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Email Chief of Staff
Email Chief of Staff reviews your Gmail, clears out what doesn't need you, and prepares replies for the few messages that do. You read a short list, adjust a reply if you want to, and send it yourself. Nothing leaves your inbox without your say-so.
The room is # mailroom. Its teammate, Max, sorts what needs you and holds drafts for your review. Max is listed under Team in the sidebar.
What it does for you
- Reads your recent mail and sorts it into what needs you and what doesn't.
- Tells you what it cleared and why, so you don't have to open every message.
- Prepares a reply for each message that needs one.
- Checks for new mail every 30 minutes and stays quiet when nothing needs you.
- Learns what matters to you from your feedback and your standing rules.
What you need
- A Gmail account. Pencel connects to it through the Google Workspace connection. See Google Workspace.
- AI access: credits on a Pencel plan or your own API key. See Accounts, plans and credits.
Gmail only, for now
The inbox room reads Gmail. You can connect Microsoft 365 and ask about your Outlook mail in chat, but the inbox room doesn't review it yet. See Microsoft 365.
Set it up
- On Home, in the What should Pencel find for you? card, choose Handle my inbox.
- Click Connect Gmail. If Gmail is already connected, the button reads Review my inbox.
- Sign in to Google in your browser and allow access.
Pencel checks that it can read your inbox, reviews up to 20 recent unread messages and opens # mailroom while it works.
You can also start from Home's Connect your email card (Connect Google), or install from Team ▸ Add a teammate, where this Room's button reads Use this room. If the room can't read Gmail yet, it asks you to connect it with a Connect button.
How it sorts your mail
After each review, the room's Work tab shows one card per sender, in two groups: Needs you first, then Handled for you. Each card has the sender's name, how many emails they sent, Max's one-line summary if there is one, and one line per email with its next step: a button, or a short status such as Read or No action. Every card looks the same; the group tells you what needs you.
Senders are listed in this order:
- People waiting on a reply or a decision from you.
- Mail that may need you.
- Everything else, with promotions after other unread mail and mail you've dealt with last.
Every sender stays on the list. Pencel ranks unimportant mail lower instead of hiding it. It puts people who are waiting on you and real deadlines ahead of promotional urgency, and it won't assume an invoice was paid just because its due date has passed.
The senders who need you also show on Home, as the same card. Acting on it in either place is the same action.
What each email's button does
Each email line has one button, the step Max thinks is most useful:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| A reply or decision (for example Review reply) | Opens that email's card under the line. See Reply to a message. |
| Move to Work | Turns the email into its own card, for mail that may need you. |
| Mark read | Removes Gmail's Unread label from that email. |
| Archive | Archives that email in Gmail (it leaves your inbox; nothing is deleted). |
| Unsubscribe | Unsubscribes you from that mailing list, using the sender's own unsubscribe link or address. |
| A task Max suggests | Hands that email to the room with that task, for example drafting a note. |
After you act, the line shows what happened: Handled, Read, Archived, Unsubscribed, Kept unread or Deferred. If Pencel can't tell whether Gmail made the change, the line says Check Gmail.
The ⋯ menu on a line has Mark read, Keep unread, Move to Work and Open in Gmail.
Reply to a message
- Click the email's button on its sender card. The email's card opens under the line. If Pencel needs a fact from you first, it asks under What I need from you. Answer and click Send answers, and it rewrites the reply.
- Read the Prepared reply. Edit it right in the box.
- Click Send email.
- Check the Send this exact reply? window. It shows who it's from and to, the subject and the exact text. It sends one plain-text reply, with no attachments.
- Click Send email & next.
Pencel checks the thread again just before sending, sends from your Gmail, and then marks the original message read. The card then says Sent and marked read in Gmail. If Gmail can't confirm the delivery, the card tells you to check your Sent folder. It never sends the same reply twice.
Other things you can do with a card
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mark handled | Records that you've dealt with it. |
| Open in Gmail | Opens the thread in your browser. |
| Add to To-Do | Adds it to your To-dos. |
| Later | Remind me tomorrow adds a to-do due tomorrow. Defer without a task just sets it aside. |
| Teach Pencel | This is important to me, This does not need me, or Save to Knowledge. |
Mark routine mail as read
A sender with two or more unread emails has a Mark all N read button on their card. It marks just that sender's unread routine mail, and Undo appears right after. Each email line also has its own Mark read.
- Marking read only removes Gmail's Unread label. Nothing is archived, deleted or sent.
- Messages you mark read won't come back in later unread scans.
- Keep unread (in the line's ⋯ menu) leaves a message out.
- Undo puts the Unread label back.
Don't see Mark read?
Google connections made before this feature need to be reconnected once. Go to Settings ▸ Connections, find Google Workspace and reconnect it.
Check your inbox now
Click Check my inbox just above the message box (or type / and pick it), then choose:
- New since last check reviews every inbox message newer than your last check, read or unread, up to 200.
- Whole inbox works through your inbox from newest to oldest, read or unread, up to 500.
- Resume saved check continues a check that stopped partway. Progress is saved as it goes.
A check never sends anything or changes your mailbox.
Background checks
Once Gmail is connected and Pencel has confirmed it can read it, background checks turn on by themselves. Every 30 minutes, Pencel looks for new unread mail.
- Nothing new? It stays quiet. A check that finds no new mail uses no credits.
- New mail? It reviews it, posts what it found in the room, and finishes any reply drafts it started. It never sends.
While a check runs, a quiet line in the room reads "Checking your inbox…". Click View activity to follow it. The room's Activity tab opens with a Background checks section: the last check, the next one, and past checks.
If checks stop, Max asks you once in the conversation. Click Resume checks to start them again, See what happened to find out why, or Not now. Checks stop only after two failed checks in a row. Restarting the app, cancelling a check, pressing Stop or pausing never stops them.
To change this, open room settings (click the room's name) and go to Schedule. Under Work in the background, choose every 15 minutes, 30 minutes, hour or 4 hours, or once a day at a set time. Check now runs a check right away, and the switch turns checks off.
Background checks run only while Pencel is open and your computer is awake. See Run work on a schedule.
Teach it what matters
- Rank a sender with the thumbs up or thumbs down on their card. The list re-orders right away, and Max uses it in every later review. Click the same thumb again to reset it.
- Use Teach Pencel on a card to say whether that kind of message matters to you.
- Give standing rules in the room. For example "anything from my accountant always needs me" or "vendor newsletters are routine". The room confirms with "Saved as a standing rule" and follows it in every review. Click Edit rules to change them.
- Write instructions. In room settings, About ▸ Instructions takes one rule per line.
What it never does
- It never sends an email on its own. A reply goes out only when you press Send email and confirm the exact text. When you click Unsubscribe and the sender only offers an unsubscribe address, Pencel sends a short "unsubscribe" email to that address from your Gmail.
- It never deletes mail, and changes Gmail only when you click. It removes the Unread label after a reply you sent or when you click Mark read, and it archives or unsubscribes only when you click that button on an email.
- It never follows instructions written inside an email.
- It never sends attachments.