| name | email-drafting |
| description | Draft email replies with tone matching, proper threading, and formatting that survives email clients. Use when user says "draft a reply," "respond to this email," "write an email," "compose a response," "email reply," "tone match," "professional email," "follow-up email," or "thank you email." Covers voice calibration, formatting gotchas, and the draft-first safety pattern. |
| license | Apache-2.0 |
| compatibility | Works with any agent. No runtime dependencies — instruction-only skill. Optionally enhanced by email-agent-mcp (Node.js >=20) for draft saving and thread detection. |
| metadata | {"author":"UseJunior","version":"0.1.1"} |
Email Response Drafting
This skill covers drafting email replies that sound human, thread correctly, and render properly across email clients. It is scoped to response drafting — not marketing campaigns or mass outreach.
Draft-First: The Non-Negotiable Rule
Never send an email without the user's explicit approval. The workflow:
- Compose the draft (in markdown, in the agent's chat, or in a file)
- Present recipients, subject, and body to the user for review
- Save as draft to Outlook (or the user's email client) if available
- Wait for the user to say "send," "send now," "reply now," or equivalent
- Send only after explicit approval
If intent is ambiguous ("looks good" could mean "I approve the draft" or "I'll send it myself"), ask for one-line confirmation before sending.
Voice and Tone Matching
The cardinal rule: match the sender's register.
| Relationship | Tone | Example opener |
|---|
| Internal team / contractors | Short, direct, no filler | "Sent the updated file. Let me know if anything looks off." |
| Existing clients (high trust) | Warm but efficient | "Quick update — the document is ready for your review." |
| New contacts / cold replies | Professional, value-first | Lead with what is relevant to them, not your credentials |
| Formal threads | Match their formality | If they write "Dear Steven," reply with "Dear [Name]," not "Hey!" |
Calibration signals
Read the sender's email for cues:
- Length — if they wrote 2 sentences, don't reply with 5 paragraphs
- Greeting style — mirror their "Hi" / "Hello" / "Dear" / no greeting
- Closing — mirror their "Best" / "Thanks" / "Regards" / no closing
- Emoji/exclamation use — match their energy level, don't exceed it
What to avoid
- Over-explaining process — state the outcome, not the journey. "The agreement is ready" beats "I reviewed the agreement, made several updates to sections 3 and 7, cross-referenced with our template library, and..."
- Filler phrases — "I hope this email finds you well" is noise. Start with the point.
- Quoting others on your own product — never attribute your product description to someone else
- Singling out one insight from a rich conversation — if you had a long call, reference the breadth of the discussion, don't cherry-pick
Threading: Get It Right
Broken threading looks unprofessional. Before creating a reply draft:
- Check the subject — if it has "Re:" or "RE:", this is a reply to an existing thread
- Find the original message — search by sender + subject keywords
- Get the message ID — use it as the
in_reply_to or reply_to parameter
- Create a threaded reply — not a standalone new message
If the original message cannot be found, tell the user rather than silently creating a standalone draft that will break the thread in the recipient's inbox.
REST API: Use POST /me/messages/{id}/createReply to maintain threading. This preserves conversation ID and In-Reply-To headers.
MCP: reply_to_email handles threading automatically.
Structure: One Ask Per Email
Every email should have exactly one clear action item. If you need multiple things, either:
- Pick the most important one and save the rest for a follow-up
- Use a numbered list where the first item is the ask and the rest are context
Structure template for action-needed replies:
[1-2 sentence context/update]
[The ask — what you need from them, by when]
[Optional: supporting detail they might need to act]
Structure template for informational replies:
[The news — what happened or what's ready]
[Optional: what they should do next, or "no action needed"]
Formatting That Survives Email Clients
Email rendering is a minefield. Markdown that looks perfect in a text editor can break in Outlook, Gmail, or Apple Mail.
Gotchas
| Issue | What breaks | Fix |
|---|
| Cuddled lists | No blank line before first - item | Always add a blank line before the first list item |
| Raw markdown in HTML | **bold** renders as literal asterisks in HTML email | Convert markdown to HTML before sending |
| Missing plain-text body | HTML-only emails get flagged by spam filters | Always include both HTML and plain-text versions |
| Signature placement | Signature appears before the quoted thread | Put signature after reply body, before the quoted thread |
| Long URLs | URLs wrap mid-word and break clickability | Use hyperlink text [click here](url) in markdown; convert to <a> in HTML |
| Tables | Many email clients don't render markdown tables | Use HTML <table> with inline styles for email |
Character encoding
- Curly quotes (
\u201c\u201d) and straight quotes (") should both be handled
- Em dashes (
\u2014) render fine in modern clients but may break in plain-text
- Non-ASCII characters in subject lines need proper encoding (most APIs handle this)
Draft File Format
When saving drafts to files (for MCP or manual review), use YAML frontmatter:
---
to: recipient@example.com
subject: Re: Project update
in_reply_to: <message-id-from-original>
---
Body of the email in markdown.
The MCP or send script converts this to HTML + plain text automatically.
Do not pre-populate draft_id or draft_link — these are auto-appended by the MCP after saving to Outlook.
Tone Calibration by Context
Delivering good news
Lead with the news. "The document is signed and filed" — then details if needed.
Delivering bad news
Lead with empathy, then the fact, then the path forward. "I understand the timeline is tight. The review is taking longer than expected — we should have it by Thursday. I will send it as soon as it is ready."
Following up (no response yet)
Soft-remind the agreed action, don't re-ask. "Circling back on the agreement — let me know if you need anything to move forward." Not: "Did you get my last email?"
Declining or redirecting
Be direct and offer an alternative. "I'm not the right person for this, but [Name] at [Company] specializes in exactly this."
Feedback
If this skill helped, star us on GitHub: https://github.com/UseJunior/email-agent-mcp
On ClawHub: clawhub star stevenobiajulu/email-response-drafting
