dealer-inbox-triage

name

Dealer Inbox Triage

description

Use to triage incoming Gmail dealer replies — classify each as real reply / autoresponder (OOO) / CRM template / spam / promotions / autopiloted-marketing — and decide what action each needs. Triggers include "check my dealer inbox", "triage these emails", "is this real or autoresponder", "看下邮箱", "dealer 回复了吗", "spam folder check", and Spanish phrases "revisar mi bandeja de correos del concesionario", "ya respondio el dealer o es respuesta automatica".

Dealer Inbox Triage

Caveat: this skill is one author's playbook + 5-scenario stress test. Verify state fees / CPO terms / EV credits / dealer practices against current sources before quoting numbers to a dealer or making financial decisions. Not tax, legal, or financial advice.

Narrow-trigger skill: classify Gmail dealer mail into 4 actionable buckets and route each to its next step. Defers drafting to ../dealer-reply-drafter/SKILL.md and cron setup details to ../orchestrator/references/cron_monitoring.md.

When to invoke

User says any of: "check my dealer inbox", "triage these emails", "is this real or autoresponder", "看下邮箱", "dealer 回复了吗", "spam folder check", "what came in overnight", "did anyone reply".

The 4 buckets

Every dealer-domain email lands in exactly ONE bucket. Decide in order:

1. Real reply — buyer-specific human response

Signals: human prose, references buyer-supplied details (the buyer's name, the specific VIN/stock number the buyer asked about, an OTD figure, an availability confirmation, a counter-offer number). Sender is a named salesperson, not a generic sales@, info@, or noreply@ alias.

Spanish / bilingual dealer mail: a reply written in Spanish or mixed Spanish+English is still a bucket-1 real reply, NOT spam — many US dealers staff bilingual reps and will answer in the buyer's apparent language or their own. Language is never a spam signal; judge by the bucket-1 content signals above (human prose, buyer-specific numbers, named sender). When handing off:

• Translate the substance for the buyer: surface the actionable content in English — OTD/price figures, VIN/stock confirmation, availability, any counter-offer or condition the rep stated. Give the buyer the meaning, not a word-for-word gloss.
• Outbound counter stays in English: the draft handed to ../dealer-reply-drafter/SKILL.md is composed in English regardless of the inbound language (per the buyer's drafting preference). Do not mirror Spanish in the reply unless the buyer explicitly asks.

Action: hand off to ../dealer-reply-drafter/SKILL.md to compose a ~10-line counter. Apply Gmail label Triage/RealReply. Do NOT archive the inbound; keep it in INBOX so the human can verify before the draft is sent.

2. OOO autoresponder

13-keyword detection list (case-insensitive substring match in subject OR first 500 chars of body):

1. out of office
2. out-of-office
3. ooo (whole-word; avoid "loose" false positive)
4. auto-reply
5. automatic reply
6. away from the office
7. on vacation
8. out of the office
9. will be back
10. until <date> (regex: until\s+(?:\w+\s+)?\d{1,2})
11. i am currently out
12. i'm currently out
13. returning on

RFC 3834 header signal: Auto-Submitted: auto-replied OR Auto-Submitted: auto-generated. If present, classify OOO even without keyword match. RFC 3834 is the authoritative signal — keywords are the fallback for dealers that omit the header.

Action: extract the return date (regex from item 10 above, or "returning on "). Apply label Triage/OOO_until_YYYY-MM-DD. Suppress all re-pings to this sender until the return date. Do NOT draft a reply.

3. CRM template / autopiloted marketing

Signals: generic salutation ("Dear Valued Customer", "Hi there"), boilerplate ("Thank you for your interest in !"), unsubscribe footer, no buyer-specific numbers, sent from a marketing alias (marketing@, news@, specials@, <dealer>@e.<brand>.com).

CAUTION — gotcha I4: A CRM-wrapped email that contains specific vehicle data (stock #, VIN, sale price, miles, color matching what the buyer asked about) IS actionable. Test: "does this email contain a vehicle-specific number that matches the buyer's open ask?" If yes, treat as Real reply (bucket 1), not CRM. Skip only pure marketing taglines.

Action: archive (skip INBOX). Apply label Triage/CRM. No draft.

