Init

email-sentry: init

Scaffold a working email-sentry install from the canonical template files bundled with this plugin at ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/init/templates/.

email-sentry is a headless inbox gatekeeper: a loop-managed engine searches Gmail via the gog CLI, an LLM judge decides "should this notify the user right now?", and only mail that matters buzzes the user's hotline channel.

Step 1: Check prerequisites

email-sentry reads Gmail through gogcli (the gog command) — a separate CLI it does NOT bundle. gog is the load-bearing dependency: without it there is no mail to judge. It is a Google CLI that holds each account's OAuth token in a system keyring. Check for it first and, if it is missing or unconfigured, walk the user through it before touching anything else.

Check each of these and report anything missing before scaffolding:

1. gog installed, authenticated, and its keyring usable.
   • which gog — is the binary on PATH? If not, gog is not installed. Tell the user what gogcli is (the Gmail reader email-sentry depends on) and point them at https://github.com/openclaw/gogcli to install it (Homebrew is one option). Do not proceed without it.
   • gog auth list (add -j for JSON) — at least one Gmail account must be authenticated. If none, have the user run gog auth add <email> and grant Gmail read access, once per account. Note every account listed; you will offer them all in Step 3.
   • Keyring backend (critical on a headless / SSH box). gog blocks waiting on a desktop keyring (Secret Service) if one is not present, which hangs every run. Check gog auth status (shows the active backend) or run gog auth doctor. On a headless box the backend must be a non-Secret-Service one — set it to file: either gog auth keyring file, or create an env file (default ~/.config/gogcli/env) containing:

     export GOG_KEYRING_BACKEND=file
     export GOG_KEYRING_PASSWORD=<a-passphrase-the-user-chooses>
     

     and set gog.env_file in sentry-config.json to that path. If you skip this on a headless box, run_sentry.py's preflight will warn and every gog call will hang.
2. hotline state exists. ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/hotline/.env must exist and contain TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN, and ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/hotline/access.json should have at least one entry in allowFrom (that chat is where notifications go). Read only; never print token values. If missing, point the user at hotline setup and hotline pair first.
3. claude CLI on PATH (which claude). The judge runs through it.
4. python3 on PATH. Record the absolute path of python3; use it in the hotline loop add command you give the user.

If a prerequisite is missing, stop and tell the user how to fix it. Do not scaffold a broken install. Never register the loop or run hotline up yourself unless the user explicitly confirms they want it on.

Step 2: Choose the target directory and check for conflicts

Ask the user where the install should live. Default suggestion: an email-sentry/ directory inside the current project. Engine config, prompt, and calibration logs live in that directory; outer loop state and run logs live in hotline's state dir.

Never overwrite. If any target file already exists, do NOT write it; collect every conflict, report the list, and only create what is missing.

Targets (relative to the chosen directory):

• run_sentry.py
• sentry-judge.md
• sentry-config.json
• README.md

Step 3: Scaffold and fill in the config

Copy each non-conflicting file from ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/init/templates/ into the target directory. Copy run_sentry.py, sentry-judge.md, and README.md as-is; do not edit or reformat them. Make run_sentry.py executable.

If ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/init/templates/ does not exist, stop and tell the user the plugin install looks broken; do not improvise file contents.

Then fill in sentry-config.json (this is the one file you edit):

• accounts: one entry per gog-authenticated account the user wants watched (ask which, and whether each is personal or work).
• user_name: ask for the user's first name.
• user_addresses: the account addresses, plus any aliases or group addresses the user says land in these inboxes.
• timezone: from timedatectl (or ask), as an IANA name.
• Leave notify.chat_id as null (auto: first allowlisted hotline chat) unless the user wants a specific chat pinned.
• Mention that vip_senders and quiet_hours are theirs to tune later.

The judge prompt uses {{USER_NAME}}, {{USER_ADDRESSES}}, and {{PRIMARY_ADDRESS}} placeholders; the engine fills those at runtime from this config. Do not substitute them in sentry-judge.md yourself.

Step 4: Verify with a dry run, then give the loop command

1. Run a dry run yourself and show the summary: cd <target dir> && ./run_sentry.py --max 5 Dry-run sends nothing and changes nothing in Gmail; it is safe. If gog, the judge, or the config fails here, fix it before going further.

2. Tell the user how to sanity-check one live pass: cd <target dir> && ./run_sentry.py --live

3. Register the triage loop. Prefer the setup_loop MCP tool if your hotline exposes it (hotline ≥ v0.10.0) — that way you register it directly instead of handing the user a command to paste. Call setup_loop with:

   • label: email-sentry
   • every: 60s
   • timeout: 25m
   • cmd: {{PYTHON_BIN}} {{SENTRY_DIR}}/run_sentry.py --live (absolute python path + target dir filled in)

   Leave notify_llm unset — the engine escalates through hotline itself, so the loop does not route stdout through the notify gate. In normal (non-yolo) mode setup_loop creates the loop pending: it will NOT tick until the operator approves it. Relay exactly that to the user and tell them to approve it with hotline loop approve email-sentry (the tool's own reply names the command). In yolo mode it goes live immediately and the operator is notified.

   Fallback (hotline without the setup_loop tool): give the user this command to run themselves, absolute python path and target directory filled in:

   hotline loop add email-sentry --every 60s --timeout 25m \
     --cmd "{{PYTHON_BIN}} {{SENTRY_DIR}}/run_sentry.py --live"
   

4. Tell them hotline up must be running for managed loops to tick. If they do not use hotline up, they can drive the registered loop externally with hotline loop run email-sentry --once.

5. Remind them of the kill switch: hotline loop pause email-sentry. The full operating guide is in the scaffolded README.md.