mail

name	mail
description	Read Mail.app inboxes and create Reminders for actionable items. Use for email triage.

Mail Processor

Reads macOS Mail.app, identifies actionable emails, and creates reminders in Reminders.app "Inbox" list.

Usage

• /mail — process past 24 hours (default)
• /mail 7 days — process past 7 days
• /mail 14 days — process past 14 days

Workflow

Batch A: Fetch Everything (PARALLEL)

Issue ALL of these tool calls in a single parallel message:

1. Bash — Activate apps + fetch emails (combined to avoid extra round-trip):

   osascript -e 'tell application "Mail" to activate' && osascript -e 'tell application "Reminders" to activate' && sleep 1 && osascript ~/.claude/skills/mail/scripts/fetch-mail.applescript <days>
   

   • Default <days> is 1. If user provides args like "7 days", "48h", or "14 days", extract the number.
   • Returns JSON array. Each email object has: id, account, subject, from, date, read, preview.

2. Read — Load dedup database from /tmp/mail-already-processed.json:

   • If the file does not exist (Read fails/hook blocks), initialize it:
     • Write /tmp/mail-already-processed.json with: {"processed_ids":[],"last_run":""}
     • Then Read it

3. Bash — Fetch existing reminders for dedup:

   ~/.claude/skills/mail/scripts/reminders-cli fetch
   

After Batch A completes, filter out emails whose id is already in processed_ids. Only analyze NEW emails.

Step B: Analyze Emails for Actionable Items

For each new email, determine if it requires action. Classify into:

Actionable (create reminder):

• Explicit deadlines or due dates mentioned
• Meeting invitations requiring RSVP or preparation
• Requests addressed to the user (reply needed, form to fill, document to sign)
• System alerts requiring intervention (server down, config errors, expiring accounts)
• Action items with keywords: "please", "action required", "deadline", "due by", "before", "sign", "submit", "reply", "confirm"

Not actionable (skip):

• Newsletters, promotional emails, product announcements
• Read receipts, automated notifications (no action needed)
• Already-read informational emails
• Spam, marketing

For each actionable email, extract:

• name: Short task description (not the raw subject — rewrite for clarity)
• body: Key details — who sent it, what's needed, any action URLs (see Batch C)
• due: Best estimate of deadline in "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM" format. If no explicit deadline, set reasonable default (e.g., next business day for requests, meeting time for prep)
• priority: 1 (high/urgent), 5 (medium/normal), 9 (low/FYI)

Batch C: Extract URLs (PARALLEL)

Issue ALL extract-urls.sh calls in a single parallel message — one Bash tool call per actionable email:

~/.claude/skills/mail/scripts/extract-urls.sh "<message-id>"

Returns one URL per line, filtered to remove tracking pixels, images, and social media links.

How to use extracted URLs:

• Include the most relevant action URL in the reminder body (e.g., sign-off links, registration URLs, form links)
• If multiple URLs are returned, pick the one most relevant to the required action (e.g., a token/report URL, not the homepage)
• Show actionable URLs in the summary report under a Link column

Performance note: Only run this for actionable emails (typically 1-5 per batch). Each call takes ~2-3s but they run in parallel, so total wall time ≈ one call.

Step D: Deduplicate Against Existing Reminders

Before adding, check if a similar reminder already exists (from Batch A's reminders fetch) by comparing:

• Exact or fuzzy match on reminder name
• Same due date
• Similar body content (e.g., same sender + same topic)

Skip any reminder that would be a duplicate.

Step E: Add Reminders (BATCH)

Use the batch-add command to create all reminders in a single process invocation:

printf '%s' '<JSON_ARRAY>' | ~/.claude/skills/mail/scripts/reminders-cli batch-add

Where <JSON_ARRAY> is a JSON array of objects:

[
  {
    "name": "Task title",
    "body": "Details and context",
    "due": "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM",
    "priority": "1"
  },
  {
    "name": "Another task",
    "body": "More details",
    "due": "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM",
    "priority": "5"
  }
]

Priority values: "1" (high/urgent), "5" (medium/normal), "9" (low/FYI).

Returns OK:<count> on success.

Shell escaping: The JSON must be valid. Use printf '%s' to pipe JSON to stdin. Avoid single quotes inside the JSON — use escaped double quotes for string values.

Fallback: If batch-add fails, fall back to individual reminders-cli add calls — issue them ALL in a single parallel message:

~/.claude/skills/mail/scripts/reminders-cli add "<name>" "<body>" "<due_date>" "<priority>"

Step F: Update Dedup Database

After processing, update /tmp/mail-already-processed.json:

• Add all newly processed email IDs (both actionable and non-actionable) to processed_ids
• Update last_run timestamp
• Keep only IDs from the last 30 days to prevent unbounded growth

Use the Write tool (not bash heredoc/redirect) to write the updated JSON:

{
  "processed_ids": ["id1", "id2", ...],
  "last_run": "2026-03-10T00:00:00"
}

Important: Do NOT use cat > file << EOF — the check-file-exists hook will block the > redirect. Always use the Write tool for this file.

Step G: Report Summary

Present results to user in a table:

## Mail Summary (past <N> days)

**Processed**: X new emails across Y accounts
**Skipped**: Z already-processed emails

### Actionable Items Added to Reminders:

| # | Due | Reminder | Priority | Source | Link |
|---|-----|----------|----------|--------|------|
| 1 | 3/9 12:00 | Task name | HIGH | [e-mail] | [action link](url) |

### Non-Actionable (skipped):
- Newsletter from X
- Notification from Y

If no actionable URL was found for an item, show "—" in the Link column.

Notes

• The user's Mail.app has accounts: iCloud, 一般, 正式, 和信, Exchange
• Inbox mailbox names vary: "INBOX" (IMAP) and "收件匣" (Exchange/localized)
• Reminders go to the "Inbox" list in Reminders.app
• Language: emails may be in English, Chinese (Traditional), or Japanese — handle all
• The dedup file at /tmp/mail-already-processed.json persists across reboots only if /tmp is not cleaned. This is acceptable — reprocessing is harmless since we also check existing reminders.