Inbox Agent: cleanup, views, and background sync

Lower-friction mailbox hygiene:

• Cleanup suggestions for low-value mail that can be archived or handled in bulk—reducing newsletter and notification debt without reading every sender forever.
• View filters so Inbox stays about received work, Sent about what you already committed, and All when you need forensic search.
• Background re-sync while the UI still shows cached mail immediately—you are not staring at a spinner on every open.

These behaviors are described in Inbox Agent under “Actions In Practice” and “Notes.”

• Speed without losing context is the stated design goal—cleanup is a first-class action, not a side quest.
• Separation of Sent reduces a common failure mode: outbound mail polluting “what do I still owe?”
• Local database means you can act on triage even when the network is flaky—sync catches up later.

1. Schedule cleanup passes: same slot weekly beats random purges.
2. Start conservative: archive only what Cleanup marks clearly low-value; widen rules as trust grows.
3. Use All only when debugging “did that send?”—default stays Inbox for triage.
4. When sync lags, trust cached state for reading but verify before irreversible bulk deletes.
5. Pair Cleanup with unsubscribe at the source when the same sender repeatedly returns.

• Retention policy: some mail must be kept for years—do not bulk-archive legal or finance without rules.
• Backup of mailbox or provider-level recovery if you bulk-delete.

1. Snapshot mailbox size before first major cleanup.
2. Pilot Cleanup on a single category (for example newsletters).
3. Verify a sample of archived threads in the provider UI.
4. Document sender allowlists (receipts, 2FA, payroll).
5. Repeat monthly; seasonal spikes (Black Friday mail) need their own pass.

• “Classify this sender: transactional vs marketing vs personal.”
• “What would I regret archiving in bulk from this list?”
• “Propose rules for next time this sender floods the inbox.”

• Undo path exists for bulk mistakes (provider trash window, or restore from backup).
• Stakeholders agree on what “clean inbox” means for shared mailboxes.
• Metrics: time to first meaningful action per session, not just message count.

• Bulk-archiving something needed for audit.
• Cleanup as procrastination—avoiding hard replies by sorting harder.
• Assuming sync finished—verify before declaring “gone.”
• Shared mailbox etiquette—one person’s cleanup is another’s lost lead.