name: mail description: Reads Mail.app inboxes from all accounts, identifies actionable items, and adds reminders to Reminders.app with deduplication. Use when user asks to check email, process mail, or wants a mail summary. Trigger on "/mail", "check my mail", "email summary".
Mail Processor
Reads macOS Mail.app, identifies actionable emails, and creates reminders in Reminders.app "Inbox" list.
Usage
-
/mail— process past 24 hours (default) -
/mail 7 days— process past 7 days -
/mail 14 days— process past 14 days
Workflow
Step 1: Ensure Apps Are Running
osascript -e 'tell application "Mail" to activate'
osascript -e 'tell application "Reminders" to activate'
Wait 2 seconds for apps to initialize.
Step 2: Parse Time Range
- Default: 1 day
- If user provides args like "7 days" or "14 days", extract the number
- The number is passed as the
<days>argument to the fetch script
Step 3: Fetch All Emails
Run the AppleScript to fetch emails from ALL accounts, ALL inboxes (matches both "INBOX" and "收件匣"):
osascript ~/.claude/skills/mail/scripts/fetch-mail.applescript <days>
This returns a JSON array. Each email object has: id, account, subject, from, date, read, preview.
Important: The output may be large. If it fails or is too slow, reduce the day count or process account-by-account.
Step 4: Load Dedup Database
Use the Read tool (not bash cat) to load previously processed emails:
- Try to Read
/tmp/mail-already-processed.json - If the file does not exist (Read fails/hook blocks), initialize it:
-
Write
/tmp/mail-already-processed.jsonwith:{"processed_ids":[],"last_run":""} - Then Read it
-
Write
The file structure:
{
"processed_ids": ["msg-id-1", "msg-id-2"],
"last_run": "2026-03-08T10:00:00"
}
Filter out emails whose id is already in processed_ids. Only analyze NEW emails.
Step 5: Fetch Existing Reminders
Fetch incomplete reminders from the "Inbox" list for deduplication:
~/.claude/skills/mail/scripts/reminders-cli fetch
Returns JSON array with name, body, due fields. Runs in <1 second via EventKit.
First run: macOS will show a system permission dialog for Reminders access. Grant it once and subsequent runs need no interaction.
Step 6: Analyze Emails for Actionable Items
For each new email, determine if it requires action. Classify into:
Actionable (create reminder):
- Explicit deadlines or due dates mentioned
- Meeting invitations requiring RSVP or preparation
- Requests addressed to the user (reply needed, form to fill, document to sign)
- System alerts requiring intervention (server down, config errors, expiring accounts)
- Action items with keywords: "please", "action required", "deadline", "due by", "before", "sign", "submit", "reply", "confirm"
Not actionable (skip):
- Newsletters, promotional emails, product announcements
- Read receipts, automated notifications (no action needed)
- Already-read informational emails
- Spam, marketing
For each actionable email, extract:
- name: Short task description (not the raw subject — rewrite for clarity)
- body: Key details — who sent it, what's needed, any action URLs (see Step 6b)
- due: Best estimate of deadline in "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM" format. If no explicit deadline, set reasonable default (e.g., next business day for requests, meeting time for prep)
- priority: 1 (high/urgent), 5 (medium/normal), 9 (low/FYI)
Step 6b: Extract URLs from Actionable Emails
Many emails encode links only in HTML (base64-encoded MIME), so the plain text preview misses them. For each actionable email, extract URLs:
~/.claude/skills/mail/scripts/extract-urls.sh "<message-id>"
Returns one URL per line, filtered to remove tracking pixels, images, and social media links.
How to use extracted URLs:
- Include the most relevant action URL in the reminder body (e.g., sign-off links, registration URLs, form links)
- If multiple URLs are returned, pick the one most relevant to the required action (e.g., a token/report URL, not the homepage)
- Show actionable URLs in the summary report (Step 10) under a Link column
Performance note: Only run this for actionable emails (typically 1-5 per batch), not for all emails. Each call takes ~2-3 seconds due to AppleScript + MIME decoding.
Step 7: Deduplicate Against Existing Reminders
Before adding, check if a similar reminder already exists by comparing:
- Exact or fuzzy match on reminder name
- Same due date
- Similar body content (e.g., same sender + same topic)
Skip any reminder that would be a duplicate.
Step 8: Add Reminders
For each new actionable item, run:
~/.claude/skills/mail/scripts/reminders-cli add "<name>" "<body>" "<due_date>" "<priority>"
Where:
-
<name>: reminder title (keep under 80 chars) -
<body>: details and context -
<due_date>: format "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM" or empty string "" for no due date -
<priority>: 1, 5, or 9
Shell escaping: Be careful with quotes and special characters in name/body. Use single quotes around arguments and escape any internal single quotes.
Step 9: Update Dedup Database
After processing, update /tmp/mail-already-processed.json:
- Add all newly processed email IDs (both actionable and non-actionable) to
processed_ids - Update
last_runtimestamp - Keep only IDs from the last 30 days to prevent unbounded growth
Use the Write tool (not bash heredoc/redirect) to write the updated JSON:
{
"processed_ids": ["id1", "id2", ...],
"last_run": "2026-03-10T00:00:00"
}
Important: Do NOT use cat > file << EOF — the check-file-exists hook will block the > redirect. Always use the Write tool for this file.
Step 10: Report Summary
Present results to user in a table:
## Mail Summary (past <N> days)
**Processed**: X new emails across Y accounts
**Skipped**: Z already-processed emails
### Actionable Items Added to Reminders:
| # | Due | Reminder | Priority | Source | Link |
|---|-----|----------|----------|--------|------|
| 1 | 3/9 12:00 | Task name | HIGH | sender@email.com | [action link](url) |
### Non-Actionable (skipped):
- Newsletter from X
- Notification from Y
If no actionable URL was found for an item, show "—" in the Link column.
Notes
- The user's Mail.app has accounts: iCloud, 一般, 正式, 和信, Exchange
- Inbox mailbox names vary: "INBOX" (IMAP) and "收件匣" (Exchange/localized)
- Reminders go to the "Inbox" list in Reminders.app
- Language: emails may be in English, Chinese (Traditional), or Japanese — handle all
- The dedup file at
/tmp/mail-already-processed.jsonpersists across reboots only if /tmp is not cleaned. This is acceptable — reprocessing is harmless since we also check existing reminders.
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