Workflow
An inbox thattriages itself.
Say the word and AIVA reads your unread mail, tells you who it’s from and what it’s about in a line each, flags what genuinely needs you, and drafts the replies that can be handled — holding every one for your approval.
Say it once“Inbox triage.”
The problem
A hundred unread, and five that matter.
Most of your inbox is noise — receipts, newsletters, FYIs — wrapped around the handful of messages that actually need you. But you can’t tell which is which without opening each one, so triage becomes the chore you avoid until it’s an avalanche.
How it works
Set it up once. It just keeps happening.
Connect your inbox
Link Gmail or any SMTP/IMAP account. AIVA reads with full search syntax and understands entire threads, not just subject lines.
Say “inbox triage”
Ask on demand, or set a daily routine. AIVA looks at your unread mail from the last day and works through it one message at a time.
Get the sorted rundown
For each message: who it’s from, what it’s about in one line, and whether it needs you or can be auto-replied — so the five that matter rise to the top.
Approve the drafts
For the ones that can be handled, AIVA drafts a reply in your voice and queues it in Messages. Approve, edit, or skip — nothing sends on its own.
What AIVA does
The work, handled.
Read the whole thread
AIVA uses full Gmail search and reads entire conversations — context and attachments included — not just the latest subject line.
One line per message
Who it’s from and what it wants, in a single line each, so you grasp a day’s inbox in the time it takes to read a paragraph.
Separate signal from noise
It flags what genuinely needs you versus what can be auto-replied or quietly cleared, so your attention goes where it counts.
Draft the easy replies
The routine responses — confirmations, scheduling, quick acks — come pre-written in your voice, ready to approve.
Tidy as it goes
Label, mark read, archive, and star to clear the noise — the housekeeping you’d otherwise do by hand, done on request.
What changes
What it’s like once AIVA runs this.
A day’s inbox in three lines
AIVA reads every unread thread — context and attachments — and gives you who it’s from and what it wants in one line each, with the few that actually need you on top.
- Each unread in a single line
- Needs-you vs. can-auto-reply, flagged
- The 35 routine ones, sorted
Working
- Read 38 emails
- 3 need you today
- 5 replies drafted
Replies written, never sent
The routine responses — confirmations, scheduling, quick acks — come pre-written in your voice and wait in Messages. You decide what actually goes out.
- Routine replies drafted in your voice
- Held for your approval
- Nothing sends on its own
Approval needed
AIVA drafted a reply to Beacon about the scope change. Send it?
Triage that runs itself
Set a daily routine and the drafts are waiting when you sit down — or just say “inbox triage” whenever the unread pile gets loud.
- Runs on the schedule you set
- Or on demand, any time
- Drafts ready before you wake
Loop
Every weekday · 8:00 AM
Inbox triage — drafts ready when you wake
Set it up by saying
Just say it in plain language.
Inbox triage — show me each unread email in one line and whether it needs me.
Draft replies for anything that can be auto-handled, but don’t send until I approve.
Every weekday at 8am, triage my overnight inbox and queue the easy replies.
Triage my inbox and tell me the three emails I actually need to answer today.
The apps it uses
Built on the tools you already have.
Connected app
AIVA for Gmail
AIVA reads the threads that matter, drafts replies in your voice, tracks the promises buried in your email, and follows up so nothing quietly dies in your inbox. It only sends after you say so.
Connected app
AIVA for Email
Not on Gmail? Connect any provider over SMTP/IMAP — Fastmail, Migadu, ProtonMail bridge, self-hosted — and AIVA reads, drafts, and sends with the same approval-first care. It can even run its own mailbox on your behalf.
Built-in app
AIVA for Contacts
AIVA builds a deduplicated contact book from your email, calendar, Slack, and GitHub — with relationship context, identities across channels, and the history that makes “when did I last talk to Sam?” a one-line answer.
Permission model
You stay in control of every consequential action.
Read-only work happens silently. Anything that changes the world waits for your approval — and destructive actions always ask prominently.
Without your approval, AIVA won’t
No surprises.
These never happen on their own. AIVA drafts and asks; you decide.
- Send any reply, drafted or otherwise
- Schedule a send for later
- Permanently delete mail in bulk
Local-first notes
Your data, on your machine.
AIVA never sees your password — it uses a revocable OAuth token (or your own IMAP credentials), stored encrypted on your Mac.
In Local mode, your inbox is read on-device and queried on demand, not bulk-uploaded anywhere.
Disconnect any time from Settings → Apps and AIVA’s access stops immediately.
FAQ
Good questions to ask.
Does anything send automatically?
No. Every drafted reply waits in the Messages app for your approval. AIVA sorts and drafts; you decide what actually goes out.
Can I run triage on a schedule?
Yes. Set a daily routine — “every weekday at 8am, triage my overnight inbox” — and the drafts are waiting when you sit down, or just say “inbox triage” whenever you want it.
How does it decide what needs me?
From the content, the sender, and your guidance. Tell it what you care about and what to auto-handle, and it remembers your preferences for next time.
How is this different from Follow-Up Sweep?
Triage handles incoming unread mail — sorting and drafting replies. Follow-Up Sweep watches threads that already went quiet and chases them. Run triage daily; run a sweep when you want to catch what stalled.
Related workflows
AIVA works better together.
Workflow
Follow-Up Sweep
AIVA watches the threads you care about, notices when one goes quiet, and drafts the nudge before the deal, the intro, or the answer slips through the cracks. You approve; it sends.
Workflow
Daily Context Restore
Every morning, AIVA reads what happened overnight across your email, calendar, Slack, and GitHub, and hands you one short, ranked brief — the few things that actually need you, before you’ve opened a single tab.
Workflow
Promise Tracker
The commitments you make in passing — in email, in Slack, mid-conversation — become open loops AIVA holds for you, and reminds you about before they go stale. Nothing you said you’d do quietly disappears.
Get started
Let AIVA run Quiet Inbox Triage for you.
Create your account on the web — it carries straight into the Mac app.