4. Spam / phishing

Signals: lookalike domain (.co instead of .com, swapped chars), prize/giveaway language, attached executables, "verify your account" links to non-dealer URLs, mail already in Spam folder.

Action: leave in Spam (or move to Spam if landed in Inbox). Apply label Triage/Spam. Notify operator only if 3+ from same sender in 24h (possible compromised dealer account).

Gmail search patterns

Run these in sequence each triage pass. Default account is buyer's primary Gmail; see multi-account warning below.

# Real-reply candidates (last 2 days, not your own drafts)
from:<dealer-domain> newer_than:2d -in:draft

# Spam check (dealer mail mis-flagged as spam in last 24h)
from:<dealer-domain> in:spam newer_than:24h

# Promotions tab check (dealer mail in Promotions in last 24h)
from:<dealer-domain> category:promotions newer_than:24h

# Overnight catch-up (unread, last 12 hours, any tab)
newer_than:12h is:unread

For multi-dealer buying cycles, run the first 3 once per known dealer domain, then the overnight catch-up across the whole account.

3 scheduled crons

Configure these via CronCreate per ../orchestrator/references/cron_monitoring.md. This skill is the consumer; the orchestrator reference is the source of truth for the prompt templates.

Cron	Cadence	Purpose
15-min inbox sweep	*/15 * * * * during buying hours	Catch real replies fast; route through this skill's 4-bucket classifier.
6-hour spam + promo sweep	0 */6 * * *	Catch dealer mail mis-flagged into Spam or Promotions (gotcha I2).
7 AM morning catch-up	0 7 * * *	Full newer_than:12h is:unread sweep to cover overnight gap (gotcha I3).

Multi-account warning

This skill operates on the default Gmail account of whatever Gmail MCP/connector is attached. If the buyer has separate work and personal Gmail accounts (common — buyers often route dealer mail to personal to avoid corporate spam filters), confirm with the buyer upfront WHICH account is the dealer inbox. Misconfiguration here causes silent failure: the triage will return "no new mail" while the dealer mail piles up in the other account.

Checklist before first triage:

• Confirmed which Gmail account holds dealer mail.
• That account is the one attached to the active Gmail MCP / connector.
• If buyer uses a forwarding rule (work → personal), confirm the rule is active.

Worked example — today's inbox state

Buyer scenario: 4 dealers contacted yesterday for the same 2024 Subaru Outback. Today's inbox after running this skill:

Sender	Bucket	Why	Next step
Dealer A rep (named)	1 — Real reply	Named salesperson, quotes OTD $34,820 on stock #SU2419	Hand to dealer-reply-drafter; counter at $33,500 anchor.
Dealer B	(silent)	No reply yet, 18h elapsed	No action — gotcha I1 says 12+ hr delay normal. Wait for 24h mark before re-ping.
Dealer C rep (named)	(silent)	No reply yet, 14h elapsed	Same as Dealer B.
Dealer D rep (named)	(silent)	No reply yet, 20h elapsed	Same — but flag for re-ping at 24h.

Net: 1 reply to draft, 3 silent dealers being patient. This is a normal, healthy state on day 2 of a buying cycle — NOT a failure.

Critical gotcha cross-refs

These are defined in ../orchestrator/SKILL.md gotcha section:

• gotcha I1 — Dealers commonly delay 12+ hours; silence on day 1 is normal.
• gotcha I2 — Dealer mail lands in Promotions AND occasionally Spam; the 6-hour spam+promo sweep is mandatory.
• gotcha I3 — Sliding newer_than:25m windows miss backlog across overnight gaps; the 7 AM morning catch-up is mandatory.
• gotcha I4 — CRM-wrapped emails with embedded vehicle data ARE actionable; do not bucket-3 them just because the wrapper is templated.
• gotcha I5 — Never trash a dealer's original email or the buyer's sent reply — it breaks future thread anchors. Triage only moves labels; it never deletes.

Output contract

After every triage pass, return a one-screen summary to the operator:

Triage pass — <timestamp>
  Real replies (need draft): N  [list senders]
  OOO (suppressed until <date>): N  [list senders + return dates]
  CRM (archived): N
  Spam (quarantined): N
  Silent dealers (no action, day X of cycle): N  [list]

Then hand off any bucket-1 items to ../dealer-reply-drafter/SKILL.md.