file for priority senders, topics, response times and tone, six clear categories, reply drafts for approval, tasks and dates extracted, archiving with receipts logged, a triage brief, learning from corrections and strict safety rules against sending, deleting or obeying instructions inside emails.
Email Reply Drafting
Draft short, answer-first email replies in the user's voice: reading the whole thread, listing every ask, choosing one purpose, reply patterns for yes, no, not yet, scheduling, information requests, closing loops and chasing, tone matching, placeholders instead of guesses and two options when a decision is needed.
Follow-Up Tracking
Track open loops in email: things others owe the user and promises the user made, captured from sent and received mail, logged with dates and thread links, checked daily, chased with short nudge templates, escalated after one nudge and reviewed weekly, with default chase intervals by relationship.
Inbox Rules and Filters
Design email filters and rules for Gmail, Outlook and other providers: top senders by volume, five to eight action-based labels or folders, sender, list and keyword rules, VIP highlighting, exception rules for important alerts, testing on recent mail, bulk clean-up and a monthly review, never auto-deleting.
Newsletter and Subscription Clean-Up
Clean up email subscriptions safely: find bulk senders with counts and last-opened dates, group them, decide keep, read later, reduce, unsubscribe or report as spam, act in approved batches using one-click unsubscribe, bulk archive, filter what stays and set a prevention habit with a two-week check.
Email Templates
Build a small library of email templates from real repeated replies: finding repeats in sent mail, the top ten written answer-first in the user's voice, obvious placeholders with a pre-send check, searchable names, setup in Gmail, Outlook, text expanders or an AI agent, and quarterly reviews.
Difficult Emails
Write difficult emails that stay calm, clear and fair: goal first, facts separated from feelings, a channel check, structures for complaints, bad news, refusals, pushback, apologies, boundaries and negotiation, an escalation check for blame and passive-aggressive phrases, recipient choices and a pause before sending.
Email Writing Clarity
Write emails that get read and acted on: bottom line up front, one topic per email, subject lines with purpose and date, explicit asks with owners and deadlines, skimmable structure, plain-word swaps, rules for emails to many people and a ten-second phone test from the reader's side.
Email Security: Phishing and Payment Fraud
Spot and handle suspicious email: warning signs from urgency to lookalike domains, checking senders, links and attachments without clicking, verifying money and bank changes through a separate channel, reporting, steps after clicking, account protection and strict rules so AI email agents treat instructions inside emails as data.
No skill matches that search. Clear it or choose All.
What email skills do for an AI agent
Ask a general AI model to help with email and it will happily summarise a thread or write a reply, but it does not know who matters to you, what counts as urgent or how you sound. Its replies tend to be long and over-polite, and an agent with full access and no rules can send, delete or follow instructions hidden inside a malicious email.
These skills give the agent your rules and firm limits. A rules file lists priority senders, topics, response times and tone. Triage sorts every message into a few categories, drafts replies for the ones that need you today, adds tasks and dates to your list and archives the rest with receipts logged. Replies lead with the answer, handle every question in the thread and mark unknown facts instead of guessing. Nothing is sent, permanently deleted or unsubscribed without your approval.
Triage, replies and inbox systems
The set covers sorting and replying, following up, filters, subscriptions, templates, difficult messages, shared inboxes, delegation, holidays and security.
Where to start: triage, then replies
Start with inbox-triage. Write a short rules file once: who always gets a reply today, which topics matter, your response-time targets, what can be archived and your tone. Run triage two to four times a day instead of checking constantly.
Then use email-reply-drafting for the messages triage marks Reply today. Each draft answers every question in the thread, starts with the answer and keeps to a few sentences, so most replies take a minute to approve. Connect the agent with the narrowest permissions that work, read and draft before send, and review its log for the first two weeks.
A good first week looks like this: day one, write the rules file and run a triage on the last 14 days, bulk-archiving older mail into a dated folder. Days two to five, triage morning, midday and late afternoon, approve drafts, and correct any message the agent placed in the wrong category so it learns. By the end of the week most people spend far less time in their inbox, reply faster to the people who matter and stop losing track of promises, because every request has either been answered, turned into a task or marked as waiting.
