Guides Claude published apr 7, 2026
In this guide, you will build a daily email triage workflow using one Claude Cowork scheduled task. The workflow gives you a sorted inbox each morning, with draft replies waiting for the emails that actually need you.
You will create a recurring Claude Cowork task that scans your unread inbox each morning, sorts every message into one of four buckets, drafts replies for messages that need them, and delivers an interactive HTML report you can check off in seconds.
Open the generated HTML report in a real browser window, not inside Cowork, so you can download the completed approvals checklist.
Before you schedule anything, open regular Claude with the Gmail connector on and run one triage pass while you watch. This helps turn a generic prompt into one that understands your inbox.
Generate an interactive email triage report for the last 24 hours of unread email in my inbox. Sort each email into exactly one of these buckets:
1. Needs response
2. Needs attention
3. Archive
4. Archive and unsubscribe
For each email, include the sender, subject, a one-line reason for the category, a direct link to the email, and the item number.Review Claude’s triage and give it feedback. Tell it which emails it got wrong, name the senders that always matter, flag newsletters that should always be archived, and call out the product updates you actually want to keep.
That feedback teaches Claude the difference between useful system updates, junk promos, teammate messages, and edge cases that only show up in your inbox.
Pro tip: If you want the lazy version, skip the test run entirely and paste the prompt in the next step as-is.
Once Claude has completed one real pass and you have corrected it, ask it to turn the workflow into a reusable prompt.
Turn this workflow into a recurring task prompt for my inbox. Include my common senders, archive rules, unsubscribe rules, and which messages should be drafted or flagged.Below is the structure from this process. Replace the bracketed placeholders with your own email address, team domain, tools, and senders that show up most in your inbox.
You are running the daily email triage for [your@email.com]. Follow these steps:
## Step 1: Scan Inbox
Use `gmail_search_messages` with query `is:unread in:inbox` and maxResults 50. Paginate through all results.
## Step 2: Read Important Threads
For emails from @[yourcompany].com teammates, or any email that looks like it needs a personal response, use `gmail_read_thread` to pull full context.
## Step 3: Categorize Every Email
**Needs Response**
- direct messages from teammates
- calendar invites that need accept or decline
- real customer or subscriber replies with questions or complaints
- security alerts
- product updates from tools I actively use
**Needs Attention**
- anything that needs a personal follow-up but not a drafted reply
- billing or account notices that require an action
**Archive**
- my own newsletter copies
- routine recap emails
- calendar RSVP responses
- auto-replies and out-of-office messages
- bounce notifications
- receipts and purchase confirmations
- self-sent emails
**Archive and Unsubscribe**
- unsolicited product promos
- repeat marketing senders
- non-essential promotional senders
## Step 4: Deliver an Interactive HTML Report
Do not label, draft, or archive anything yet. Instead, save an HTML file to my Cowork workspace named `triage_YYYY-MM-DD.html` using today's date. The report should include:
- a dark theme
- a stats bar with counts per category
- numbered rows with a checkbox next to each email
- Gmail deep links in the format `https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#all/{threadId}`
- sender, subject, date, and snippet for each email
- a suggested action for each Needs Response item
- a "Select All" button per category
- a "Download Approvals" button that exports a JSON file of the checked items
Then stop and wait. Do not take any further actions in Gmail until I come back with the approvals file.
## Step 5: Act On the Approvals File
When I upload the approvals JSON back to you, read the checked items and act only on those.
For each approved email:
- Needs response: create a draft reply with `gmail_create_draft` using the thread ID, then apply the label `Claude/Needs-Response`
- Needs attention: apply the label `Claude/Needs-Attention`
- Archive: apply the label `Claude/Archive`
- Archive and unsubscribe: apply the label `Claude/Unsub`
Ignore any row I did not check. Only pause to ask me if a thread looks like phishing or involves money or legal decisions.
When you're done, report back with the counts: drafts created, threads labeled, and anything you skipped.Now move into Claude Cowork and make the workflow recurring.
Create a local folder called something like “Email Triage.” This becomes the workspace where Cowork saves the daily HTML reports and memory files.
In Cowork, click Scheduled > Create New Task, then paste in your custom prompt from the previous step as the instructions. Click More options > Folder to work in and select your new folder.
Pro tip: You can also ask Claude to turn the prompt into a skill and reference it in the instructions of the scheduled task.
When the task fires, Claude will not touch your inbox yet. It creates an interactive report with every unread email sorted into buckets, a checkbox next to each row, and a direct Gmail link so you can audit any call quickly.
Open the report in a real browser window, not inside Cowork. If you only open the file inside Claude, the browser sandbox will not let you download the completed checklist after you mark it up.
In Chrome or Safari, scan the list and check the boxes for every email you want Claude to act on. Uncheck or ignore anything it got wrong. When you are done, click Download Approvals. The page saves a JSON file of exactly what you approved.
Upload that JSON back into the same Claude conversation and tell it to get to work. Claude reads the checked rows, drafts replies for the Needs Response items, applies the right Claude/* label to each approved thread, and reports back with the counts.
Open the Claude/Needs-Response label in Gmail, send the drafts that look right, tweak the ones that need a human touch, and you are done for the morning.
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