Inbox

Inbox is your personal email inside Cooper. You connect your own Gmail or Microsoft 365 (Outlook) mailbox once, and then you can read, search, write, reply to and forward email without leaving Cooper. Every thread can be linked to a project, a project task, a human or an organization, so your teammates find the conversation where the work happens.

Inbox only ever shows mailboxes you connected. Nobody else in your company can open your Inbox, and you can't open theirs.

Screenshot pending: The Inbox with folders on the left and the thread list on the right

Key conceptsCopy Anchor Link

Open the InboxCopy Anchor Link

• In the sidebar, open Connect and click Inbox. The address is /connect/gmail.
• For a quick look without leaving the page you're on, click the envelope button titled Mail in the top bar. It shows your latest threads with All and Unread tabs and a Mark all as read button.
• To keep your email in its own browser window, click the Open inbox in a separate window button (the arrow-out icon) at the top of the thread list.
• A project's own inbox is in the project workspace. It shows threads assigned to that project, with a Project / All Mail switch in the sidebar.

Everyone in your company can open Inbox. It needs no special permission because it only shows your own mailboxes.

Connect your Gmail or Outlook mailboxCopy Anchor Link

You can connect from two places: the Inbox itself (when nothing is connected yet), or your profile settings.

Screenshot pending: The Inbox before a mailbox is connected, showing Continue with Google and Continue with Microsoft

Connect both Gmail and OutlookCopy Anchor Link

You can connect one Gmail mailbox and one Outlook mailbox at the same time.

Screenshot pending: Email Signature settings with a connected Gmail card and an empty Outlook card

1. Open your profile settings and click Email Signature.
2. In Your mailboxes, find the empty card for the provider you haven't connected, and click Connect Gmail or Connect Outlook.
3. Sign in and approve, as for your first mailbox.

With two mailboxes connected:

• The Inbox shows Gmail and Outlook tabs above the thread list. Each tab shows only that mailbox. Cooper remembers the tab you used last.
• A new email is sent from the mailbox whose tab is open. The composer shows From and the address.
• A reply always goes out from the mailbox the thread arrived in.
• Each mailbox has its own display name, reply-to address and signature.

Choose your default mailboxCopy Anchor Link

When both mailboxes are connected, one is marked Default. Cooper uses the default mailbox for automatic emails it sends for you.

1. Open your profile settings and click Email Signature.
2. On the mailbox card you want, click Make default.

Cooper confirms with Gmail is now your default mailbox (or Outlook).

Check your mailbox connectionCopy Anchor Link

Each connected mailbox card in Your mailboxes shows:

Click Refresh to reload the connection status.

Read your emailCopy Anchor Link

1. Open Connect → Inbox.
2. Pick a folder in the left sidebar: Inbox, Starred, Sent, Drafts, Archive or Spam. The Inbox folder shows a count of unread threads.
3. In the Inbox folder, choose a category tab: Primary, Promotions or Updates.
4. Click a thread to open it. The thread opens on the right and is marked as read, both in Cooper and in your mailbox.

In an open thread:

• The newest message is on top and expanded. Click an older message to expand or collapse it.
• Each message shows the sender, the time and the first recipients (to …, +N more).
• The header shows the subject, the Email # reference, the number of messages, and the mailbox the thread belongs to.
• Remote images in the email are loaded through Cooper, so logos hosted on services such as Google Drive still display.
• Click the back arrow (Back to inbox) to close the thread.

The list shows 30 threads per page. Use the page numbers and the Previous page and Next page arrows at the bottom. Click Refresh to reload the list.

Filter the thread listCopy Anchor Link

Above the list, three tabs narrow what you see:

You can also filter by project. In the sidebar under Filter, click Project, search for a project, and pick it. A chip with the project name appears. Click the × on the chip to clear the filter.

Search your emailCopy Anchor Link

1. Click the Search mail box above the list, or press / on your keyboard.
2. Type a word or address. Cooper searches subjects, participants' email addresses and message previews.
3. Press Esc to leave the search box. Press Esc again, or click the clear button, to clear the search.

If nothing matches, the list shows No results found and Try a different search term.

Write a new emailCopy Anchor Link

Screenshot pending: The New Email composer with recipients, subject and message

The composer window has three buttons in its header: Minimize, Full screen (or Exit full screen), and Save & close.

Use an email templateCopy Anchor Link

1. In the composer, click the template button (Use an email template) in the bottom toolbar.
2. Search your templates and pick one. Templates come from your company's Template Hub.
3. The template fills in the subject and message.

A branded template keeps its layout and shows a preview with the note Template formatting is preserved. To edit the text freely without the branded layout, switch to plain text mode.

