nicsuzor/email-triage

Email Triage Skill

Taxonomy note: This skill provides domain expertise (HOW) for email triage and task capture. See [[TAXONOMY.md]] for the skill/workflow distinction.

Triage inbox emails with MANDATORY archive receipt logging. Receipts are written to task body concurrently during execution, not after.

CRITICAL: Archive Receipt Requirement

Every archive operation MUST produce a receipt log in the task body.

This is non-negotiable. The user cannot audit or revert archive operations without receipts. Writing receipts to scratchpad is UNACCEPTABLE - scratchpad is ephemeral, task body is persistent.

Receipt Format

## Archive Receipt Log (N emails)

| #   | Date       | From             | Subject                             |
| --- | ---------- | ---------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| 1   | 2025-11-19 | Email Quarantine | End User Digest: 7 New Messages     |
| 2   | 2025-11-19 | QUT Travel       | Your Travel (#893940) has concluded |
| ... |            |                  |                                     |

All N emails moved to [Archive Folder] folder.

Concurrent Write Pattern

WRONG (batch at end - data loss risk):

1. Archive email 1
2. Archive email 2
...
N. Archive email N
N+1. Write all receipts to task body  # If this fails, ALL receipts lost

RIGHT (concurrent - partial receipt on failure):

1. Archive email 1 → immediately append receipt to task body
2. Archive email 2 → immediately append receipt to task body
...
N. Archive email N → immediately append receipt to task body

Workflow

Step 1: Bind to Task

MANDATORY: This skill requires a task to write receipts to.

# Option A: Use existing task
task_id = "<provided-task-id>"

# Option B: Create new task — resolve parent per [[references/hierarchy-quality-rules]] first
result = mcp__pkb__create_task(
    task_title="Email triage: [date range/criteria]",
    type="task",
    project="<project>",
    parent="<resolved-parent-id>",
    tags=["email", "triage"]
)
task_id = result["task"]["id"]

If no task is bound, HALT. Do not proceed without a task ID for receipt logging.

Step 2: Initialize Receipt Log

Before archiving ANY emails, initialize the receipt table header in the task body:

mcp__pkb__update_task(
    id=task_id,
    body="""## Archive Receipt Log

| # | Date | From | Subject |
|---|------|------|---------|"""
)

Step 3: Fetch and Classify Emails

Fetch emails based on criteria:

# Recent emails (using ~~email connector)
emails = ~~email.messages_list_recent(limit=50, folder="inbox")

# Or search by criteria
emails = ~~email.messages_search(
    subject="keyword",
    person="[email protected]",
    is_unread=True
)

Classification categories (semantic, not keyword-based):

| Category | Description | Action | | -------- | -------------------------------------- | ------------------- | | Task | Requires action, response, or decision | Create task | | FYI | Useful information, no action needed | Read and archive | | Skip | Spam, irrelevant, auto-generated noise | Archive immediately |

Classification guardrails:

• Personal invitations requesting participation → classify as Task (not FYI)
• Domain mismatches (e.g., medical grants for non-medical projects) → Skip or FYI
• Routine newsletters/receipts/automated alerts → usually Skip; archive after logging

Reply-waiting signals (ALWAYS Task, never FYI):

• "following up", "checking in", "any update", "wanted to touch base"
• "haven't heard back", "just checking", "circling back"
• Questions awaiting answer from a previous thread
• External parties waiting for scheduling, confirmation, or decision
• PhD/collaboration inquiries requesting supervision or meeting

Step 4: User Checkpoint Before Archive

MANDATORY: Get user approval before archiving.

Use AskUserQuestion to present:

1. Count of emails per category
2. Sample subjects from each category
3. Confirmation to proceed with archive

AskUserQuestion(
    questions=[{
        "question": "Ready to archive N emails (X Skip, Y FYI)?",
        "header": "Archive",
        "options": [
            {"label": "Archive all", "description": "Proceed with archiving classified emails"},
            {"label": "Review first", "description": "Show me the full list before archiving"},
            {"label": "Cancel", "description": "Do not archive anything"}
        ],
        "multiSelect": False
    }]
)

Step 5: Archive with Concurrent Receipts

For each email to archive:

1. Move the email:

~~email.messages_move(
    entry_id=email["entry_id"],
    folder_path="Archive"  # Or user-specified folder
)

2. IMMEDIATELY append receipt to task body:

mcp__pkb__update_task(
    id=task_id,
    body=f"| {count} | {email['date']} | {email['from']} | {email['subject']} |"
)

Do NOT batch receipt writes. Each archive operation = immediate receipt append.

