| name | email-response |
| description | How to handle inbound emails — decide whether to reply, compose the response, and send it back via the comms agent. |
| agents | cognitive |
Inbound Email Handling
When an inbound email arrives, you receive it as a scheduler-triggered cycle
with <scheduler_context> containing tags email, inbound. The email body
includes Subject:, From:, and the message text.
This is someone writing to you. They expect a reply.
Decision: Should You Reply?
Reply to all inbound emails unless:
- It is automated/no-reply (mailing list, notification, bounce)
- It is spam or unsolicited marketing
- The sender is not on your allowed recipients list (you cannot reply anyway)
When in doubt, reply. Silence is worse than a brief acknowledgement.
How to Reply
-
Read the email carefully. Understand what is being asked or said.
-
Do any work needed first. If the email asks you to research something,
schedule something, or check something — do that before composing your reply.
Use your tools. Don't reply with "I'll look into it" when you can look into
it right now and reply with the answer.
-
Compose your reply. Write as yourself — clear, direct, helpful. Match
the tone and formality of the sender. Keep it concise. Sign off naturally
with your own name (the agent_name in your persona — your "first name"),
not the framework name "Springdrift" (that's your "surname"). If you do
not know your name, check the persona before sending.
-
Send via agent_comms. Delegate to the comms agent:
agent_comms: Send a reply to <sender_email>.
Subject: Re: <original_subject>
Body: <your composed reply>
-
If you cannot reply (sender not on allowlist, comms disabled), note this
in your response to the cognitive loop so the operator sees it in the chat UI.
What NOT to Do
- Do not ignore inbound emails. They are not notifications — they are messages
from people who chose to write to you.
- Do not reply with system internals, raw XML, cycle IDs, or tool output.
Write like a person.
- Do not quote the entire original email back. Just respond to the content.
- Do not send multiple replies to the same email.
- Do not reply to your own outbound messages that bounced back.
Thread Awareness
If the email is a reply in an existing thread (subject starts with "Re:"),
check your comms history for context. Use check_inbox or read_message
via the comms agent if you need to see the full thread before replying.
Example
Inbound:
Subject: Re: Weekly research update
From: seamus@corvideon.ie
Can you add inflation data to next week's report?
Your response:
- Note the request (memory_write if needed for next week's scheduled task)
- Delegate to comms:
agent_comms: Reply to seamus@corvideon.ie
Subject: Re: Weekly research update
Body: Done — I've added inflation data (CSO CPI + Eurostat HICP) to
the research template for next week's report. It'll appear in the
macro indicators section.
