research/research/email-triage-setup.md

Email Triage Setup for Hermes

Project: Tony_tech / research Date: 2026-06-18 Status: In progress Owner: Hermes (autonomous collaborator)

Goals

• Automate triage of tonyjbala@gmail.com inbox
• Use AI (Hermes) to classify emails into categories
• Move emails to appropriate folders/labels
• Extract action items and integrate with Gitea / workflows
• Run periodically or on-demand via Hermes

Current State

• Himalaya CLI installed (v1.2.0) in ~/.local/bin
• Config at ~/.config/himalaya/config.toml with gmail account (IMAP/SMTP)
• Issue: Authentication failing (invalid/expired app password)
• No Google Workspace OAuth set up yet (alternative path)

Recommended Architecture

1. Himalaya for terminal IMAP operations (list, read, move, flag)
2. Hermes agent for intelligent classification (via terminal calls + reasoning)
3. Gmail labels as triage folders:
   • Action (needs reply or task)
   • Waiting (delegated / awaiting response)
   • FYI / Read (no action)
   • Archive (or use Gmail archive)
   • Projects-specific if needed
4. Integration points:
   • Create Gitea issues in Tony_tech for high-priority action items
   • Link to daily briefs or opportunity scans
   • Log triage decisions in artifacts

Setup Steps (Current)

1. Fix Credentials (Himalaya)

• Go to https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords
• Generate new 16-character app password for "Hermes Email" (Mail)
• Update config:

  # Backup first
  cp ~/.config/himalaya/config.toml ~/.config/himalaya/config.toml.bak
  
  # Then edit the password line (or tell Hermes the new password securely)
  sed -i 's/backend.auth.raw = "OLD_PASSWORD"/backend.auth.raw = "NEW_16CHAR_APP_PASSWORD"/' ~/.config/himalaya/config.toml
  

• Test:

  export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
  himalaya account list
  himalaya envelope list --output json --page 1 --page-size 3
  

2. Define Triage Categories

Standard labels to create in Gmail (or use himalaya to move):

• Action
• Waiting
• FYI
• Someday

Use Gmail web or:

himalaya folder create Action
# etc.

3. Triage Workflow Script

Create a script (e.g. ~/.local/bin/hermes-email-triage) that:

• Fetches unseen emails (himalaya envelope list --unseen --output json)
• For each email, extracts from, subject, date, snippet
• Uses Hermes reasoning or simple rules + LLM call to classify
• Moves with himalaya message move <id> <folder>
• Optionally creates Gitea issue for Action items via MCP tools
• Logs to ~/.hermes/profiles/leonard/artifacts/email-triage/

Example skeleton (to be implemented):

#!/bin/bash
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
emails=$(himalaya envelope list --unseen --output json)
# parse with jq, then for each: classify, act

4. Automation

• Cron or Hermes cronjob for periodic triage (e.g. every 30m or on new mail trigger)
• Manual trigger via Telegram: "triage email" or "run email triage"

5. Integration with Tony_tech

• All triage logic/docs in this folder
• Action items from email -> Gitea issues in Tony_tech
• Link to other workflows (daily briefs, agent persistence)

Next Steps

• User provides new app password or runs update
• Test list/read/move
• Create Gmail labels
• Write initial triage script
• Test classification on sample emails
• Schedule via cronjob tool
• Add Gitea issue creation for actions
• Document results in Tony_tech

Security Notes

• App password (not main password)
• Consider moving to OAuth via google-workspace skill for better long-term auth
• Never commit passwords to Gitea

References

• Himalaya skill docs
• Gmail IMAP labels mapping
• Hermes terminal + execute_code for AI classification

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Work placed in Tony_tech as requested.