Step 6: Finalize Receipt Log

After all emails archived, append summary:

mcp__pkb__update_task(
    id=task_id,
    body=f"\nAll {total_count} emails moved to {folder_name} folder."
)

Interactive Supervised Mode

Interactive Supervised Mode is an extension of the standard 6-step workflow for runs where a human is actively supervising (human-in-the-loop). All of Steps 1–6 still apply, including the mandatory user checkpoint in Step 4; the rules below are additional guardrails that change how you execute those steps when the user is available for real-time review.

Classification Workflow

1. Classify first (refines Step 2 + Step 4): Before taking any action on emails, complete the full batch classification (Task/FYI/Skip) and present it to the user for review and confirmation. This user review happens at the Step 4 checkpoint, before any archive or move operations.
2. Noise first (ordering within Steps 3–5): After user confirmation of the classification, archive Skip (noise) items first as a quick win, then proceed to process Task and FYI items according to the main workflow.

Scheduling and Coordination

1. Never propose dates: When scheduling is required, use AskUserQuestion to present options — never assume dates or availability
2. Multi-party coordination: Before drafting coordination emails, ask "who else needs to be contacted?"

Response Drafting

1. Long threads (>2 messages): Summarise the thread state to the user before drafting a reply
2. Non-responders: When someone hasn't replied to a previous email, use a more tentative, warmer tone — not transactional
3. Draft vs send: Always confirm whether the user wants to save as draft or send

Deferred Items

1. Create task for deferred work: Any actionable email that won't be handled immediately MUST get a task — never archive an actionable email without creating a task first

Drafting Email Responses

When drafting responses, follow these requirements:

Style Guide Prerequisite

Before drafting ANY response, load the user's email style guide from memory:

mcp__pkb__search(query="email style guide")

If no style guide is found, use these defaults:

• Sign-off: "Best" or "Cheers" (never "Best regards" or "Kind regards")
• Tone: Warm, direct, collegial — like talking to a respected peer over coffee
• Structure: Brief paragraphs, personal judgment language ("my intuition is...", "I'm happy to...")
• Avoid: Legal brief structure, numbered lists, formal headings, "I submit that"
• Default to brevity — if it feels like a memo, it's too formal

Drafting Guardrails

• Apply the Interactive Supervised Mode guardrails above (long threads, non-responder tone, scheduling, draft vs send)
• If email requires action but NOT a reply to sender, do not suggest a response

Batch Processing (Large Volumes)

For 100+ emails, use chunking per [[workflows/batch-processing]]:

Chunking Strategy

• Temporal: By month (e.g., "Nov 2025", "Dec 2025")
• Categorical: By sender domain or type
• Size-based: Fixed chunks of 20-50 emails

Parallel Worker Pattern

Spawn parallel workers, each with the task ID for receipt logging:

Task(
    subagent_type="general-purpose",
    prompt=f"""Process Nov 2025 emails for triage.

    Task ID for receipts: {task_id}

    For EACH email archived, IMMEDIATELY append receipt:
    mcp__pkb__update_task(
        id='{task_id}',
        body='| N | DATE | FROM | SUBJECT |'
    )

    Classification criteria: [criteria]
    Archive folder: Archive
    """,
    run_in_background=True
)

Worker Receipt Responsibility

Each worker is responsible for its own receipts. The supervisor does NOT aggregate receipts after the fact - they are written during execution by each worker.

Error Handling

| Error | Response | | ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Archive fails mid-batch | Task body contains partial receipt up to failure point - audit trail preserved | | Task update fails | HALT immediately. Log error. Do NOT continue archiving without receipt persistence | | ~~email unavailable | HALT. Do not proceed without email access | | No task bound | HALT. Create or specify task before any archive operations |

Quality Gates

Before marking triage complete:

• [ ] All archived emails have receipt entries in task body
• [ ] Receipt count matches archive count
• [ ] User approved archive operation
• [ ] Task body contains final summary with total count and folder

Example Output

Task body after successful triage:

# Email triage: QUT inbox (Nov 2025 - Feb 2026)

## Archive Receipt Log (188 emails)

| #   | Date       | From                         | Subject                             |
| --- | ---------- | ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| 1   | 2025-11-19 | Email Quarantine             | End User Digest: 7 New Messages     |
| 2   | 2025-11-19 | QUT Travel                   | Your Travel (#893940) has concluded |
| 3   | 2025-11-18 | QUT DVC Research             | Read and Publish Agreement Update   |
| ... |            |                              |                                     |
| 188 | 2026-02-01 | [email protected] | Web of Science Alert                |

All 188 emails moved to QUT Archive folder.