Gog Email Triage

Email Triage & Prioritization

Efficiently review and prioritize your inbox by classifying emails and suggesting actions.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• User wants to "review my inbox" or "check my email"
• User asks to "triage emails" or "prioritize messages"
• User mentions "what's urgent" or "what needs my attention"
• User wants help deciding what to do with emails
• At the start of workday for inbox review

Important: This skill is READ-ONLY. It analyzes and proposes actions but NEVER sends, archives, or modifies emails.

Dynamic Context

The following live data is available:

Unread emails:

!`gog gmail search "is:unread" --max 25 --json 2>/dev/null || echo "GOG_NOT_CONFIGURED"`

Inputs You Need

Before triaging:

1. User preferences (ask if not known):

   • Categories of interest (work vs personal filter)
   • Urgency threshold (show only high/urgent, or include all)
   • Any auto-archive patterns (newsletters, notifications)

2. Context clues (extract from conversation):

   • Current projects or priorities
   • Upcoming deadlines
   • People user is waiting to hear from

Workflow

Step 1: Fetch Unread Emails

If dynamic context shows GOG_NOT_CONFIGURED:

• Inform user that GOG is not configured
• Point to: skills/gog/_shared/references/gog-interface.md
• Offer to help with configuration
• STOP here until configured

If email list is empty:

• Inform user: "No unread emails! Inbox Zero achieved."
• Ask if they want to review recent emails instead
• If yes, fetch: gog gmail search "is:inbox" --max 25 --json

Step 2: Analyze Each Email

For each email, determine:

Urgency Level:

• urgent: Immediate attention required (< 2 hours)
  • Keywords: "urgent", "ASAP", "immediately", "emergency"
  • From: Boss, critical clients, system alerts
  • Context: Blocking your work or others
• high: Should respond today
  • Action required by EOD
  • Meeting invitations for soon
  • Client/stakeholder requests
• medium: Can respond within 2-3 days
  • FYI with potential follow-up
  • Non-urgent requests
  • Team updates that may need input
• low: No time pressure
  • Newsletters, automated reports
  • Social correspondence
  • Informational only

Category:

• action-required: Needs a decision or action from you
• fyi: Informational only, no action needed
• meeting: Meeting invitation or scheduling
• social: Personal correspondence
• newsletter: Automated newsletters/updates
• spam: Likely spam or unwanted

Suggested Action:

• reply: Draft a reply (use gog-email-draft skill)
• reply-all: Draft reply-all
• forward: Forward to someone else
• archive: No action needed, remove from inbox
• create-task: Convert to task (use gog-tasks skill)
• schedule-meeting: Set up meeting (use gog-calendar skill)
• block-sender: Mark as spam/block
• delete: Junk, delete immediately

Step 3: Generate Triage Summary

Output in this format:

# Email Triage Summary

📧 **Total Unread**: [N] messages
⚠️  **Urgent**: [N] | 🔴 **High**: [N] | 🟡 **Medium**: [N] | 🟢 **Low**: [N]

## Top 3 Priorities

1. **[Subject]** from [Sender]
   - Urgency: [urgent/high/medium/low]
   - Reason: [1-line rationale]
   - Suggested action: [action]

2. [...]

3. [...]

## All Messages

| ID (last 6) | From | Subject (truncated) | Urgency | Category | Action | Rationale |
|-------------|------|---------------------|---------|----------|--------|-----------|
| abc123 | sender@example.com | Meeting tomorrow? | high | meeting | reply | Needs response by EOD |
| def456 | newsletter@... | Weekly update | low | newsletter | archive | FYI only |
| [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] |

## Suggested Next Actions

- [ ] **Reply to [N] urgent/high priority emails** (IDs: abc123, def456)
- [ ] **Create tasks for [N] action items** (IDs: ghi789)
- [ ] **Schedule meeting for [topic]** (ID: jkl012)
- [ ] **Archive [N] newsletters and FYI messages**
- [ ] **Block [N] spam senders**

---

**Next Steps**:
- To draft a reply: "Draft a reply to [email ID or subject]"
- To create task: "Create a task for [email ID or subject]"
- To schedule meeting: "Schedule meeting about [topic]"
- To see email content: "Show me email [ID]"

Step 4: Save HTML Artifact

Read the template at .claude/templates/html/custom/email-triage.html, fill all {{PLACEHOLDER}} values with the data from Step 3 (email counts, priority groups, suggested actions), and save the completed HTML to workspace/daily-logs/[C] YYYY-MM-DD-email-triage.html.

Create the workspace/daily-logs/ directory if it does not exist.

Step 5: Offer Follow-Up

After presenting the triage:

• Ask: "Which email would you like to tackle first?"
• Or: "Would you like me to draft replies for the top priorities?"
• Or: "Should I create tasks for the action items?"

Do NOT proceed to take actions without user confirmation.

Output Format (Strict)

The triage summary MUST include:

1. Header stats: Total count + urgency breakdown
2. Top 3 priorities: Most urgent/important emails with rationale
3. Complete table: All emails with classifications
4. Suggested next actions: Checklist of proposed actions grouped by type
5. Next steps prompt: Clear options for follow-up

Table columns (in order):

1. ID (last 6 chars) - for reference
2. From - sender email or name
3. Subject (truncated to ~40 chars)
4. Urgency - urgent/high/medium/low
5. Category - action-required/fyi/meeting/social/newsletter/spam
6. Action - reply/archive/create-task/etc
7. Rationale - 1-line explanation

Examples

Example 1: Morning Inbox Review

User: "Review my inbox"

Assistant:

Let me triage your unread emails.

