Inbox Agent Product Plan — Implementation Spec

This document satisfies the product-planning deliverables: Phase 1 UX requirements, cross-system signal mapping, chosen first implementation slice, and success metrics. It complements inbox-agent.md and the roadmap plan (do not edit the plan file in .cursor/plans/).

Current Implementation Status

Inbox Agent has moved past the original saved-view slice into the email-client replacement foundation. The current working system includes:

• Classic three-pane mode plus Today lanes for Needs action, Happening today, Good to know, and More to browse
• richer classifier fields: todayBucket and domainCategory
• domain chips for travel, packages, receipts, bills, newsletters, shopping, work, and all domains
• Ask Inbox as a right-sidebar mailbox chat with live run steps, hybrid retrieval, final answers, and matched evidence
• @Inbox / @inbox ... main-composer routing into Ask Inbox
• hybrid mailbox search over local FTS, semantic mailbox embeddings, provider-native mail search where available, and attachment text
• sender cleanup digest and cleanup center
• attachment metadata capture during Gmail sync and on-demand text extraction for supported file types
• autosync with cached mail shown immediately on startup
• provider-backed read/unread actions where supported
• Mark done for threads already handled outside CoWork OS
• editable AI-generated draft replies
• manual reply, reply-all, and forward from the thread detail view without requiring AI draft generation
• direct provider send through Gmail API, AgentMail reply-all, or SMTP depending on account type
• replacement-client schema/types/IPC for folders, labels, identities, signatures, compose drafts, outgoing messages, queued actions, sync health, and client settings

The remaining replacement-client gaps are native new-mail compose, provider-backed draft persistence in the visible UI, attachment upload, full outgoing queue draining, Microsoft Graph mail execution, folder/label navigation, notifications, and broader provider reconciliation.

1. Phase 1 UX Requirements

AI auto-labels and saved views

• Create flow: User provides a name and natural-language instructions (what should belong in this view). Optional: seed from the currently open thread.
• Preview: Before saving, show a sample of matching threads (ranked) with checkmarks to include/exclude; user confirms Save view.
• Persistence: Saved views are workspace-scoped, stored locally, and appear as filters alongside existing category chips.
• Inbox behavior: show_in_inbox (default on) means matching threads remain in the main inbox list; when off, matching threads are only visible when the saved view is selected (implemented as filter + optional local_inbox_hidden in a later iteration).

Label similar (example-based)

• Entry: Button on thread detail: “Find similar & save view”.
• Behavior: Uses the open thread’s subject, snippet, and summary (if any) plus user instructions to find similar threads in the cached mailbox via an LLM-ranked candidate set.
• Output: Same preview/confirm flow as auto-labels, then persists memberships for the new view.

Quick reply chips

• When: After a thread has enough context (summary or last message), show up to three short reply suggestions.
• Constraints: No suggestions for no-reply senders (same policy as draft generation). User taps a chip to fill the reply composer (does not send automatically).

Snippets / templates

• Storage: Per-workspace snippets with shortcut label and body (optional subject hint for future send flows).
• UX: Snippet picker near the reply area; choosing one inserts text into the composer.

Learning feedback (lightweight)

• Events: On reclassify, archive, trash, mark read, and dismiss proposal, record an optional feedback row (thread id, kind, timestamp) for future classifier and ranking improvements.
• Privacy: Stored locally only; no new cloud sync.

Onboarding loop (later Phase 1 polish)

• Short questionnaire: priorities, domains to deprioritize, VIP senders — used to seed saved views and automations. Not required for the first code slice.

2. Cross-System Hooks (CoWork OS)

Mailbox events (thread_classified, mission_control_handoff_created, etc.) continue to flow through MailboxAutomationHub as today.

3. First Implementation Slice (completed foundation)

The original smallest set that improves perception and differentiation without rewriting the mailbox:

1. Saved views — DB + list/filter + create from “label similar” preview.
2. Quick reply suggestions — LLM-backed chips in thread detail.
3. Snippets — CRUD + insert into reply.
4. Triage feedback — Record rows on key actions (foundation for learning).
5. Mission Control back-link — Handoff records in thread detail with Open in Mission Control (company + issue).
6. Saved view → automation bridge — Create a scheduled review task for the view (reminder patrol) using existing mailbox schedule APIs.

Additional implemented slices since then:

1. Today mode — Classifier-backed Today buckets with lane-specific grouping.
2. Domain categories — Life/work domain classification and filtering.
3. Ask Inbox — Right-sidebar mailbox chat with live agentic steps, hybrid retrieval, optional LLM summary, attachment evidence, and @Inbox main-composer routing.
4. Attachment indexing — Metadata during sync, bytes/text on demand.
5. Sender cleanup — Noisy sender ranking with estimated weekly reduction.
6. Manual email compose — Reply, reply-all, and forward from the thread detail view.
7. Editable AI drafts — Generated draft subject/body can be edited before send.
8. Autosync and read-state polish — Background refresh, clearer unread cards, provider-backed mark read/unread where supported.
9. Ask Inbox architecture — Dedicated MailboxAgentSearchService, query planning, local FTS/vector/provider/attachment channels, shortlist-then-read behavior, run-scoped mailbox:askEvent progress streaming, and Ask Inbox sidebar transcript.

4. Success Metrics

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Code references

• UI: InboxAgentPanel.tsx
• Service: MailboxService.ts
• Search service: MailboxAgentSearchService.ts
• Types: mailbox.ts
• Mission Control: useMissionControlData.ts
• Architecture: Ask Inbox Architecture