Process Emails

Process Emails Skill

Purpose: Automatically process emails detected by Gmail Watcher, categorize them by priority, draft appropriate responses, and manage approval workflow for sending replies.

Dependencies:

• Gmail Watcher (creates EMAIL_*.md files in Vault/Needs_Action)
• handle-approval skill (for sending email responses)
• Email MCP Server (for actual email sending)
• Vault/Company_Handbook.md (for response guidelines)

Trigger Phrases:

• "process emails"
• "check my inbox"
• "check emails"
• "handle emails"
• "respond to emails"
• "what emails need attention"
• "process gmail"

Overview

This skill implements a complete email processing workflow:

1. Detection: Scan Vault/Needs_Action for EMAIL_* files created by Gmail Watcher
2. Analysis: Extract and categorize email metadata
3. Prioritization: Classify emails as urgent/normal/low priority
4. Response: Draft appropriate replies using templates
5. Approval: Create approval requests for email responses
6. Logging: Update Dashboard with all email activities

Workflow Phases

Phase 1: Scan for New Emails

Objective: Identify unprocessed email files in the Vault/Needs_Action folder.

Steps:

1. Use Glob tool to find all EMAIL_*.md files in Vault/Needs_Action
2. Filter out files already processed (check Dashboard log)
3. Sort by priority metadata if available
4. Process in order: urgent → normal → low

Output: List of email files to process

Phase 2: Extract Email Metadata

Objective: Parse email file to extract sender, subject, body, and metadata.

Steps:

1. Read the EMAIL_*.md file using Read tool
2. Extract YAML frontmatter:
   • type: email
   • from: sender@example.com
   • subject: Email subject line
   • received: timestamp
   • priority: high/normal/low
   • message_id: unique_id
3. Extract email body content
4. Optionally use parse_email_metadata.py script for complex parsing

Reference: See Email File Format below

Phase 3: Categorize Email

Objective: Classify email into appropriate category and priority level.

Categorization Process:

1. Load categorization rules from reference/categorization.md
2. Analyze email content for:
   • Sender domain (client, internal, vendor)
   • Subject keywords (invoice, urgent, meeting, etc.)
   • Body content patterns
3. Assign category:
   • Client Communications
   • Sales/Leads
   • Administrative
   • Internal Team
   • Spam/Low Priority

Priority Assessment:

1. Load priority rules from reference/priority-rules.md
2. Check for urgency indicators:
   • Keywords: "urgent", "asap", "immediate", "deadline"
   • VIP sender list
   • Subject line patterns
   • Time-sensitive content
3. Assign priority: urgent / normal / low

Output: Category and priority classification

Phase 4: Draft Response

Objective: Generate appropriate email response based on category and content.

Response Generation:

1. Load email templates from reference/email-templates.md
2. Select template based on:
   • Email category
   • Request type (inquiry, invoice, meeting, support)
   • Priority level
3. Personalize template with:
   • Sender name
   • Specific details from original email
   • Vault/Company_Handbook.md tone and style
   • Vault/Business_Goals.md context (if relevant)
4. Draft response following professional standards

Quality Checks:

• Appropriate greeting and closing
• Addresses all questions from original email
• Professional tone consistent with Company_Handbook
• No typos or formatting issues
• Includes relevant information/attachments

Reference: See email-templates.md for all templates

Phase 5: Create Approval Request

Objective: Generate approval request for email response following safety protocols.

Approval Logic:

1. Check approval thresholds (from handle-approval skill):
   • Auto-approve: Replies to known contacts < 200 words (NOT IMPLEMENTED - all require approval for safety)
   • Require approval: New contacts, bulk sends, attachments, sensitive content
2. For Silver Tier: ALL EMAIL SENDS REQUIRE APPROVAL

Create Approval File:

1. Use approval-template from handle-approval skill
2. Create file: Vault/Pending_Approval/EMAIL_[recipient-name]_[date].md
3. Include:

   ---
   type: approval_request
   action: send_email
   to: recipient@example.com
   subject: Response subject line
   created: [timestamp]
   expires: [48 hours from creation]
   priority: [based on email priority]
   status: pending
   original_email_file: EMAIL_xxx.md
   ---
   

4. Include full email body in approval request
5. Add context from original email
6. Note any risks or considerations

Reference: Use handle-approval skill's approval-template.md

Phase 6: Handle Special Cases

Urgent Emails:

• Flag in Dashboard with 🚨 indicator
• Set approval expiration to 24 hours (not 48)
• Add "URGENT" tag to approval filename
• Log with high priority in Dashboard

Spam/Low Priority:

• Move directly to Vault/Done with "SPAM" or "LOW_PRIORITY" tag
• No response needed
• Log in Dashboard as filtered

Automated Notifications:

• Service alerts, newsletters, automated receipts
• Archive to Vault/Done with "AUTO_NOTIFICATION" tag
• No action required
• Brief log entry in Dashboard

Errors/Parsing Issues:

• If email file is malformed or unreadable
• Create error log in Vault/Logs
• Move problematic file to Vault/Needs_Action/ERROR_*
• Alert in Dashboard for manual review

Phase 7: Dashboard Logging

Objective: Maintain comprehensive audit trail of all email processing.

