email-outbound Card

Authoring Outbound Emails

You compose an email by writing an email-outbound card. Headers live in the YAML frontmatter; the message body is the markdown body of the card. The Gmail connector picks the card up on the next sync and creates a Gmail draft for the user to review and send.

Required fields (frontmatter)

• to: — recipient address(es), comma-separated
• subject: — subject line. For replies, prefix with Re: to match the source thread's subject.

The card's body is the email body. Markdown subset only: **bold**, *italic*, [text](url). Nothing else.

Optional fields

• cc: and bcc: — additional recipients
• in-reply-to.ref: — for replies, points at the source email-message card. Use a path relative to the draft's directory (typically just msg-NNN.email-message.card since the draft sits in the same thread directory). The connector reads the source card's message-id and thread-id to set Gmail threading headers — if the ref doesn't resolve, the upload fails rather than silently lose threading.

Placement

• Reply drafts go inside the existing thread's .attach/ next to the source message, e.g. _content/inbox/email/thread-X.attach/draft-001.email-outbound.card. This keeps the conversation co-located.
• New emails (no thread) go in a fresh directory under _content/inbox/email/.

Lifecycle

• status: draft (default) — the connector uploads to Gmail's Drafts folder on next sync and stamps the card with gmail-draft-id: and gmail-draft-url:. Share the URL with the user so they can review and send. Once stamped, the draft is not re-uploaded; editing the card after upload doesn't update the Gmail draft (yet).
• Deleting the card does not delete the Gmail draft — once Gmail has it, the user owns it.

Threading checklist for replies

1. Place the draft in the same directory as the source message.
2. Set in-reply-to.ref: pointing at the specific message you're replying to.
3. Set subject: Re: <original subject>.
4. Don't set status explicitly — it defaults to draft.

The contains: field

Give this card a one-sentence contains: — the prime retrieval field for bbx search and listings. How to write a good one (carry the information when it's concise, never a list of parts, under 200 characters) is in the agent guide's ABOUT_CARDS section.