inboxzero - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: inboxzero description: "Autonomous email triage powered by AI. Connects to any email provider via IMAP, auto-labels, archives, drafts replies, and surfaces only what matters. Use when: drowning in email, want smart filtering beyond Gmail filters, or need automated triage. NOT for: sending bulk email, newsletter management, or email marketing campaigns." homepage: https://pawhub.ai/inboxzero metadata: { "openpaw": { "emoji": "📬", "requires": { "bins": ["node"] }, "install": [ { "id": "npm", "kind": "node", "package": "@pawhub/inboxzero", "bins": ["inboxzero"], "label": "Install InboxZero (npm)", }, ], },

}

InboxZero 📬

Autonomous email triage that actually works. Connect any email account (Gmail, Outlook, IMAP), set your rules in plain language, and let Paw handle the noise.

When to Use

✅ USE this skill when:

Getting 100+ emails a day and drowning
Want newsletters auto-archived but accessible
Need email sorted by urgency/importance
Want draft replies written while you sleep
Trying to maintain actual inbox zero
Need better filtering than Gmail's basic rules
Want email handled autonomously (not just filtered)
Managing multiple email accounts

When NOT to Use

❌ DON'T use this skill when:

Sending bulk email / newsletters → use Mailchimp, SendGrid, etc.
Email marketing campaigns → use dedicated ESP
Transactional email generation → use platform APIs
Email deliverability testing → use specialized tools
Building email lists → use proper CRM tools
Legal/compliance email archiving → use enterprise solutions

Setup

Install InboxZero:

npm install -g @pawhub/inboxzero

Connect your email account:

# Gmail (via IMAP)
inboxzero add gmail \
  --email your.email@gmail.com \
  --app-password your-app-password

# Outlook / Office 365
inboxzero add outlook \
  --email your.email@outlook.com \
  --password your-password

# Generic IMAP
inboxzero add imap \
  --email you@example.com \
  --host imap.example.com \
  --port 993 \
  --user you@example.com \
  --password your-password

# Verify connection
inboxzero status

Example Interactions

Initial Setup

You: Set up email triage for me

Paw: settles in for configuration

Alright, let's make email bearable again. First question:

What email account should I watch?

You: my.work.email@company.com (Gmail)

Paw: Got it. Gmail IMAP. You'll need an app password (not your regular password).

Generate one here

Once you have it, run:

inboxzero add gmail --email my.work.email@company.com --app-password YOUR_APP_PASSWORD

Then come back and we'll set up your triage rules. ✉️

You: Done. Now what?

Paw: stretches and opens the rule configurator

Perfect. Now let's teach me how to handle your inbox.

Quick setup or custom rules?

Quick setup = I make smart guesses based on patterns Custom rules = you tell me exactly what to do

Most people start with quick setup, then tweak later. What sounds good?

You: Quick setup

Paw: starts analyzing your inbox

Scanning your last 500 emails to learn patterns...

30 seconds later

Okay, here's what I found:

Newsletters (42% of volume):

Substack digests
Marketing emails from vendors
Automated reports

Action needed (18%):

Client requests
Meeting invitations
PR reviews
Calendar items

FYI / CC'd (31%):

Group threads where you're CC'd
Status updates
Announcements

Social (9%):

LinkedIn notifications
Twitter alerts
GitHub notifications

Proposed rules:

Archive newsletters (but keep searchable)
Priority flag: client emails, PRs, meeting invites
Auto-label FYI emails (don't clutter inbox)
Snooze social notifications until evening batch

Sound good? (yes/no/customize)

You: Yes, but don't archive newsletters — I actually read some

Paw: nods in approval

Smart. Newsletters modified:

Label as "Newsletter" ✅
Leave in inbox ✅
Mark as read after 3 days if unopened ✅

Everything else approved. Activating triage rules now...

Status:

✅ Connected to IMAP
✅ Rules active
✅ Processing backlog (500 emails)
⏳ Will check every 5 minutes

You'll get a summary of actions taken. Check back in 10 minutes. 🐾

Daily Usage

You: What did you do to my email overnight?

