draft-email

Draft a reply email to an existing Gmail thread and save it to the user's drafts folder for approval. Use this skill whenever the user asks to "draft a reply", "draft an email response", "write a reply to that email", "prepare a response to [person]", "draft something back to [person]", or any similar request to compose a reply to an email thread. Also trigger when the user says "reply to Hayden", "respond to that thread", "write back to them", or refers to drafting/composing email responses in any way. This skill handles reply-all HTML drafts with quoted thread history, saved to Gmail drafts for human review before sending.

christopheryeo 0 Updated 3mo ago

GitHub

Install

npx skillscat add christopheryeo/claude-skills/draft-email

Install via the SkillsCat registry.

SKILL.md

Draft Email Reply

This skill drafts a reply-all email to an existing Gmail thread, formats it as HTML, and saves it to the user's Gmail drafts folder for approval. Nothing is sent — the draft sits in Gmail until the user reviews and sends it manually.

Why this skill exists

Christopher (the user) often needs to reply to email threads after reviewing them with his AI workforce. Rather than switching to Gmail, composing manually, and reformatting, this skill lets him say something like "draft a reply to Hayden saying we'll pay next week" and get a polished, correctly-addressed HTML draft ready for one-click sending.

How it works

Step 1: Identify the thread

Figure out which thread the user wants to reply to. There are a few ways this might come up:

Thread already in context — If the conversation already contains a thread that was just read or summarised (e.g., the user said "read that email from Hayden" and now says "draft a reply"), use that thread. You already have the thread ID, participants, and content.
User names a person or subject — Search Gmail to find the relevant thread. Use gmail_search_messages with appropriate queries (e.g., from:hayden.foo@mile.cloud or subject:overdue payment). If multiple threads match, ask the user which one.
User provides a thread ID directly — Rare, but if they do, use it.

Once you have the thread ID, read the full thread using gmail_read_thread to get all participants and the message history.

Step 2: Determine the reply content

The user can work in two modes — ask them if it's not clear from context:

Mode A — User provides the message: The user tells you what to say (e.g., "tell him we'll pay $10k by Friday"). Take their intent and compose a professional email in Christopher's voice.

Mode B — Auto-generate: The user wants you to propose a reply based on the thread context (e.g., "draft a response to that"). Read the thread carefully, understand what's being asked or discussed, and compose an appropriate reply. Present a brief summary of what you plan to say before creating the draft, so the user can adjust.

Step 3: Compose the HTML email

Write the reply body in clean, professional HTML. Christopher's communication style is:

Professional and warm — respectful, never cold or overly formal
Direct and action-oriented — gets to the point, states what will happen and when
Concise — no filler, no unnecessary pleasantries beyond a brief greeting
Structured when needed — uses short paragraphs; bullet points only if listing multiple items

HTML formatting guidelines:

Use  tags for paragraphs with style="margin: 0 0 12px 0; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #333333;"
CRITICAL: Do NOT wrap the body in <html>, <body>, or <head> tags. Start directly with the first  tag. Gmail's API handles the outer HTML wrapper — adding these tags causes the raw HTML to display as literal text in the draft instead of being rendered.
Keep it simple — no fancy layouts, no images, no heavy styling
Use   (self-closing) for line breaks, not  
Include a sign-off block: "Best regards," followed by "Christopher Yeo" on the next line (use   between them inside a single  tag)
Do NOT include a title/role line (no "CEO", "Acting CFO", "Sentient.io") — Christopher's Gmail signature handles that automatically
Do NOT include contact details (phone, email) in the sign-off — the Gmail signature appends these

Example structure:

<p style="margin: 0 0 12px 0; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #333333;">Hi Hayden,</p>

<p style="margin: 0 0 12px 0; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #333333;">Thank you for your patience on this. We will be making the payment of $10,000 by this Friday, 28 February.</p>

<p style="margin: 0 0 12px 0; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #333333;">I will send the remittance advice once the transfer is complete.</p>

<p style="margin: 0 0 12px 0; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #333333;">Best regards,<br/>Christopher Yeo</p>

Step 4: Determine recipients (Reply-All)

From the thread, extract all participants for a reply-all:

To: The sender of the most recent message in the thread (the person being replied to)
Cc: All other participants from the thread (from To, Cc fields of recent messages), excluding:
- Christopher's own email (chris@sentient.io)
- Any duplicate addresses
- Any automated/noreply addresses (e.g., cm-service@mile.cloud, noreply@...)

If the most recent message was sent BY Christopher, reply to the recipients of that message instead (i.e., maintain the same addressing).

Step 5: Create the draft

Use the gmail_create_draft_reply MCP tool to create the draft:

Set the thread_id to the thread being replied to
Set to with the primary recipient
Set cc with all other participants
Set body with the HTML content (bare  tags — no <html>/<body> wrapper)
Set body_type to html — this is critical. Without it, Gmail treats the HTML as plain text and the tags appear as literal characters in the draft.

After creating the draft, confirm to the user:

Who the draft is addressed to (To and Cc)
A brief summary of the reply content
That it's saved in their Gmail drafts folder
Remind them to review and send from Gmail when ready

Important safeguards

Never send the email. Always create a draft. The user must review and send manually from Gmail.
Always show the user who the email will go to before creating the draft, especially if there are many Cc recipients.
If the user's intent is ambiguous, ask for clarification rather than guessing. A wrong reply is worse than a small delay.
If the thread is very long or complex, summarise the key context you're basing the reply on so the user can verify you understood correctly.

Examples

Example 1 — User provides content:

User: "Draft a reply to Hayden saying we'll make the payment by end of this week and I'll send the remittance slip"

Action: Compose HTML reply in Christopher's voice, reply-all to thread participants, save as draft.

Example 2 — Auto-generate:

User: "Draft a response to that Margin Wheeler accounting queries thread"

Action: Read thread, understand the queries, propose a reply that acknowledges and addresses them. Present summary to user first, then create draft on confirmation.

Example 3 — Thread already in context:

User: [just finished reading a thread] "Ok draft a reply"

Action: Ask the user what they'd like to say, or offer to auto-generate based on the thread context.

draft-email

Install

Draft Email Reply

Why this skill exists

How it works

Step 1: Identify the thread

Step 2: Determine the reply content

Step 3: Compose the HTML email

Step 4: Determine recipients (Reply-All)

Step 5: Create the draft

Important safeguards

Examples

Categories

Install

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