Example: Email Assistant

Personal Autonomous Agent Platform

Example: Email Assistant

This guide walks you through connecting your email inbox to Prosponsive and building an automated triage workflow. By the end, you'll have routing rules, deletion rules, auto-approval, and bulk actions working together.

1. Connect Your Email

Let's connect your email inbox so Prosponsive can help you triage it.

Step 1: Open n8n Credentials

1. Click the n8n tab in the sidebar.
2. Click Credentials to open the n8n credential manager in your browser.

Step 2: Create an IMAP credential

1. In n8n, click Add Credential.
2. Search for "IMAP" and select it.
3. Fill in your email server details:

   Field	Example (Gmail)	Example (Outlook)	Example (iCloud)
   Host	imap.gmail.com	outlook.office365.com	imap.mail.me.com
   Port	993	993	993
   User	you@gmail.com	you@company.com	you@company.com
   Password	App password (see below)	Your password or app password	App-Specific password (see below)
   SSL/TLS	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled

4. Click Save.

Gmail users: Gmail requires an "App Password" instead of your regular password. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords, generate one for "Prosponsive", and use that as the password above.

Outlook/Microsoft 365 users: If your organization uses modern authentication, you may need to use OAuth2 instead of a password. Ask your IT admin if app passwords are enabled.

iCloud users: Apple requires an "App-Specific Password" instead of your regular password. Go to your iCloud account management page and click "App-Specific Passwords", generate one for "Prosponsive", and use that as password above.

Step 3: Configure the email polling workflow

1. Go back to the n8n tab and click Workflows.
2. Find "Prosponsive: IMAP New Email" and open it.
3. Click the Email Read IMAP (Prosponsive) node (the second node in the chain).
4. In the node settings, find the Credential dropdown and select the IMAP credential you just created. (it may look already selected, but select it again)
5. Click Save on the node, then Save on the workflow.
6. Toggle the workflow to Publish (button in the top-right corner).

This workflow polls your inbox every 5 minutes and sends new emails to Prosponsive for triage. It does not mark them as read, or impact your normal email client in any way.

Step 4: Configure the email move-to-folder tool

1. Still in n8n Workflows, find "email-move-to-folder" and open it.
2. Click the IMAP node in the workflow.
3. Set the Credential to the same IMAP credential.
4. Save and Publish the workflow.

This allows the email agent to move emails between IMAP folders when folder routing rules are configured.

2. Watch Email Triage in Action

With the IMAP workflow active, new emails will start appearing in the Email Inbox channel within 5 minutes. Send yourself one or two to see it in action.

What happens automatically

1. A new email arrives in your inbox.
2. The n8n workflow fetches it and sends it to the "Email Inbox" channel, created by the Executive Assistant Email Agent.
3. The agent evaluates the email and summarizes the recommended action and may ask you for approval to use a tool.

What you'll see in the channel

Each email appears as a thread. The agent's response includes:

• Priority level (urgent, high, medium, low)
• Summary of the email content
• Action items if any were identified
• A tool card if the agent proposes an action (move, archive)
• An external link icon in the top-right corner of the message — click it to open the original email in your mail client (Apple Mail, Outlook, etc.)

You can approve, or implicitly decline by replying to guide the agent differently.

3. Organize with Channels: Your First Move

Let's say a Project Zen email has arrived in your Email Inbox. You want to move it to its own channel to keep things organized.

1. Open the Email Inbox channel.
2. Find the Project Zen email thread.
3. Reply to the thread:

   Move this to Project Zen

4. The Prosponsive agent (your default coordinator) proposes a move-thread tool card with target "Project Zen".
5. Click Approve.

What happens

• The entire thread moves to the Project Zen channel (create this channel first by typing "Create a channel called Project Zen" in any chat).
• A tombstone with a link to the new destination is left in Email Inbox: "Thread moved to Project Zen — 3 messages".

Click "Project Zen" in the sidebar to see your moved thread in its new home.

4. Organize with Channels: Approvals

Now let's do the same for an email requesting your approval.

1. Back in Email Inbox, find an email where someone is asking for your sign-off or approval.
2. Reply:

   Move this to Approvals

3. Approve the move-thread tool card.

The "Approvals" channel is created automatically. You now have a dedicated space for approval requests — no more hunting through your inbox.

5. Customize the Email Agent: Add Delete Rules

The email agent ships without deletion capabilities — you add them when you're ready. This is a safety measure: you control exactly when the agent can delete emails.

Step 1: Add the delete tool

1. Click the Agents tab in the sidebar.
2. Select Executive Assistant Email Agent.
3. In the agent editor, scroll down to the Allowed Tools dropdown. Click it to open the list of available tools.
4. Find email_delete in the dropdown and select it to add it to the agent's allowed tools.

