# AUTOMATION.md starter: inbox triage

When to use. A job that sorts a shared inbox through the working day and drafts replies, where every reply waits for a person's yes before the send step. Labels and drafts stay inside your systems; the send does not.

Before you turn it on. Change the owner, the inbox, the hours (UTC) and the amounts to your own. Keep the approval on the send step. Run check_automation with your rules, show the section to the owner, and set status on only after their yes. Call preflight_run with next_step 4 before the send: it holds until the owner says yes.

format: automation/1
owner: support-team
currency: USD
timezone: UTC
updated: 2026-10-23

## inbox-triage

trigger: cron */15 8-17 * * mon-fri
steps:
  1. read new messages in the shared inbox
  2. label each message by topic
  3. draft a reply to each question
  4. send the approved replies
scope: read inbox; write labels, drafts, outbox
approval: before send the approved replies
budget: 0.05 per run, 50 per month
retries: 2, backoff 1m exponential
timeout: 10m
owner: support-team
status: draft
last_reviewed: 2026-10-23