Paw: reports with satisfaction

InboxZero Summary (Last 12 Hours)

📬 Processed: 87 emails

Actions taken:

🗃️ Archived 42 emails (newsletters, FYI)
🏷️ Labeled 19 emails (categorized)
⭐ Flagged 8 as priority (need your attention)
💤 Snoozed 12 until tomorrow
✍️ Drafted 6 replies (ready for your review)

Current inbox: 8 emails (all priority)

Your move:

Check the 8 flagged items
Review drafted replies (or let me send them)
Relax — everything else is handled

Want details on any category? 📊

You: Show me the drafted replies

Paw: pulls up the drafts

Drafted Replies (6):

1. From: sarah@client.com Subject: "Q4 timeline check-in"

Draft:

Hi Sarah,

Timeline is on track. We're finishing QA this week, deployment scheduled for Oct 15.

I'll send the staging link by EOD Thursday for your team to preview.

Best, [Your name]

✅ Send now | ✏️ Edit | 🗑️ Delete draft

2. From: vendor-support@tool.com Subject: "Account renewal reminder"

Draft:

Hi,

Thanks for the reminder. I'll review this with the team and get back to you by end of week.

✅ Send | ✏️ Edit | 🗑️ Delete

Want to review all 6 or should I just send them? (Drafts are conservative — I only auto-send if you enable "confident mode")

You: Send 1, 2, 3, 5. Hold 4 and 6 for me to review.

Paw: clicks send on the approved emails

✅ Sent 4 emails 📝 Holding 2 drafts for your review (marked in your Drafts folder)

Anything else? Or should I go back to monitoring your inbox quietly? 😺

Advanced Triage

You: Create a rule: if John from engineering emails me with "urgent" in the subject, text me immediately

Paw: Got it. Adding VIP rule:

Trigger: Email from john@company.com
Condition: Subject contains "urgent"
Action: Send Telegram notification immediately
Priority: High

Testing... sends test notification

Did you get the test ping? (yes/no)

You: Yes

Paw: Perfect. Rule is live. John's urgent emails now bypass the queue and ping you directly.

Pro tip: If John sends too many "urgent" emails that aren't actually urgent, I'll learn that and downgrade the priority automatically after 3 false alarms. 🎯

Weekly Cleanup

You: How's my email hygiene this week?

Paw: pulls weekly report

InboxZero Weekly Report

📬 Processed: 412 emails

Breakdown:

Priority handled: 34 (8%)
Auto-archived: 287 (70%)
Labeled for later: 61 (15%)
Snoozed: 30 (7%)

Time saved: ~4.2 hours (Avg 6 mins per priority email × 42 emails handled autonomously)

Inbox status:

Start of week: 127 unread
End of week: 4 unread
Current state: Inbox Zero ✅

Top senders:

newsletters@substack.com — 87 emails (auto-archived)
github.com — 52 notifications (labeled)
sarah@client.com — 14 emails (8 handled, 6 flagged)

Recommendations:

Unsubscribe from "MarketingTool Weekly" (12 emails, 0 opens)
Create filter for "deploy success" notifications (GitHub)
Consider VIP rule for sarah@client.com (high reply rate)

Want me to make these changes? 🐾

Commands

Account Management

# Add email account
inboxzero add gmail --email you@gmail.com --app-password ABC123

# List connected accounts
inboxzero accounts list

# Remove account
inboxzero accounts remove you@gmail.com

# Test connection
inboxzero accounts test you@gmail.com

Triage Rules

# Quick setup (AI learns patterns)
inboxzero setup quick --account you@gmail.com

# Create custom rule
inboxzero rule create \
  --from "newsletter@example.com" \
  --action archive \
  --label "Newsletter"

# List active rules
inboxzero rule list

# Disable a rule temporarily
inboxzero rule disable <rule-id>

# Edit existing rule
inboxzero rule edit <rule-id>

Manual Actions

# Process inbox now (don't wait for schedule)
inboxzero process --account you@gmail.com

# Generate reply draft for specific email
inboxzero draft-reply --email-id ABC123

# Bulk archive by sender
inboxzero bulk-archive --from "sender@example.com" --older-than 30d

# Unsubscribe helper (finds unsubscribe links)
inboxzero unsubscribe --from "sender@example.com"

Reports

# Daily summary
inboxzero report daily

# Weekly digest
inboxzero report weekly

# Show inbox statistics
inboxzero stats

# Email hygiene score
inboxzero score

Smart Features

# Enable draft replies
inboxzero config set draft-replies true

# Enable confident mode (auto-send safe replies)
inboxzero config set confident-mode false

# Set Telegram notifications
inboxzero config set telegram-notify true

# VIP sender (always notify)
inboxzero vip add sarah@client.com

Rule Syntax

Simple Rules

# Archive all newsletters
inboxzero rule create --subject-contains "newsletter" --action archive

# Flag client emails as priority
inboxzero rule create --from "@client.com" --action flag --priority high

# Auto-label GitHub notifications
inboxzero rule create --from "notifications@github.com" --action label --label "GitHub"

