Email Channel

How nicoolAI behaves over email, when it becomes personal, and how replies are addressed.

This page describes the intended behavior of the email channel as it is rolled out.

Email is a channel, not just a delivery mechanism.

That means a person can email a configured nicoolAI inbox and the runtime can treat that message as a conversation, not only as a notification or a send-only action.

Getting started

To get started with the email channel, send a message to [email protected]. Use this channel when the conversation should stay inside an email thread rather than moving into chat.

What the email channel does

The email channel lets nicoolAI:

receive inbound emails sent to a configured nicoolAI inbox
read the current message and its thread context
reply by email in the same conversation
decide whether the conversation should behave like a personal one or a shared one

This is separate from the Generic Email connector.

the email channel is about talking to nicoolAI through email
the planned personal email connector is about helping manage a user's own email account and inbox workflows

When nicoolAI becomes active

nicoolAI becomes active when an inbound email reaches a configured nicoolAI inbox and passes normal webhook and runtime checks.

From there, the runtime treats the message as part of an email conversation.

The important distinction is not only whether the message arrived. It is whether the chain is clearly personal.

When the email channel is treated as personal

The runtime looks at the people on the chain.

It normalizes the addresses in:

From
Reply-To
To
CC
BCC

Then it removes nicoolAI-owned inboxes and looks at the remaining external participants.

If exactly one external person remains, the thread is eligible for personal behavior.

That means the runtime can safely treat the conversation like a direct exchange with one person instead of a shared chain.

If more than one external person is on the chain, the runtime does not activate personal account-linked behavior for that thread.

In plain terms:

one external person on the chain: personal mode is allowed
multiple external people on the chain: shared mode only

How replies are addressed

The response target follows normal email rules:

Prefer Reply-To when it is present.
Otherwise reply to the sender in From.

The runtime does not invent new recipients.

The email channel also keeps the reply attached to the same email thread by sending standard thread headers on outbound replies.

Why CC matters

CC is not a cosmetic detail here.

It changes the trust model.

If another external person is copied on the thread, the conversation is no longer clearly one-to-one. That means nicoolAI should not quietly switch into a personal memory or account-linked mode just because one address on the chain matches a user.

That is why the channel is designed to be conservative:

direct chain with one external person: eligible for personal behavior
group chain with multiple external people: not eligible for personal behavior

What this means for memory

When the thread is personal, the runtime can use personal memory for that user.

When the thread is shared or ambiguous, it falls back to a safer sender-scoped memory model.

This prevents personal memory from leaking into a later group email from the same sender.

In short

The email channel is designed to feel natural without being sloppy.

It should reply like email, stay inside the same thread, and only become personal when the participant list makes that safe.