| name | shortwave |
| description | Shortwave email client knowledge — how its labels and filters relate to Gmail, what syncs and what doesn't, settings URLs, and UI automation gotchas. Use when a task involves Shortwave, its auto-apply rules, or labels as seen from Shortwave. |
Shortwave
Shortwave (app.shortwave.com) is a Gmail client. Gmail remains the backend for mail, user labels, and Gmail filters — Gmail filters run server-side before Shortwave sees a message, and Shortwave honors them.
Label namespaces (three things can share one name)
| Kind | Lives in | Picker appearance | Notes |
|---|
| Gmail user label | Gmail, syncs everywhere | plain tag icon; URL /labels/gmail%2FLabel_<id> | The only kind Gmail filters can apply |
| Shortwave built-in label | Shortwave only | own icon (cart, plane, …); URL /labels/<name> | Travel, Calendar, Newsletters, Purchases, Finance, Social, Promotions, Forums, Updates — auto-applied by Shortwave's classifier, invisible to Gmail, not removable from the picker |
| Gmail system category | Gmail UI only (#category/…) | not shown | ML-assigned; not writable by apps; filters' Categorize-as covers only the five inbox tabs |
Near-identical names across namespaces are easy to misread in the "Label as" picker.
Rules and filters
- "Always Apply" / auto-apply rules (Settings → Filters → Label auto-apply rules) are stored in Shortwave's backend — never as Gmail filters, even for plain sender→label rules targeting Gmail labels. They don't count toward Gmail's 1,000-filter cap.
- Effect vs rule: applying a Gmail label syncs to Gmail (visible in all clients); the rule itself is Shortwave-only and dies with the Shortwave account.
- No export for auto-apply rules — the rule dialog offers only add/remove sender. To export, open each rule's gear and transcribe its sender list.
- Shortwave cannot manage Gmail filters: it shows a cached count (Settings → Filters → "Gmail filters", refresh link) and links out to Gmail settings for editing.
- AI filters and the quick-start filters (Needs Action, Cold Outreach, FYI, Travel, Finance, Purchases) are Shortwave-side natural-language classifiers, off unless added.
Division of labor (this project)
Keep all deterministic sender/subject→label routing in filters.js → Gmail filters (portable, versioned, client-independent). Use Shortwave's layer only for what Gmail cannot express: AI classification, bundles, delivery schedules, splits. Avoid "Always Apply".
Automating the Shortwave web app
- SPA; settings at
/settings/labels, /settings/filters, /settings/inbox. A "We're still importing your email" interstitial may appear — click Refresh.
- Rule-row gear icons are hover-revealed and absent from the accessibility tree: locate them by geometry in JS (element at the same row height, right of the row) and dispatch
mouseover/mousedown/mouseup/click MouseEvents.
- The rule dialog is titled "Auto-apply rules for <Label>" with ALWAYS APPLY / ALWAYS REMOVE sender lists.