Log Entry Format:

## [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS] Email Processing

**Email:** [Subject line]
**From:** [Sender name/email]
**Category:** [Category]
**Priority:** [urgent/normal/low]
**Action:** [Response drafted / Archived as spam / Flagged for manual review]
**Approval Status:** [Created approval request / Auto-archived]
**File:** [Original EMAIL_*.md filename]
**Approval File:** [APPROVAL_EMAIL_*.md filename if created]

---

Dashboard Update:

1. Read current Vault/Dashboard.md
2. Append new entry under "Recent Activity" section
3. Update email processing statistics if tracked
4. Save Vault/Dashboard.md

Email File Format

Email files created by Gmail Watcher follow this standard format:

---
type: email
from: sender@example.com
from_name: John Doe
subject: Invoice Request for January
received: 2026-01-11T10:30:00Z
priority: normal
message_id: unique_gmail_id
status: pending
---

## Email Content

[Email body text here]

Multiple paragraphs preserved.

## Suggested Actions

- [ ] Reply to sender
- [ ] Forward to relevant party
- [ ] Archive after processing
- [ ] Flag as urgent

## Metadata

- **Labels:** Important, Work
- **Thread ID:** thread_123
- **Attachments:** invoice.pdf (if any)

Integration with Other Skills

handle-approval Skill

• When: After drafting email response
• How: Call handle-approval to create approval request
• Workflow: process-emails → draft response → handle-approval → create APPROVAL_EMAIL_*.md

create-plan Skill

• When: Email requires complex multi-step action
• Example: "Please update our website and send me a proposal"
• How: Create plan for complex request, email response confirms plan creation

Error Handling

File Not Found:

• Log error to Dashboard
• Continue processing other emails
• Do not stop workflow

Malformed Email File:

• Move to Vault/Needs_Action/ERROR_EMAIL_[filename]
• Log to Dashboard with error details
• Create manual review task

Template Not Found:

• Use generic professional response template
• Log warning to Dashboard
• Email still gets processed

Approval Creation Fails:

• Log error to Vault/Logs
• Do not send email (safety first)
• Alert in Dashboard for manual intervention

Security & Safety

Never Auto-Send:

• All email sends require human approval (Silver Tier standard)
• No exceptions for "trusted" contacts yet (implement in Gold Tier)

PII Protection:

• Never include passwords, API keys, credit card numbers in email
• Validate email addresses before creating approval
• Check for typos in recipient address

Content Validation:

• Ensure response is professional and appropriate
• No offensive language
• Factually accurate based on Company_Handbook
• Addresses recipient's actual questions

Rate Limiting:

• Process maximum 20 emails per batch
• Prevent overwhelming approval queue
• Prevent accidental mass sends

Testing & Validation

Test with Dummy Email:

1. Create test email file in Vault/Needs_Action
2. Run skill with /process-emails
3. Verify categorization is correct
4. Check response draft quality
5. Confirm approval request created properly
6. Validate Dashboard logging

Test Cases:

• Urgent client email
• Normal inquiry email
• Spam email
• Automated notification
• Malformed email file

Performance Optimization

For Large Email Volumes:

• Process in batches of 10-20
• Prioritize urgent emails first
• Archive spam immediately
• Defer low-priority processing

For Quick Responses:

• Use haiku model for categorization (faster, cheaper)
• Cache email templates in memory
• Reuse approval template structure

Reference Files

This skill uses progressive disclosure. Load these files on-demand:

1. email-templates.md

   • Response templates for common scenarios
   • Client inquiry, invoice request, meeting scheduling, etc.

2. priority-rules.md

   • Urgency keywords and patterns
   • VIP sender list
   • Auto-approve vs require approval logic

3. categorization.md

   • Email categorization criteria
   • Domain-based classification
   • Content pattern matching

Scripts

parse_email_metadata.py:

• Python script for complex email parsing
• Extracts sender, subject, body, attachments
• Returns structured JSON metadata
• Usage: python scripts/parse_email_metadata.py EMAIL_xxx.md

Success Criteria

✅ Skill Working If:

• Detects EMAIL_* files in Vault/Needs_Action
• Correctly categorizes email priority
• Drafts professional, relevant responses
• Creates approval requests for all sends
• Logs all activity to Dashboard
• Handles errors gracefully

Troubleshooting

Skill doesn't activate:

• Check trigger phrases in description
• Verify EMAIL_* files exist in Vault/Needs_Action
• Try explicit invocation: /process-emails

Wrong email category:

• Review categorization.md rules
• Check for new sender domains
• Update categorization logic

Poor response quality:

• Review email-templates.md
• Update Company_Handbook.md tone guidelines
• Add more context to templates

Approval not created:

• Verify handle-approval skill is available
• Check Vault/Pending_Approval folder exists
• Review error logs in Dashboard

Future Enhancements (Gold Tier)

• Auto-approve for trusted contacts (after pattern learning)
• Email threading (reply in context)
• Attachment handling
• Calendar integration for meeting requests
• Multi-language support
• Sentiment analysis for urgent detection

End of SKILL.md

Total Lines: ~340 (Under 500 ✓) Structure: Progressive disclosure with reference files Status: Ready for testing