Recipe: Inbox by Category

Process the inbox in priority order using Spark's smart categories. This ensures the most important messages get attention first.

Prerequisite: Read the use-spark base skill for command reference and filter syntax.

Access level required: read-only.

Steps

Step 1: Priority mail (highest priority)

spark emails Inbox --filter "category:priority is:unread"

Emails Spark auto-prioritized or that the user manually marked as priority. These are the most important items.

Step 2: People mail

spark emails Inbox --filter "category:personal is:unread"

Direct person-to-person emails. Real conversations that usually need a response.

Step 3: Pending invitations

spark emails Inbox --filter "category:invitation"

Calendar invitations waiting for a response. Time-sensitive by nature.

Step 4: Notifications

spark emails Inbox --filter "category:notification is:unread"

Service notifications, alerts, and receipts. Scan for anything actionable, then move on.

Step 5: Newsletters

spark emails Inbox --filter "category:newsletter newer_than:7d"

Subscriptions and digests from the past week. Skim for interest, skip the rest.

Step 6: Summarize

Report to the user:

• N unread people emails (with subjects/senders for the most recent)
• M unread priority emails
• K pending invitations
• Notification and newsletter counts (don't list unless asked)

Tips

• This is the recommended default when the user asks "what's new" or "catch me up."
• Skip steps 4 and 5 for a quick briefing - priority + people + invites covers the essentials.
• For each category, only dig into spark thread <id> when the user asks about a specific email.
• Combine with spark events --today for a full morning briefing.