Inbox Triage — by The Agent Ledger

Just deliver this skill to your agent. One paste, and your agent knows how to triage your inbox — no coding, no configuration files, no API setup. Your agent reads the instructions and handles the rest.

An email triage skill for AI agents. Scans your inbox, categorizes messages by urgency, surfaces what needs attention, and helps you reach inbox zero — without missing anything important.

Version: 1.0.0 License: CC-BY-NC-4.0 More: theagentledger.com

What This Skill Does

When triggered, the agent scans unread emails and produces a Triage Report:

1. 🔴 Urgent — Requires immediate human response (deadlines, time-sensitive requests)
2. 🟡 Action Needed — Needs a reply or decision, but not time-critical
3. 🔵 FYI — Informational, worth knowing but no action required
4. ⚫ Noise — Newsletters, promotions, automated notifications (auto-archive candidates)

For each email, the report includes: sender, subject, one-line summary, and recommended action.

Prerequisites

You need CLI access to your email. Supported methods:

Option A: Gmail via gmailctl or Google Apps Script

• Install gmailctl or use the Gmail API
• Authenticate with OAuth (read-only scope is sufficient for triage)

Option B: IMAP via himalaya

• Install himalaya — a CLI email client
• Configure with your IMAP credentials
• Works with Gmail, Outlook, Fastmail, any IMAP provider

Option C: Any CLI mail tool

• mutt, neomutt, mblaze, or custom scripts
• As long as the agent can run a command to list unread messages, this skill works

Note: This skill reads emails. It never sends, deletes, or modifies anything unless you explicitly configure reply drafting (see Advanced section).

Setup

Step 1: Verify Email Access

Confirm the agent can list unread emails:

# himalaya example
himalaya envelope list --folder INBOX --filter new

# gmailctl example — or use a simple script
gmail-fetch --unread --limit 50

Test this manually first. If it works in your terminal, it'll work for the agent.

Step 2: Configure Triage Rules

Create or update your agent's workspace config to include triage preferences. Add to your AGENTS.md or a dedicated inbox-config.md:

## Inbox Triage Rules

### Urgency Signals (→ 🔴 Urgent)
- From: [[email protected], [email protected]]
- Subject contains: "urgent", "ASAP", "deadline", "EOD"
- Calendar invites for today

### Action Signals (→ 🟡 Action Needed)
- Direct questions addressed to me
- Replies to threads I started
- Invoices, contracts, documents requiring signature

### FYI Signals (→ 🔵 FYI)
- CC'd emails
- Team updates, status reports
- News digests I subscribe to