Save and continue draftsCopy Anchor Link

Cooper saves your email as a draft automatically while you write. The composer header shows Saving… and then Saved to Drafts.

• Click Save & close (the ×) to close the composer. The draft stays in Drafts.
• To continue a draft, open the Drafts folder and click it. It opens in the composer as Edit Draft. When you send it, the draft is removed.
• Drafts you saved directly in Gmail or Outlook also appear in Drafts.
• To throw an email away, click Discard (the trash icon) in the composer. This also deletes its saved draft.

Reply to an emailCopy Anchor Link

1. Open the thread.
2. At the bottom, click Reply to followed by the sender's name.
3. Write your reply. To copy in more people, click Cc and type addresses separated by commas.
4. Click Send reply, or press Ctrl+Enter.

Cooper confirms with Reply sent. The reply is sent from the mailbox the thread arrived in. If the latest message in the thread is one you sent, the reply goes to the people you wrote to, not to yourself.

The reply box writes plain text. To discard the reply, click Discard or press Esc.

Reply to everyoneCopy Anchor Link

1. Open the thread.
2. Click the Reply All button next to the reply box, or click Reply All inside an open reply.
3. Write your reply and click Send to all.

Reply All sends to the sender and everyone on the latest message's To and Cc lines. Your own addresses (Gmail and Outlook) are always left out.

Forward an emailCopy Anchor Link

1. Open the thread.
2. Click the Forward button next to the reply box.
3. A Forward window opens. The subject starts with Fwd: and the message contains a Forwarded message header and the text of the latest message.
4. Enter the recipients in To, or use Add From CRM to search people by name or email.
5. Click Send.

The forward contains the latest message's text. Attachments from the original message aren't added automatically. Attach them yourself if the recipient needs them.

Send and receive attachmentsCopy Anchor Link

Attachments you receive appear under each message as chips with the file name and size. Hover over a chip to see its buttons:

• Open in new tab — for PDFs, images, video, audio and text files.
• Download — for any file.

Images that are part of the email body are shown in place and aren't listed again as attachments.

Attachments you send can be added to new emails, replies and forwards with the paperclip button. Each file can be up to 20 MB. A file that's too large shows an error such as "plans.pdf" is too large (max 20 MB).

To store a thread's attachments in a project, link the thread to a task (see below). Cooper saves the attachments to the task.

Star, archive and trash threadsCopy Anchor Link

Star, archive, trash and read changes are applied in your Gmail or Outlook mailbox as well.

Cooper has no Trash folder, so you can't restore a trashed thread from Cooper.

Act on several threads at onceCopy Anchor Link

1. Tick the checkbox at the start of each thread you want. The bulk bar shows how many are selected. Use its checkbox to select or clear every thread on the page.
2. Click Mark read, Archive or Trash.

Cooper confirms, for example 3 threads archived.

To mark every unread thread on the current page as read, click the Mark all as read button (double check mark) at the top of the list.

Hold an email that needs attentionCopy Anchor Link

Use a hold when an email matters but you can't act on it yet — for example while you wait for information or a date.

A held thread shows a chip with the reason and its due state: a date, Due today, Overdue or No date. Overdue holds are shown in red.

• To see held threads, click Needs attention under Workflow in the sidebar. Click Overdue to see only overdue holds. Click the same item again to go back to the normal list.
• To change a hold, click the chip, or click Edit hold in the open thread, then click Update hold.
• To release a hold, hover over the chip in the open thread and click Release hold (the ×). Cooper confirms with Thread released from hold.
• Linking the thread to a task releases its hold automatically.

Link an email to a project taskCopy Anchor Link

Linking a thread to a task puts the conversation, and its attachments, on that task.

Screenshot pending: An open email thread with the toolbar of link, CRM, star, hold, archive and trash buttons

The thread then shows a green chip with the project and task names, and the toolbar button reads Linked to Task. Click the chip to change the link.

Assign an email to a projectCopy Anchor Link

You can assign a thread to a project without picking a task.

To remove the assignment, hover over the project chip in the open thread and click Remove project assignment. Cooper then asks whether to block the sender from being auto-routed to that project again. Click Block sender or Dismiss.

How Cooper assigns projects automaticallyCopy Anchor Link

When new email arrives, Cooper tries to assign it to a project:

1. Routing rules — rules you created (sender, domain or subject keyword) are checked first.
2. AI matching — if no rule decides, Cooper's AI compares the subject and preview with your company's active projects and assigns the best match when it's confident enough. AI matching only runs if your company has AI set up for email classification.

Threads assigned by AI show AI matched · N% confident when open. In the list, a lower-confidence match shows Review match · N% so you can check it. If the match is wrong, remove the project assignment and block the sender.

