| name | houmao-agent-email-comms |
| description | Use Houmao's unified email communication skill for operator-origin mailbox posts, shared mailbox operations, gateway-backed `/v1/mail/*` work, transport-local context, and no-gateway fallback. |
| license | MIT |
Houmao Agent Email Comms
Use this Houmao skill when you need mailbox work around Houmao-managed agents.
Classify the caller up front:
- If the caller is acting as operator rather than as one live Houmao-managed agent, use the operator-origin
post path. Strong signals include: no agent gateway is attached, houmao-mgr agents self mail resolve-live returns no usable live binding for the current session, or current context already shows the caller is not part of the Houmao managed-agent system.
- If the caller is one live Houmao-managed agent, use the ordinary shared-mailbox workflow in this skill: prefer the live gateway
/v1/mail/* facade when available, and fall back to houmao-mgr agents self mail ... when the resolver returns gateway: null.
For managed-agent gateway-notified open-mail rounds only, use houmao-process-emails-via-gateway first and return here when that round needs exact mailbox operations or transport-local guidance.
The trigger word houmao is intentional. Use the houmao-... skill name directly when you intend to activate this Houmao-owned skill.
Help
When the user asks $houmao-agent-email-comms help, help for houmao-agent-email-comms, usage for houmao-agent-email-comms, available functionality for houmao-agent-email-comms, or what this skill can do, answer from this section before caller classification, action-page routing, transport-page routing, command execution, or missing-input questions. This is read-only help: do not run commands, mutate files, send mail, change gateway state, or alter managed-agent lifecycle state during help. If the user asks a concrete task such as "help me send mail to an agent", route to the matching workflow instead of stopping at generic help.
Purpose: perform ordinary Houmao shared-mailbox operations through the live gateway facade when available, with supported no-gateway fallback guidance.
Available functionality:
- Resolve live mailbox bindings and inspect mailbox status.
- List, peek, read, send, post, reply, mark, move, or archive mailbox messages.
- Choose operator-origin
post versus managed-agent shared-mailbox workflows.
- Use filesystem or Stalwart transport guidance when no gateway facade is available.
Common starting prompts:
$houmao-agent-email-comms help$houmao-agent-email-comms status for the current mailbox$houmao-agent-email-comms send a message to <agent>$houmao-agent-email-comms reply to <message_ref>
Related skills and boundaries:
- Use
houmao-process-emails-via-gateway for one notifier-reported open-mail round.
- Use
houmao-mailbox-mgr for mailbox root, registration, or late-binding administration.
- Use
houmao-agent-gateway for notifier, reminder, or gateway lifecycle work.
- Use
houmao-agent-messaging when the task starts as live-agent prompt, interrupt, or mailbox handoff routing.
Workflow
Before starting the workflow, answer explicit skill-help intent from ## Help and stop.
- Decide the caller posture up front.
- If the caller is acting as operator rather than as one live Houmao-managed agent, use the operator-origin
post action instead of the ordinary managed-agent gateway workflow. Strong signals include: no agent gateway is attached, houmao-mgr agents self mail resolve-live returns no usable live binding for the current session, or current context already shows the caller is not part of the Houmao managed-agent system.
- For Houmao-managed agent mailbox work, if the current prompt or recent mailbox context already provides the exact current gateway base URL, use that value directly for shared
/v1/mail/* operations.
- Otherwise run
agents self mail resolve-live for the current managed session, or agents single ... mail resolve-live when the user explicitly selected another managed agent.
- Treat the resolver output as the supported mailbox-discovery contract for this turn.
- When the resolver returns a
gateway object, use the action page that matches the mailbox task you need and use that exact gateway.base_url for shared /v1/mail/* work.
- When the resolver returns
gateway: null, use the transport page that matches mailbox.transport and run the matching agents self mail <verb> fallback command for current-session CLI fallback.
- Treat
message_ref and thread_ref as opaque shared-mailbox references.
- Archive processed messages only after the corresponding mailbox action and any required reply succeed.
- Include only fields the user explicitly supplied or that were recovered from explicit recent context in fallback commands.
Missing Input Questions
- Recover required mailbox values from the current prompt, notifier context, resolver output, or recent mailbox context before asking.
- If caller posture, gateway base URL, mailbox binding, action, message ref, thread ref, recipient, subject, or body is still missing for the selected mailbox action, ask before proceeding.
- When asking for Houmao mailbox-system inputs, use readable Markdown:
- separate
Required values from Optional modifiers
Required: values that block the selected mailbox action or routeOptional: gateway-vs-fallback posture, filters, archive-after-success choice, output format, or skip choices; if none apply, say Optional: none for this step.- use a short bullet list when only one or two required fields are missing
- use a compact table when caller posture, route, or several required fields need clarification
- Do not use this format for user-task content inside a mail body unless the question is about Houmao runtime behavior.
Actions
- Answer
help from ## Help before reading action, transport, or reference pages.
- Read actions/resolve-live.md only when the current prompt or recent mailbox context does not already provide the exact gateway base URL or current binding set.
- Read actions/status.md to inspect current mailbox identity, mailbox transport, or live gateway posture.
- Read actions/list.md to list unread, open, archived, or current mailbox state.
- Read actions/read.md when deciding whether to peek at or read one selected message.
- Read actions/send.md to send one new message.
- Read actions/post.md when the caller is acting as operator or otherwise outside the managed Houmao runtime and needs to leave one operator-origin note in a managed agent mailbox.
- Read actions/reply.md to reply to one existing message.
- Read actions/archive.md to archive one or more processed messages.
Transport Pages
- Read transports/filesystem.md when
mailbox.transport is filesystem and you need layout, policy, or no-gateway fallback guidance.
- Read transports/stalwart.md when
mailbox.transport is stalwart and you need direct-access or no-gateway fallback guidance.
References
Useful Patterns
- For supported higher-level mailbox and gateway compositions such as self-wakeup through self-mail plus notifier-driven rounds, switch to the Houmao advanced-usage skill
houmao-adv-usage-pattern.
Guardrails
- Do not guess the gateway host or port; use the exact base URL already present in prompt or context when available, otherwise use
gateway.base_url from houmao-mgr agents self mail resolve-live.
- Do not scrape tmux state directly when the manager-owned resolver is available.
- Do not route operator-origin mailbox delivery through ordinary
/v1/mail/send; use the dedicated post surface.
- Do not derive mailbox internals from visible
message_ref or thread_ref prefixes.
- Do not archive a message before the corresponding mailbox action and any required reply succeed.
- Do not treat this ordinary communication skill as the whole notifier-round workflow when
houmao-process-emails-via-gateway is available.
- Do not present direct transport-local access as the first-choice path when a live shared gateway mailbox facade is available.
- Do not invent alternate fallback command shapes; use the direct scoped
houmao-mgr agents self mail ... and houmao-mgr agents single ... mail ... commands shown in this skill package.