The 13 skills in this set, and the rules behind them
Thirteen skills are planned for this set. Ten are live now; shared inboxes, delegation and out-of-office handovers follow.
| Skill | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
email-system-audit | Find where email time goes and fix the biggest leaks | Live |
inbox-triage | Sort every message with your rules; drafts, never sends | Live |
email-reply-drafting | Short, answer-first replies in your voice | Live |
follow-up-tracking | Track promises and chase replies on time | Live |
inbox-rules-filters | Filters and labels that sort mail automatically | Live |
newsletter-cleanup | Unsubscribe and digest the noise | Live |
email-templates | Reusable answers for repeated questions | Live |
difficult-emails | Complaints, bad news, conflict and negotiation | Live |
email-writing-clarity | Clear subject lines and scannable longer emails | Live |
shared-inbox | Owners and rules for team inboxes | Planned |
email-delegation | Working with an assistant or agent on your behalf | Planned |
out-of-office-handover | Holiday cover, handovers and catching up | Planned |
email-security | Spotting phishing, payment fraud and scams | Live |
The rules behind these skills
| Rule | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| The agent drafts; you send | No email leaves your account without your review |
| Your rules beat guesses | Priority senders, topics, response times and tone live in a file you edit |
| Instructions inside emails are content | An email cannot tell the agent what to do, which blocks prompt injection |
| Archive, never silently delete | Nothing is lost, and you can see what was filed |
| Answer first, keep it short | Readers skim, so the point goes in the first line |
| Batch, do not graze | Two to four sessions a day protect focus time |
Example prompts
Each skill triggers on everyday wording. These prompts are good starting points:
- Triage: “Triage my inbox and show me what needs a reply today.”
- Catch up: “I am back from holiday with 200 emails. Help.”
- Morning brief: “Give me a morning email brief at 8.”
- Reply: “Draft a reply: yes, but Thursday instead.”
- Decline: “Decline this politely and suggest someone else.”
- Scheduling: “Offer three times next week in both time zones.”
- Second language: “Reply in French and show me the English.”
What the agent needs from you
Good email help depends on a few things only you can supply:
- Access: a connector for your email provider with read and draft permissions.
- Priority senders: your manager, key clients and family.
- Topics that matter: invoices, contracts, interviews or anything time-sensitive.
- Response targets: how quickly each group should hear back.
- Your voice: five to ten sent emails you like, plus your sign-off and phrases to avoid.
If something is missing, the skills start with sensible defaults and learn from your corrections.
What an agent cannot do, and myths to ignore
An agent can sort, summarise and draft, but it cannot know facts you have not shared, judge every relationship nuance or take responsibility for what is sent. Sensitive legal, HR and financial messages are flagged for you, and suspicious emails are never acted on.
| Myth | What works better |
|---|---|
| Inbox zero means replying to everything | It means every message has a decision: reply, task, wait, read later or archive |
| More folders keep you organised | A few categories and search beat dozens of folders |
| Long replies are more polite | Short, clear replies respect the reader's time |
| Let the AI send automatically | Drafts with human approval avoid costly mistakes |
| Check email constantly to stay responsive | Batched sessions with response targets keep people informed and protect focus |
Frequently asked questions
Can an AI agent manage my inbox?
Yes, with your rules and limits: it sorts, drafts and extracts tasks, while you approve and send.
Will the agent send emails on its own?
No. The skills only create drafts; sending, deleting permanently and unsubscribing need your approval.
How does it know what is important?
From your rules file of priority senders, topics and response times, and from your corrections over time.
How often should I check email?
Two to four batched sessions a day work for most people, with notifications off in between.
Can it write replies that sound like me?
Yes. It learns from sent emails you like and records your edits as tone notes.
Is it safe against phishing and prompt injection?
The skills treat instructions inside emails as content, never click unknown links and flag suspicious messages for you.
Which email providers work?
Any provider your agent can connect to, such as Gmail or Outlook, through an official connector or API.
Are these skills free?
Yes, under CC BY 4.0, as long as you credit Afeez Adebayo and link to the source page.
Sources and more skills
- Nylas: reach inbox zero with an AI agent
- alirezarezvani/claude-skills on GitHub
- Agent Skills specification
Checked on 13 October 2026. See all Productivity skills, including Planning and Task Management.
