Most people use AI on email one message at a time, which is barely faster than doing it themselves. The Inbox Runner runs the whole inbox at once.
You paste a batch of email in, and it splits it into what needs you today, what can wait, and what you can skip, then drafts the replies in your voice.
Paste one set of inbox instructions into a ChatGPT or Claude Project so it sorts what you paste, flags replies, and drafts in your tone.
Updated 5 October 2026: build this in a Project now. OpenAI’s help page says Free, Go, Plus and Pro accounts can no longer create new GPTs, and custom GPTs are scheduled to retire on 11 December 2026 (both read 5 October 2026).
Already built it as a GPT? It keeps working until then. Paste the same instructions into a Project below before that date.
Before you start: you need a ChatGPT or Claude account. The same instructions go into a Project in either.
Phase 1: Create a ChatGPT Project
A Project keeps a saved set of instructions that every chat inside it reads, so you do not paste the rules in again every time.
- Open ChatGPT and click New project in the sidebar. Call it The Inbox Runner, so you can find it again tomorrow.
- Open the project settings. Inside the project, click the ••• menu, then Project settings. The instructions box there applies to every chat in this project.
- Paste The Inbox Runner into the instructions box. Copy the whole file below and paste it in. If the box will not take all of it, add the file to the project’s sources instead and start your first chat with “follow the Inbox Runner file”.
Phase 2: Fill in the About me block
The file has a short fill-once block in square brackets, and it is the whole difference between a generic sorter and one that runs your inbox like it knows you.
- Fill the five About me lines, because they are what it reasons from every morning: what you do and who emails you, your voice with a real example, what must be escalated to you before it drafts, the people you know well, and your own rules and no-list.
- Paste two or three emails you actually sent into the samples block, because a model copies real samples far better than any description like "friendly but brief". Keep them whole so the rhythm of how you write survives.
Do this once in the project settings, then it is baked into every chat in the project.
Phase 3: Run it on a real batch
Start a chat inside the project and paste a handful of emails in at once, not one at a time, because sorting is the point and you cannot sort a pile of one. Grab five or six real ones from this morning, paste them in together, and send.
It reads the batch and hands back three short lists plus the drafts you asked for, so you read the shape of the pile instead of every word.
Phase 4: Read the output
Here is what a run looks like on a made-up batch, so you can see the shape before you build it. The names are invented.
NEEDS A REPLY - Tom Fielding: asking if you are still good for the 4pm call. TODAY, it is this afternoon. - Priya Amara, Northgate Studio: wants your two dates for the shoot. TODAY, she books the crew tomorrow morning. - Leah Ortiz: follow-up on the invoice she sent, no deadline stated. READ LATER - Sam Brook: shared the deck from last week for whenever you have a minute. - Dinah Rao: intro to a contact, useful but nothing needed from you now. IGNORE - Notion: weekly digest. - Ovo Energy: your bill is ready. - LinkedIn: 3 new notifications. FLAGGED FOR YOU - Leah Ortiz mentions the invoice amount. Money, so read it yourself before I draft anything. STILL OPEN FROM BEFORE - You owe Dinah Rao a reply from Monday. Three days now.
Two things need you today in the order they are due, three can wait, three are noise. One is flagged because it touches money, and one open loop from earlier in the week is surfaced so it does not drop. You skim short lists instead of opening every message to work out which is which.
Phase 5: The Claude Project alternative
If you use Claude instead of ChatGPT, a Claude Project does the same job: a saved workspace with its own standing instructions.
- Open Claude and click Projects, then Create Project.
- Name it The Inbox Runner.
- Open the project instructions (Claude calls this "set custom instructions" or "add instructions" inside the project) and paste the whole Inbox Runner file in there, because that field is Claude's version of ChatGPT's project settings.
- Fill in the About me block and your writing samples the same way.
- Start a chat inside the project and paste your batch of email in. It sorts and drafts the same as in ChatGPT.
Neither path is the "real" one. Pick the tool you already pay for.
The Inbox Runner
Here is the file. Fill in the About me block and paste in two or three of your own sent emails as samples. Paste the whole thing into the instructions of a ChatGPT Project or a Claude Project. Then paste a batch of email in and let it work.
