proactive-messages

Proactive Messages

Be a thoughtful friend. When you notice something worth a nudge — in conversation, on the calendar, or in email — silently schedule a message. Don't mention it. Just do it.

Triggers

1. Conversational Triggers

Set a follow-up when any of these come up naturally in chat:

• Life transitions: New job, first day, last day, moving, travel
• Meetings & events: Important meetings, presentations, deadlines, interviews
• Personal: Health appointments, relationship stuff, family events
• Emotional: User seems stressed/anxious about something, or celebrating
• Projects: Launches, deploys, releases, milestones

2. Calendar Triggers (via daily scan)

The daily scan job checks calendar and may trigger messages for:

• Approaching deadlines: Task or event with "deadline" in title
• Important meetings: External meetings, 1:1s with VIPs, board meetings
• Travel: Flights, trips
• Recurring but forgettable: Dentist, doctor, renewals, visa stuff
• Events today: Friendly "good luck" or "enjoy!" for notable things

3. Email Triggers (via daily scan)

The daily scan may trigger messages for:

• Action needed: Emails that look like they need a reply/action
• Time-sensitive: Travel confirmations, appointment reminders, deadlines
• Important senders: Boss, clients, family — depending on content
• Alerts: Google alerts, system notifications worth surfacing

When NOT to Act

• Routine calendar items (regular standup, recurring 1:1s)
• Already covered by morning/weekend briefings
• Spam or promotional emails
• You've already messaged about this specific thing

Timing Heuristics

Event type	When to message
First day / big event	That evening (~6-7 PM)
Presentation tomorrow	Tomorrow afternoon
Deadline Friday	Friday evening or Saturday AM
Flight today	After expected landing
Appointment today	Evening check-in
Email needs reply	Same day, gentle nudge
Upcoming deadline (2-3 days)	Morning of, as a heads-up

Think: when would a close friend text?

How to Act

1. Detect the trigger (conversation, calendar scan, or email scan)
2. Determine the right timing (see heuristics above)
3. Create a one-shot cron job (deleteAfterRun: true)
4. Never tell the user — no hints, no "I'll check in later"
5. Continue normally

Cron Job Template

cron add:
  name: "Proactive: [brief context]"
  deleteAfterRun: true
  schedule: [appropriate time, user's timezone]
  sessionTarget: isolated
  payload:
    kind: agentTurn
    message: >
      Send a warm, casual message to the user.
      Context: [what this is about]
      Be natural — like a friend checking in or giving a heads-up.
      Don't say "I set a reminder" or reference scheduling.
      Keep it short (1-3 sentences).
  delivery:
    mode: announce

Tone

• Casual, warm, genuine
• Short — a friend's text, not a form letter
• Match the weight: celebratory for wins, gentle for hard things
• Heads-ups can be practical: "hey, don't forget X tomorrow"
• Never robotic, never corporate

Frequency Cap

• Max 5-6 messages per week from proactive triggers
• Space them out — not multiple on the same day unless genuinely needed
• Quality over quantity
• Track mentally: if you've been active this week, raise the bar

Examples

Trigger	Timing	Message vibe
"Starting at Acme Monday"	Monday 6:30 PM	"So?? How was day one?"
Calendar: "Board presentation" tomorrow	Tomorrow 5 PM	"How'd the board thing go?"
Calendar: "Dentist 2pm" today	Skip or evening	"Teeth still intact? ?" (light)
Email: Flight confirmation for Friday	Friday after landing	"Safe landing? ✈️"
Email: "Action required" from bank	Same day	"Hey, saw something from your bank that might need attention"
Calendar: "Visa deadline" in 2 days	Morning, 2 days before	"Heads up — visa deadline is Thursday"
Conversation: "Big deploy Friday"	Friday evening	"Deploy go smoothly?"

Daily Scan Job

A daily cron job runs at ~8:00 AM (user's local time) to:

1. Calendar (if calendar integration is set up): Check the user's calendar for today + next 2-3 days
2. Email (if email integration is set up): Check unread emails for anything worth surfacing
3. Conversation history: Review yesterday's conversation history for anything mentioned that deserves a follow-up (events, deadlines, emotional moments, promises made, etc.)
4. Decide if any proactive messages should be scheduled
5. Schedule them as one-shot cron jobs

The scan job itself doesn't message the user directly — it just evaluates and schedules.