In a project's inbox, you can also click Not Project-Related on a thread. Cooper flags it, removes it from the project's list, and creates a sender rule so similar email isn't routed there again. Such threads show Not project-related.

Link an email to a human or organizationCopy Anchor Link

Cooper automatically links a thread to an existing human or organization when it recognizes the sender — for example by email address or company domain. It never creates contacts on its own.

If the sender isn't in Cooper yet, create the contact from the email:

1. Click the + (Create contact) next to the sender's name in the list, or in the open thread's toolbar.
2. Click Create human or Create org.

Cooper creates the record from the sender's details and links it to the thread. You see Human contact created or Organisation created.

If the thread is already linked, the toolbar shows CRM Linked and a chip with the organization and contact names. To change the link:

1. Click the chip or CRM Linked. The Link to CRM panel opens.
2. Search for a Contact and/or an Organization, or remove the current ones.
3. Click Save Link.

Copy the email numberCopy Anchor Link

Each thread has an Email # shown under the subject. Click it to copy the number to your clipboard. Cooper confirms with Email number copied. Use the number to refer to the email elsewhere in Cooper or when asking an AI agent about it.

Set your display name, reply-to address and signatureCopy Anchor Link

1. Open your profile settings and click Email Signature.
2. If you have Gmail and Outlook connected, pick the Gmail or Outlook tab.
3. Fill in the fields (see the table below).
4. Click Save Changes.

Add an inbox wallpaperCopy Anchor Link

You can put your own picture behind the Inbox.

1. Click Add inbox wallpaper (the picture icon) at the top of the thread list.
2. Choose a JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF or HEIC image up to 12 MB.

Cooper confirms with Inbox wallpaper updated. To change it, click Change inbox wallpaper. To remove it, click Remove inbox wallpaper (the × next to it). The wallpaper is only visible to you.

Disconnect a mailboxCopy Anchor Link

1. Open your profile settings and click Email Signature.
2. On the mailbox card, click Disconnect.
3. In Disconnect Gmail (or Disconnect Microsoft 365), read the warning — This will stop receiving inbound emails for this account. — and click Disconnect.

Cooper confirms with Gmail account disconnected (or Microsoft 365). If you had two mailboxes, the remaining one becomes your default.

Keyboard shortcutsCopy Anchor Link

Fields referenceCopy Anchor Link

New Email composer

Hold Email panel

Link to Project Task panel

PermissionsCopy Anchor Link

• Everyone can open Inbox and connect their own mailboxes. No role permission is needed.
• You only see your own mail. Inbox lists threads from mailboxes you connected. Opening, replying to or changing a thread that belongs to someone else's mailbox is refused, even by an admin.
• A company recruiting mailbox (connected in Recruiting settings) is never anyone's personal Inbox.

Tips and best practicesCopy Anchor Link

• Link vendor and client emails to the task they're about. Your team then sees the conversation and attachments on the task, not only in your mailbox.
• When you assign a thread to a project for the first time, create a routing rule. Use Subject contains a keyword for project codes, and This sender only for vendors who work on one project.
• Avoid Any @domain email rules for teammates or shared company domains — every email from that domain would be routed to the project.
• Use holds instead of leaving emails unread. Needs attention and Overdue give you a short, dated to-do list.
• If you connect both Gmail and Outlook, check the From line in the composer before you send.

TroubleshootingCopy Anchor Link

For AI agentsCopy Anchor Link

Agents work with the signed-in user's own connected mailboxes through the CooperBuild MCP server. An agent can never see another person's mailbox. These tools also require the Mail permission on the user's role.

Key rules:

• Send safety. send and reply default to mode: "preview", which never sends. Show the user the exact recipients, subject and body, get explicit approval, then repeat the same call with mode: "execute" and the returned confirmationToken. The token is single-use, expires after 10 minutes and is bound to the exact content.
• Two mailboxes. If send returns needsMailboxChoice, ask the user "Gmail or Outlook?" and preview again with mailbox set. Never choose for them. A reply always leaves from the thread's own mailbox.
• Holds. Use hold (with holdReason: waiting_on_info, waiting_on_date, needs_review, future_task, other) for important but not-yet-actionable email. Don't create a task only because a thread is held. link_task releases an active hold automatically.
• Ask before sharing. Before link_task, ask the user whether to log an activity on the task (shareActivity).

Common errors:

RelatedCopy Anchor Link

• Mail — the company register for incoming letters and packages, with owners and due dates. Not your personal email.
• Humans — contacts you can link to email threads.
• Organizations — companies you can link to email threads.
• Chat — internal messaging with your team.
• Phone — calls and text messages.