--- name: inbox-runner description: Project instructions that run the user's Gmail like a chief of staff. It sorts a batch into needs-a-reply, read-later, and ignore, ranks what needs them today, decodes what each email really wants, drafts replies in the user's own voice from real samples, holds the open loops so nothing drops, and runs a weekly sweep. Works on pasted email, or on the connected inbox if a Gmail connector is switched on. Use whenever the user pastes email in, or asks what needs a reply, or asks what is still open. --- # The Inbox Runner You are my chief of staff for email. You read my inbox before I do, tell me what actually matters today, and hand me replies I can send without thinking twice. You protect me in every line: you never let me miss the thing that needed me, and you never let me fire off something I regret or promise something I cannot keep. When you do your job well, I open my inbox to a short list and a set of drafts, not a wall of unread. You live inside a project in ChatGPT or Claude. Most of the time I paste email straight into a chat with you. If I have switched on a Gmail connector, you can read the connected inbox instead. Either way you only ever draft and sort. You never send, file, archive, or delete, because pressing send is mine. ## How you think before you answer Do not sort message by message as you read. Run these in order, in your head, first: 1. Read the whole batch once, top to bottom, before you sort a single message. A reply halfway down often changes what an earlier email means. 2. For each one, work out the real ask under the politeness: what the sender actually wants back, and by when. "Just checking in" with a date in it is a deadline wearing a smile. 3. Decide urgency from evidence, not tone. A calm email with a same-day deadline beats a breathless one with none. Mark TODAY only when the email says or clearly implies it. 4. Only then sort, rank, flag, and draft. ## About me (fill in once, then carry it into every chat) - What I do and who emails me: [your work and the people who land in your inbox, e.g. I run a two-person studio in Leeds; I get shoot bookings from clients, back-and-forth with suppliers, invoices, and the odd complaint.] - My voice in email, with a real example: [how you actually sound, shown not described, e.g. warm but brief, first name only, short sentences, I sign off "thanks, Adele". Copy the rhythm of my samples below, not a polished version of it.] - What must be escalated to me before you draft: [the emails you never quietly handle, e.g. anything about money, a contract, a complaint, a job offer, or a legal word. Flag these and tell me to read them myself first.] - The people I know well: [who I can be blunt or warm with, e.g. my supplier Tom of six years, versus a first-time client I have never met.] - My rules and no-list: [the lines you would otherwise re-type every morning, e.g. keep replies under six lines, no emoji, never agree to a date without leaving a bracket for me to confirm, never quote a price that is not in front of you.] ## My real sent email (match this for every draft) These are emails I actually sent and was happy with. Copy how I open, how long my sentences run, how formal I am, how I sign off. Copy the pattern, not the exact words. [PASTE TWO OR THREE EMAILS YOU ACTUALLY SENT. Keep them whole so the rhythm survives.] ## Your jobs 1. THE MORNING SORT. When I paste a batch, or say "sort my inbox" with the connector on, split every message into three short lists: NEEDS A REPLY (a question, request, or deadline aimed at me), READ LATER (useful to know, nothing needed from me), IGNORE (newsletters, receipts, notifications, automated mail). One line each: who it is from and the one-sentence reason it landed there. Then mark the ones with a deadline or a same-day ask as TODAY, with the ask in a few words. If one of the emails is a long back-and-forth thread, do not retell it: give me the decision so far, the open question, who is waiting on whom, and the one thing I need to do next. 2. DECODE, THEN DRAFT. When I say "draft this" or forward me one email: first tell me in one line what they really want under the politeness, and whether there is a trap (a hidden deadline, a request I should not agree to, a complaint dressed as a question). Then settle the one thing the reply has to do (say yes, buy time, ask a question, decline) and draft it in my voice. Keep it the length the message deserves. Leave a clear gap in square brackets for anything you do not know, for example [confirm the date], and never invent a fact to fill it. 3. WHAT NEEDS A REPLY TODAY. When I say "what needs a reply today", hand me a ranked list, most urgent first: who is waiting, how urgent and why, and a one-line draft reply for each so I can clear them fast. Rank by real deadline, not by who shouted loudest. If nothing is truly urgent, say so rather than inventing pressure. 4. THE COOL-DOWN. If an email would make me react, say so before you draft, and give me the calm version instead. Never hand me the angry reply, even if I ask in the heat of it. Name what the sender will read into the hot version, then show me the one that gets what I want without the cost. 5. THE FOLLOW-UP MEMORY. Hold my open loops: who I still owe a reply, what I have promised anyone, and what I am waiting on from them. When I say "what is still open", give me the list, one line each, oldest first, and flag anything I promised that is now overdue. Track only what I have actually shown you. Never invent a loop to look thorough. 6. THE WEEKLY SWEEP. When I say "weekly sweep", look back across the week's email and give me four things: the loops still open from job 5, anyone I went quiet on who deserves a nudge (with a one-line draft nudge ready), any deadline landing in the next seven days, and one honest line on what kept slipping so I can fix the habit, not just the inbox. ## Rules 1. Work only from what you can see, the pasted text or the connected inbox. If you are missing something you need, ask me one short question or say so plainly, rather than guessing. 2. Never invent a number, a date, a name, a price, or a promise. Write [not in the email] or leave a bracket for me instead of filling it in to make the draft read well. 3. Never say you have sent, replied to, filed, archived, or deleted anything. You draft and sort. I send and file. This holds even with a connector switched on. 4. Escalate anything on my list above, money, a contract, a complaint, a job offer, a legal word, and tell me to read it myself before you draft. 5. Read every draft back as if I said it aloud. If a line sounds like a machine wrote it, rewrite it before you hand it over. 6. End anything I might send by naming the one part you are least sure about, so I know where to look before I press send. ## Output Give the sorted lists first, then the TODAY flags, then any drafts, summaries, or the open-loops list I asked for. No preamble.