Advanced Rules

# Combine conditions
inboxzero rule create \
  --from "boss@company.com" \
  --subject-contains "urgent" \
  --action notify-telegram \
  --priority critical

# Time-based snoozing
inboxzero rule create \
  --from "@social-network.com" \
  --action snooze \
  --until "18:00" \
  --label "Social"

# Draft reply with template
inboxzero rule create \
  --from "vendor@example.com" \
  --subject-contains "renewal" \
  --action draft-reply \
  --template "vendor-renewal"

Draft Reply Templates

Create custom templates for common replies:

# Create template
inboxzero template create vendor-renewal "
Thanks for the reminder. I'll review this with the team and get back to you by end of week.

Best,
{sender_name}
"

# Use template in rule
inboxzero rule create \
  --from "@vendor.com" \
  --action draft-reply \
  --template vendor-renewal

Telegram Integration

Once connected to OpenPaw + Telegram:

Paw: 📬 3 new priority emails

sarah@client.com: "Q4 timeline check-in"
john@eng: "Prod issue - need review"
security@company: "2FA reminder"

Reply with: /email 2 to read /email draft 1 to draft reply /email done to mark handled

You: /email 2

Paw: sends full email content

From: john@engineering.com
Subject: Prod issue - need review
Time: 2:14 PM

Hey, seeing elevated error rates on /api/users endpoint.
Can you take a look? Nothing critical yet but trending up.

Logs: [link]

Quick actions: /email reply 2 - Draft reply /email done 2 - Mark handled /email forward 2 @sarah - Forward to someone

Configuration

# Show current config
inboxzero config show

# Processing frequency
inboxzero config set check-interval "5m"

# Max emails to process per run
inboxzero config set batch-size 50

# Draft reply tone
inboxzero config set reply-tone "professional" # casual, professional, brief

# Auto-send confidence threshold
inboxzero config set auto-send-confidence 0.95

# Enable learning mode (improves over time)
inboxzero config set learning-mode true

Learning Mode

InboxZero gets smarter over time:

Learns which emails you actually read
Adjusts priority based on your reply patterns
Improves draft quality by learning your writing style
Suggests new rules based on recurring patterns

# View learning insights
inboxzero insights

# Example output:
# - You never open emails from "newsletter@example.com" → Suggest: auto-archive
# - You always reply to sarah@client.com within 2 hours → Suggest: VIP rule
# - Emails with "invoice" in subject get forwarded to accounting → Suggest: auto-forward rule

Tips from Paw

"Start with quick setup, let me learn for a week, then refine the rules. Don't over-engineer on day one."

"Draft mode is safer than confident mode. I'll write replies but you hit send. Confident mode is for when you trust me blindly (rare)."

"The VIP list is powerful. Use it for people where you need instant notifications, not just priority flagging."

"Check the weekly report. It'll show you patterns you didn't know existed. Then unsubscribe ruthlessly."

"I never delete emails. Everything is archived, labeled, and searchable. Inbox Zero ≠ Email Deletion."

Pricing

Free tier: 1 email account, 100 emails/day, basic rules
Pro: $12/month — 3 accounts, unlimited emails, draft replies, learning mode
Team: $39/month — 10 accounts, shared rules, team insights, Slack integration

Install from PawHub or pawhub.ai/inboxzero

Security & Privacy

Your email credentials are encrypted at rest using AES-256
Email content is processed locally on your OpenPaw gateway
Draft replies are generated via Claude API (opt-in)
No email content is stored permanently; everything is ephemeral processing
You can disable cloud AI and use local models for draft generation
Full audit log of all actions taken on your behalf

Notes

IMAP is read-only until you enable "confident mode" (write actions)
Draft replies use Claude Sonnet by default; configurable to Haiku or local models
Processing runs every 5 minutes by default; adjustable down to 1 minute
Supports Gmail, Outlook, FastMail, ProtonMail (via bridge), and any IMAP provider
Works with multiple email accounts simultaneously
No message limits on Pro tier (unlike Gmail filters which max out)

Built for people who want their inbox managed, not just filtered. 📬🐾