Email Digest Workflow

Process incoming emails into structured memories, extract action items, and surface threads that need attention.

When to Use

• During autonomous heartbeats to check for new mail since the last digest
• When the user asks "what's in my inbox" or "any important emails"
• When a goal depends on information that may have arrived via email
• When preparing a daily briefing that includes email highlights

Step-by-Step Methodology

1. Check recency: Use recall to find when the last email digest ran. Avoid re-processing messages already ingested.
2. List new emails: Call list_emails with a date filter to fetch unread or recent messages. Start with the inbox; expand to other labels only if the user has configured them.
3. Triage by sender and subject: Scan the list for high-signal indicators -- known contacts, reply chains the user is on, calendar invites, and keywords matching active goals.
4. Read priority threads: Use read_email on the top 5-10 most relevant messages. Do not read every email; batch processing wastes energy and context.
5. Extract action items: For each important email, identify: (a) what is being asked, (b) who is asking, (c) any deadline mentioned, (d) whether a reply is expected.
6. Store findings: Use remember to persist action items as episodic memories with high importance. Tag with the sender, thread ID, and any relevant goal.
7. Surface urgency: If an email requires a time-sensitive response, flag it in the heartbeat result so it can be raised to the user at next opportunity.

Quality Guidelines

• Never store raw email bodies as memories. Summarize and extract the salient points.
• Respect privacy: do not log email content to external services. All storage stays in the local Postgres brain.
• When multiple emails belong to the same thread, consolidate into a single memory rather than creating duplicates.
• If credentials are missing or expired, fail gracefully and note the issue rather than retrying in a loop.
• Prefer recalling existing contact memories to enrich email context (who is this person, what is the relationship).