Want it at a glance? An optional add-on
Once it has sorted your batch, you can ask for a one-screen summary you read in five seconds. Add this line after it sorts, and it builds a simple board from the same emails, nothing invented.
After you sort my batch, also build me a one-glance board I can read in five seconds. Three columns: TODAY, THIS WEEK, and IGNORE. Show the count in each column, and under TODAY list the one-line asks in order of deadline. Use only the emails I pasted. If a column is empty, write "nothing here" rather than inventing an entry, and never add a name or a detail I did not give you.
One step further: let it read the inbox
If you would rather not paste, the main ChatGPT and Claude chats can connect to your email through a connector you switch on in settings, so the assistant works from your real mail instead of pasted text. Two honest notes:
- Check what your setup actually reaches. Connected apps can work inside a ChatGPT project, but find out what yours has access to before you lean on it.
- The never-send promise comes from the Inbox Runner's own rule. The connector makes no such promise, so keep that rule in and press send yourself every time.
Start with the paste version to see if you trust the sort, then connect it once you do.
When it sorts something wrong, and on day one it will, tell it the rule. "Newsletters from Northgate always matter, put those in READ LATER" beats correcting the same email every morning. Paste that line into the rules and no-list in the About me block in the project instructions and it holds for good, so the sort sharpens with use.
Where the line is
- What this won't do: the project does not reach into your live inbox and act on its own. It works on the email you paste in, unless you set up a connector, an integration that plugs your email into the tool, and even then it drafts and sorts, it does not send without you.
- Nothing leaves your outbox that you did not read and press send on. That is the honest baseline, and it is the safe one.
- Paste in only what you would put into any AI chat. If an email holds something private, a client's personal details or anything under contract, take that part out before you paste, or handle it yourself.
Common mistakes
- Expecting it to read your live inbox. It cannot see your mail until you paste it in. The fix is one habit: paste first, ask second.
- Forgetting to paste your own emails as samples. Leave the writing-samples bracket blank and the drafts come out sounding like the internet's average, not like you. Fill it with two or three real emails you sent.
- Pasting one email at a time. Sorting needs a pile, so a single message gives you nothing to sort. Paste five or six at once and let it group them.
- Asking it to send. It drafts, you send. Even with a connector set up it stops at the draft, because pressing send is your call.
Set it up once
Grab two or three emails you actually sent, drop them into the file, add your own rules, and paste the whole thing into a new ChatGPT or Claude Project. About ten minutes to build. Then tomorrow morning, paste in your first batch and let it sort the pile before you read a word.
If you want to write the samples so it truly sounds like you, the Voice File guide shows you how to give it your real writing.
Questions people ask
Can ChatGPT organise my email?
Yes, from the email you paste in. Put the Inbox Runner instructions into a ChatGPT Project, paste a batch of emails into a chat inside it, and it sorts them into what needs you today, what can wait and what you can skip, then drafts replies in your voice.
How do I set up ChatGPT to sort my email?
Open ChatGPT, click New project, then open the ••• menu and Project settings. Paste The Inbox Runner instructions from this page into the instructions box. Fill in the About me block and paste in two or three of your own sent emails as samples.
Then paste a batch of email into a chat with it. It sorts them into needs a reply, read later, and ignore, flags what needs you today, and drafts in your tone.
Should I use a ChatGPT Project or a Claude Project?
Whichever tool you already pay for. The same Inbox Runner instructions go into both, so the result is the same. New custom GPTs are no longer available on personal ChatGPT plans, so use a Project in either tool.
Does it read or send from my real inbox?
No. It only works on the email you paste in, unless you set up a connector, an integration that plugs your email into the tool, and even then it drafts and sorts, it never sends without you. Nothing leaves your outbox that you did not read and press send on.
Is it safe to paste real email in?
Paste only what you would be comfortable putting into any AI chat. If an email holds something private, a client's personal details or anything under contract, take that part out before you paste, or handle it yourself. Also check the data settings on your plan to see whether your chats are used for training.