Step 2: Add delete rules

In the Capabilities section of the agent definition, add the following block. You can place it right after the "Tombstone cleanup" bullet:

- **CRITICAL: Apply delete rules BEFORE routing rules.** If an email matches a delete rule, delete it immediately — do not evaluate routing rules.
- Apply the delete rules below when deciding `email_delete` actions:
  - **Thread participation override**: NEVER delete an email if the thread contains a previous reply from the user. If the user has participated in the thread, it's a conversation — not spam. Skip all delete rules and evaluate routing rules instead.
  - **Unsubscribe / manage preferences signals**: Delete when the HTML body contains any link or text to unsubscribe, manage email preferences, or opt out. These links are typically in the footer. Always scan the full HTML body.
  - **Marketing / promotional content**: Delete when the email is bulk marketing — product recommendations, promotional offers, newsletters from commercial brands, "shop now" calls-to-action, or automated notifications from retail/e-commerce platforms.
  - **Sales cold solicitation**: Delete when the email is an unsolicited outreach attempting to sell a product or service. Hallmarks: no prior relationship, generic pitch language, calls-to-action to book a demo or schedule a call.

Step 3: Add delete tool parameters

In the Tool Parameter Sourcing section, add:

When calling `email_delete`, provide these parameters:
- **uid**: The numeric IMAP UID from the Request Context (e.g., 123, 456). This is always a plain integer — never a UUID or any other format.
- **mailbox**: From the Request Context (default to `INBOX` if missing)
- **reason**: A one-line justification for deletion (e.g., "Marketing newsletter with unsubscribe link")

Step 4: Activate the delete workflow in n8n

1. Go to the n8n tab > Workflows.
2. Find "email-delete" and open it.
3. Set the IMAP credential on the IMAP node (same as before).
4. Save and Activate the workflow.

Step 5: Update the guardrails

In the Guardrails section, update the evaluation order to check delete rules first:

Replace the routing evaluation bullet with:

- First evaluate delete rules. If a match, call `email_delete`. Then evaluate channel routing rules. If a match, call `move-thread`. Then evaluate folder routing rules. If a match, call `email_move_to_folder`. If no rules match and no action is needed, call `archive-thread`. If no rules match but action may be needed, summarize and ask the user.

Test it

Wait for a marketing email or newsletter to arrive. The email agent will propose an email_delete tool card with a reason like "Marketing newsletter with unsubscribe link." Approve it and the email is moved to trash on your mail server.

6. Add Channel Routing Rules and Manage at Scale

So far you've moved threads manually by telling Prosponsive to move them. Now let's teach the email agent to propose moves automatically.

Step 1: Add channel routing rules

1. Open the Agents tab > Executive Assistant Email Agent.
2. In the Capabilities section, find the channel routing rules placeholder (the example table with "Project Alpha"). Replace it with your actual rules:

   | Channel | When to route |
   |---|---|
   | `Project Zen` | Email is about Project Zen — mentions the project name, related people, or deliverables. |
   | `Approvals` | Email is requesting manager approval or sign-off from the user. |

3. Save the agent definition.

Now the email agent will automatically propose move-thread tool cards for emails matching these rules.

Step 2: Send some test emails

Send yourself 3-4 emails related to Project Zen from another account (or forward existing ones). Use subjects like:

• "Project Zen: Updated timeline for Phase 2"
• "Re: Project Zen milestone review"
• "Zen team standup notes — March 31"

Wait a few minutes for the n8n polling workflow to pick them up.

Step 3: See the results in Email Inbox

Open the Email Inbox channel. You'll see several new threads, each with a move-thread tool card proposed by the email agent, targeting the "Project Zen" channel.

Step 4: Use filtering and grouping

Above the message list, click the Filter & Group controls:

1. Group by: Select Tool Name.
2. The approval cards are now grouped — all "Move Thread" proposals appear together under a single header.

This makes it easy to review similar actions in bulk instead of scrolling through individual threads.

Step 5: Set up auto-approval

Before approving the existing cards, let's set up auto-approval so future Project Zen moves happen without manual intervention:

1. Open Settings (gear icon in the sidebar).
2. Navigate to Tool Approval Rules.
3. Click Add Rule.
4. Configure the rule:
   • Tool name: move-thread
   • Condition: Target contains "Project Zen"
   • Action: Auto-approve
5. Save the rule.

From now on, any move-thread targeting "Project Zen" will execute automatically — no approval card, no waiting.

Step 6: Bulk-approve existing cards

Back in the Email Inbox channel, your grouped Move Thread cards are still pending. Instead of approving them one by one:

1. Look at the group header for "Move Thread" proposals.
2. Click the Approve All button on the group header.
3. All pending move-thread cards execute at once.

The Project Zen emails move to the Project Zen channel, tombstones are left behind (the email agent will auto-archive them), and your inbox is clean.

The result

• Email Inbox: Clean — only emails needing your attention remain.
• Project Zen: All related emails, past and future, automatically routed here.
• Approvals: Approval requests collected in one place.
• Future emails: Project Zen emails auto-approve and move without your intervention. Approval emails still show a card for your review (you can add auto-approval for those too when you're confident in the routing).

— Personal Autonomous Agent Platform