130 Hours a Year: A Claude Code Skill for Email Triage

I reckon about half an hour a day goes on email. That's 130 hours over 260 workdays, or $13,000 at $100 an hour.

❓ What does a Claude Code skill for email triage do?

Gmail already puts promotions and social stuff in their own tabs, so I'd only bother with Primary.

Claude Code can reach Gmail through an MCP connector, or you can point the skill at a folder of saved messages.

📊 What is your inbox worth over 260 workdays?

🧮 Work out your own number

You'll probably have to guess the minutes, I did. Reading through the sorted list takes a while too, so I put 10 in for that.

📈 What I can show you so far

The only email numbers I have are from 14 September, when I sent 96 and 93 were delivered. I couldn't see who opened any of them.

⏰ Can it run without you?

Yes, claude -p runs Claude Code without the chat window, and you can put /triage in the prompt. Point a scheduled task at that and the sorted list is there when you sit down.

This is the line the scheduled task would run:

cd ~/mail && claude -p "/triage ./inbox" --tools "Read" --disallowedTools "mcp__*" > triage.txt

I'd keep it to drafts, never send, because a wrong reply to a client costs more than a slow one. There's more on leaving a chore running in whether Claude Code can run a chore without you watching.

⚖️ When it's worth building

It suits mail that's the same few things most days. I wouldn't bother if every reply needs you to think.

💵 What does one cost?

You can write it yourself for free with our step-by-step skill guide. For a rough feel first, see how many hours a Claude Code skill saves.

Or I build it for a fixed $250, and you agree in writing what it does before I start: get a custom Claude Code skill built.

• A skill is a SKILL.md folder, can run scripts, starts with /name: Claude Code docs, code.claude.com/docs/en/skills ("Skills can bundle and run scripts in any language"; "by typing / followed by the skill name"), fetched 2026-10-05.
• claude -p runs it without the chat window, /skill-name works in the prompt: code.claude.com/docs/en/headless ("Add the -p (or --print) flag to any claude command to run it non-interactively"; "Include /skill-name in the prompt string and Claude Code expands it before running"), fetched 2026-10-05.
• The scheduled line's limits: code.claude.com/docs/en/cli-reference (--tools: "Restrict which built-in tools Claude can use"; "The flag doesn't affect MCP tools; to deny those too, use --disallowedTools "mcp__*"") and code.claude.com/docs/en/permissions (file reads need no approval "within the working directory"), fetched 2026-10-22.
• Claude Code reaches Gmail through an MCP connector: code.claude.com/docs/en/mcp ("Claude Code can connect to hundreds of external tools and data sources through the Model Context Protocol (MCP)"; its example prompt "Create Gmail drafts inviting these 10 users to a feedback session about the new feature."), fetched 2026-10-17.
• Gmail sorts mail into tabs: Gmail Help, support.google.com/mail/answer/3094499 ("Gmail automatically sorts your emails into these categories"; Promotions is "Deals, offers, and other promotional emails", Social is "Messages from social networks and media-sharing sites"), fetched 2026-10-17.
• 96 sent on 14 September, 93 delivered, opens not visible: Godmode's own send record for that day (96 recipients: 93 delivered, 1 bounced, 1 suppressed, 1 test address; open tracking was not capturing events, so opens were not visible).
• The reviews in the offer box are of the free skill, not the build service: the note in the offer box below ("Those are reviews of the free Godmode skill and a label-blind A/B review of its output, not of this build service").
• $250 fixed: the custom build page.
• Every other figure: arithmetic on example numbers you can swap for your own (hours x rate x 260 workdays, 5 days x 52 weeks), not survey data.

Related: a Claude Code skill for weekly reporting and a Claude Code skill for invoice chasing.