Skip to main content

Smart Rules

A smart rule is just a normal rule that uses one or more AI signals as conditions. It lets you automate things keywords can't express — like "is this actually urgent?" or "is this a cold sales pitch?"

Turn on AI first

Smart rules need AI features enabled. See AI, Explained and AI privacy & consent.

The AI fields you can match on​

Every signal MailPrism detects is available as a condition. The values are the same ones listed in Classification signals and the Conditions reference:

FieldValues
AI CategoryUrgent · Important · Personal · Work · Financial/Billing · Newsletter · Promotional · Cold Email · Spam · Social · Notification · Transactional · System · Other
AI UrgencyHigh Medium Low
AI SentimentPositive Neutral Negative
AI: Is Automated Emailtrue / false

Spam and cold outreach are matched through AI Category: pick Spam or Cold Email. Cold Email comes from the AI's cold-outreach detector.

Building one​

It works exactly like any rule — you just pick an AI field as the condition:

  1. Rules → Create Rule, then choose Rule builder.
  2. Add a condition and choose an AI field — AI Category, AI Urgency, AI Sentiment, AI: Is Automated Email, and more.
  3. Add your actions.
  4. Save and enable.

Examples worth copying​

Surface urgent mail

When AI Urgency is High then Star · Mark important · Notify me by email

Quiet the cold pitches

When AI Category is Cold Email AND Sender History is First-time sender then Apply label Cold outreach · Archive

Catch unhappy customers fast

When AI Sentiment is Negative AND AI Category is Work then Star · Track response needed

Tidy the noise

When AI: Is Automated Email is true AND AI Category is Notification then Apply label Notifications · Mark read · Archive

Make smart rules dependable​

  • Pair AI with a plain condition. Combining urgency with sender relationship is more reliable than urgency alone.
  • Start with safe actions — label, star, notify — before letting a smart rule archive or reply.
  • Use confidence where it helps. Response-tracking conditions expose an AI confidence value (0.0–1.0) so you can require the AI to be sure. You can also raise the global AI confidence threshold in Settings → Rule Defaults & Safety so AI conditions only fire when the model is sure enough. See Conditions reference.
  • Tune the signals themselves. If a category or urgency call feels consistently off, adjust how MailPrism reads your mail in Preferences & tuning.
Check your work

After enabling a smart rule, review the Rule Logs to see what it matched — the log captures the AI's reasoning, so you can tell why it fired.

→ Next: Preferences & tuning