follow-up

Follow-Up

Find emails that need follow-up and draft contextual responses.

Unanswered Sent Emails

Find emails you sent that received no reply after N days:

1. Search Sent folder for emails sent N+ days ago:

   messages(action="search", query="SINCE 2026-03-16 BEFORE 2026-03-20", folder="Sent", account="...")
   

2. Cross-reference Inbox for replies:

   • For each sent email, search Inbox for matching Subject (with Re: prefix): messages(action="search", query="SUBJECT \"Re: <original subject>\" FROM <recipient>")
   • If no matching reply found, this email needs follow-up

3. Present candidates with context:

   No reply after 5 days:
   1. "API Integration Proposal" to [email protected] (sent Mar 18)
      Original: Asked about timeline for API access
   2. "Invoice #2024-003" to [email protected] (sent Mar 16)
      Original: Sent invoice, requested payment confirmation
   

Flagged but Unreplied

Find received emails you flagged/starred but never responded to:

messages(action="search", query="FLAGGED", account="...")

Then for each flagged email, check Sent folder for a reply with matching subject. If none found, it needs attention.

Drafting Follow-Up Messages

For each follow-up candidate:

1. Read the original thread to get full context

2. Decide reply type:

   • If original was your sent email with no reply: draft a gentle follow-up referencing the original
   • If original was received and you haven't replied: draft a response to their message

3. Use reply (not new message) when following up on existing threads:

   send(action="reply", message_id="<original_msg_id>", body="<follow-up text>")
   

   Only use send(action="send") for new conversations.

4. Follow-up tone guidelines:

   • First follow-up (3-5 days): "Just checking in on this..."
   • Second follow-up (7-10 days): "Wanted to circle back on..."
   • Final follow-up (14+ days): Direct ask with deadline: "Could you confirm by Friday?"

Multi-Account Handling

Check all accounts, same as inbox-review:

messages(action="list_accounts")
# Iterate each account's Sent folder

When to Use

• Weekly follow-up review (e.g., Friday afternoon)
• Before meetings -- check if pending items got responses
• When a specific sent email seems to have been ignored
• Clearing out flagged emails that accumulated