Skill Spotlight: Inbox Triage
How Relay's inbox-triage skill processes your email queue, surfaces what matters, and drafts responses — all without reading your mail on someone else's server.
The problem
The average knowledge worker spends 28% of their workday on email. Most of it is noise — newsletters, CC chains, automated notifications. The signal-to-noise ratio is terrible.
How inbox-triage works
The inbox-triage skill connects to your email provider (Gmail, Outlook, or any IMAP server) and runs a multi-pass analysis:
Pass 1: Classification
Every message is classified into one of five buckets:
- Urgent — requires response within hours
- Important — requires response within 24h
- FYI — read when convenient
- Automated — newsletters, notifications, receipts
- Spam/noise — safe to archive
Pass 2: Draft responses
For urgent and important messages, Relay drafts a response based on your communication style (learned from your SOUL.md and past responses).
Pass 3: Summary
You receive a structured briefing:
INBOX BRIEFING — March 14, 2026
================================
3 urgent (responses drafted)
7 important (responses drafted)
12 FYI (summarized)
23 automated (archived)
INBOX BRIEFING — March 14, 2026
================================
3 urgent (responses drafted)
7 important (responses drafted)
12 FYI (summarized)
23 automated (archived)
Privacy guarantee
Your email credentials stay on your server. Relay connects directly to your mail provider — no relay through our infrastructure, no cloud processing, no data retention.
Getting started
The inbox-triage skill is included in every plan. During onboarding, we'll help you connect your email provider and tune the classification thresholds to match your workflow.
Next up: Calendar Copilot — how Relay manages your schedule.