# Email

Your assistant has an email address — like **[alex@town.com](mailto:alex@town.com)**. Email it directly and it takes care of the rest — whether that’s researching, summarizing, or making changes to your routines.

## Your assistant’s email

When you sign up, you name your assistant and get a dedicated email address. This is how you reach your assistant from anywhere.

Examples:

- `alex@town.com`
- `assistant@town.com`
- `friday@town.com`

## What you can do

### Ask for help

Email your assistant with any request:

> **To:** [alex@town.com](mailto:alex@town.com)
>
> **Subject:** Research Acme Corp
>
> I have a call with Acme Corp tomorrow. Can you research them and send me a brief?

Your assistant will:

1. Search the web for information
2. Check your email history with them
3. Compile a research brief
4. Reply with findings

### Forward threads

Forward any email thread to your assistant for help:

> **To:** [alex@town.com](mailto:alex@town.com)
>
> **Subject:** Fwd: Q4 Planning Discussion
>
> Can you summarize this thread and identify the action items?

Your assistant will:

1. Read the forwarded thread
2. Analyze the conversation
3. Reply with a summary and action items

### CC your assistant

CC your assistant on emails to keep it informed or get help:

> **To:** [sarah@company.com](mailto:sarah@company.com)
>
> **CC:** [alex@town.com](mailto:alex@town.com)
>
> **Subject:** Meeting request
>
> Hi Sarah, I’d like to schedule a meeting. My assistant is CC’d and can help coordinate times.

### Create routines

Ask your assistant to create new routines:

> **To:** [alex@town.com](mailto:alex@town.com)
>
> **Subject:** New routine request
>
> Create a routine that labels all emails from my team (anyone @mycompany.com) and keeps them in my inbox.

Your assistant will:

1. Understand what you want
2. Generate the routine configuration
3. Test it if needed
4. Enable it for you
5. Confirm what was created

### Modify routines

Ask your assistant to change existing routines:

> **To:** [alex@town.com](mailto:alex@town.com)
>
> **Subject:** Update auto-inbox
>
> Stop archiving emails from [newsletter@example.com](mailto:newsletter@example.com). I want those in my inbox.

Your assistant will:

1. Find the relevant routine
2. Update the configuration
3. Confirm the change

## Tips for best results

**Be specific.** Instead of “help me with email,” say “summarize emails from John in the last week.”

**Provide context.** When forwarding, add a note explaining what you need: “Draft a polite decline” or “Extract the key dates.”

**Use the subject line.** A clear subject helps your assistant understand the request quickly.

## How responses work

Your assistant replies in the same email thread. This keeps context together and makes it easy to follow the conversation.

- Research results appear as replies
- Routine confirmations come back as emails
- Drafted replies are created as drafts in your connected mailbox — **Gmail drafts** for Gmail, **Outlook drafts** for Outlook — and aren’t sent automatically

## Which address does Town send from?

When your assistant sends or replies to an email _to other people_, it sends **from your own connected email account** — your real address (e.g. `you@yourcompany.com`), not from `town.com`. To your recipients, it looks like an email from you, because it is. Drafts your assistant writes appear right in that mailbox — in **Gmail’s Drafts** for a Gmail account, or **Outlook’s Drafts** for an Outlook account — for you to review before anything goes out.

Your assistant’s `@town.com` address is a separate thing: it’s how _you_ reach your assistant. Messages you send there are requests to your Townie — they aren’t the address your outbound mail to others comes from.

## Let your assistant send email directly

By default, your assistant drafts email to other people and waits for your approval before anything goes out. This keeps you in control of what gets sent on your behalf. (Replies to yourself are always safe, so those send without approval.)

If there are people you email often, you can set up a **trusted contacts** list so your assistant can send, reply, or forward to them without stopping to ask each time.

### Set up a trusted contacts list

1. In the web app, click **Powers** in the left sidebar, then click **Trusted contacts** at the top of the Routines page.

2. In the **Email Recipients** section, click **New**. (You’ll need a connected email account first.)

3. Under **Recipient list name**, give the list a short name like **Coworkers** or **Customers**.

4. Add the people it covers, one per line:

- **Allowed emails** — specific addresses (for example `alice@example.com`).
   - **Allowed domains** — whole domains, so anyone at that company is covered (for example `@company.com`).

Add emails, domains, or both.

5. Optionally turn on **Include “via "[your assistant]