[Fetches emails...]

# Email Triage Summary

📧 **Total Unread**: 12 messages
⚠️  **Urgent**: 1 | 🔴 **High**: 3 | 🟡 **Medium**: 5 | 🟢 **Low**: 3

## Top 3 Priorities

1. **Budget approval needed** from sarah@company.com
   - Urgency: urgent
   - Reason: Blocks Q2 planning, needs approval by noon today
   - Suggested action: reply

2. **Client demo tomorrow** from client@acme.com
   - Urgency: high
   - Reason: Meeting in < 24h, needs confirmation of attendees
   - Suggested action: reply

3. **Code review request** from dev@company.com
   - Urgency: high
   - Reason: Blocking deployment, requested 2 days ago
   - Suggested action: create-task

## All Messages

| ID | From | Subject | Urgency | Category | Action | Rationale |
|----|------|---------|---------|----------|--------|-----------|
| 7a3f2e | sarah@company.com | Budget approval needed | urgent | action-required | reply | Blocks Q2 planning |
| 9b4c1d | client@acme.com | Client demo tomorrow | high | meeting | reply | Needs confirmation |
| 2e8f6a | dev@company.com | Code review request | high | action-required | create-task | Review needed |
| [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] |

## Suggested Next Actions

- [ ] **Reply to 4 urgent/high emails** (IDs: 7a3f2e, 9b4c1d, 5d7e3c, 8f1a9b)
- [ ] **Create task for code review** (ID: 2e8f6a)
- [ ] **Archive 3 newsletters** (IDs: 4c9e2f, 6a3d8b, 1f7c5e)

---

**Next Steps**: Which email would you like to tackle first? I can draft replies for the top priorities or create tasks for follow-up items.

Example 2: Filtered Triage

User: "Show me only urgent and high priority emails"

Assistant:

Let me filter for urgent and high priority emails only.

[Fetches and filters...]

# Email Triage Summary (Urgent + High Only)

📧 **Total Unread**: 12 messages (showing 4 urgent/high)
⚠️  **Urgent**: 1 | 🔴 **High**: 3

## Top Priorities

1. **Budget approval needed** from sarah@company.com
   - Urgency: urgent
   - Action: reply
   [...]

[Table with only urgent/high priority emails]

The remaining 8 emails are medium/low priority. Want to see those too?

Failure Modes / Troubleshooting

GOG Not Configured

Symptom: Dynamic context shows GOG_NOT_CONFIGURED

Resolution:

1. Inform user: "GOG CLI is not configured. Let me help you set it up."
2. Point to: skills/gog/_shared/references/gog-interface.md
3. Suggest: "Run gog auth login to authenticate"
4. Do not proceed with triage until configured

No Unread Emails

Symptom: Email list is empty []

Resolution:

1. Celebrate: "Inbox Zero! No unread emails."
2. Ask: "Want to review recent emails instead?"
3. If yes, fetch last 25 emails without unread filter

Invalid JSON from GOG

Symptom: jq parse error or non-JSON output

Resolution:

1. Try without --json flag
2. Parse human-readable output (less reliable)
3. Or inform user: "GOG output format unexpected. Please check GOG version."

Too Many Emails (> 25)

Symptom: User has 100+ unread emails

Resolution:

1. Inform: "You have [N] unread emails. Showing top 25."
2. Suggest: "Want to filter by sender, date, or keyword?"
3. Or: "Let's focus on urgent/high priority only"
4. Consider batching: "Let's triage in batches of 25"

Classification Uncertainty

Symptom: Can't determine urgency or category from email metadata

Resolution:

1. Fetch full email with gog email get --id <id>
2. Read first ~200 chars of body for context
3. If still uncertain, default to "medium" urgency and "action-required" category
4. Note in rationale: "Needs review to determine priority"

Safety Rules

1. Never send, archive, or delete emails - This skill is READ-ONLY
2. Never modify email labels or folders - Only analyze and propose
3. Always propose, never execute - Present options, user decides
4. Privacy-aware output - Truncate email subjects in output if they appear sensitive
5. No automation without consent - Even for "obvious" spam, ask before suggesting block/delete

Safe Test

To safely test this skill using only user@example.com:

Read-only test (always safe):

gog gmail search "is:unread (to:user@example.com OR from:user@example.com)" --max 10 --json

In Claude Code:

1. Load the gog-email-triage skill
2. Say: "Triage my inbox"
3. Skill will fetch unread emails
4. Verify output includes:
   • Email count and urgency breakdown
   • Top 3 priorities with rationale
   • Complete table with all emails
   • Suggested next actions checklist
5. Confirm NO emails are sent, archived, or modified

See skills/gog/_shared/references/testing.md for complete test plan.

Notes

• This skill integrates with:

  • gog-email-draft: For drafting replies to prioritized emails
  • gog-tasks: For converting emails to tasks
  • gog-calendar: For scheduling meetings mentioned in emails
  • gog-followups: For tracking emails awaiting responses

• Consider user's timezone when assessing urgency (EOD means their EOD)

• If email subject/sender contains obvious credentials or secrets, redact in output

• For recurring newsletters, suggest creating a filter/rule rather than manual archiving