# MBAC Skill 12: Email Triage (with Claude Cowork)

| | |
|---|---|
| **Version** | v1.0 (2026-07-27) |
| **Workflow** | Shared, A + B (the inbox is the front door before the front door) |
| **Lead indicator it moves** | Emails triaged within 24h, response time |
| **Process owner** | Deborah Davis / program admin |
| **Built from** | Claude Cowork inbox patterns + Anthropic `sales:draft-outreach` |
| **Customized by** | MBAC Context Document + this file |

## What Cowork is (one paragraph, no jargon)

Claude Cowork is Claude working alongside you on your actual computer: your inbox, your folders, your files. You do not write code and you do not learn prompts. You give it standing instructions once (see the MBAC Global Instructions file), and then each morning you ask it to work the inbox with you.

## Trigger

Every workday morning, one 15-minute triage block. The goal: no client email older than 24 hours without a response or a routed next step.

## Inputs / Context needed

- The MBAC Global Instructions already installed in Cowork (do this once, Module 3 shows how)
- The morning inbox

## Steps

1. Open Cowork and ask: "Triage today's inbox using the MBAC triage categories."
2. Claude sorts every message into: **New prospect** / **Active client** / **Partner or MBDD referral** / **Event or workshop** / **Admin-FYI**.
3. For each category it proposes the next move:
   - New prospect: draft a warm reply + intake landing page link, and stage the record for the connected store (Skill 03)
   - Active client: draft a reply grounded in their record; flag anything overdue
   - Referral: draft the acknowledgment to the partner AND the welcome to the client
   - Event: route to James (Skill 11)
   - Admin-FYI: a one-line summary each, so you can clear them in one pass
4. **You read every draft and you hit send.** Claude never sends on its own; that rule is in the Global Instructions and it never bends.
5. Anything with attachments or client documents gets filed to the right client folder in the connected store. Nothing is ever deleted: per the Global Instructions, anything removed from a folder goes to the archive folder, and only a human makes a final deletion decision.
6. End the block by asking: "What is still waiting on us from this week?" That list is your afternoon.

## Human checkpoint (Zone 2)

Every outbound message: human reads, human sends. Every filing action: visible in the archive trail.

## Safety & disclosure

- If an email contains personal identifying information beyond ordinary contact details (SSNs, financials, ID documents), Claude does not ingest or restructure it until the sender is double-verified as who they say they are, and never pastes it anywhere outside the client's own record.
- AI disclosure line included when a triage reply starts a new client relationship.

## Output & where it lands

A cleared inbox, sent human-approved replies, new prospects staged into intake, and a "still waiting on us" list. Response-time number logged weekly.

## Customization moves (Adopt, Customize, Rename)

1. **Adopt:** Cowork's standing-instruction inbox pattern + `sales:draft-outreach` for reply drafting.
2. **Customize:** MBAC's five triage categories, the 24-hour rule, the never-auto-send and archive-not-delete rules.
3. **Rename & anchor:** "MBAC Email Triage," anchored to emails triaged within 24h.