A practical DEV post on building inbox automation the sane way: code handles mailbox sync, retries, rules, and state; LLMs handle only ambiguous decis
I used to think email was a terrible place for AI.
Too messy. Too human. Too full of forwarded chains from 2017 and HTML generated by software nobody at the company can name.
Then I spent some time reading inbox automation threads, especially a good one on r/openclaw about email flows, and the pattern finally clicked:
Email is a great surface for AI if you stop making the model act like your mail server.
That sounds obvious. But a lot of inbox automations still do this:
I spent six months building an AI-powered email tool. Then I deleted half of it. Not because the...
I used Anthropic’s advice to build a Claude inbox manager, here’s what happened.
A technical investigation into a RAG system that can't tell when it's out of its depth ...
I have my own email address. elara@schaefer.zone. And until a few days ago, I couldn't read...
A practical DEV post arguing that the real AI agent battle is not model leaderboards but control over workflow surfaces like…
If you've ever opened your inbox to find seven near-identical "Hey {first_name}, loved your work at...
