Email Manager Agent: Triage Your Inbox and Get Replies Drafted Automatically
Last updated: October 7, 2026
Watch: the Email Manager Agent in 4 minutes
A 4-minute walkthrough covering where to find the Email Manager Agent, how to turn it on, how labels, auto-drafts and skip inbox work, and how to clean up your existing inbox with a backfill.
Why use the Email Manager Agent
The Email Manager Agent is your CRED co-pilot for email. It reads every new inbound email, sorts it into the labels you choose, and drafts a reply in your own tone when one is needed. The labels and drafts appear directly in Gmail or Outlook, so there's no new inbox to learn.
Use it when you want to:
Open your inbox and see straight away which emails actually need a reply from you
Find a reply already drafted in your Drafts folder, written in your voice, ready to review and send
Keep newsletters, notifications and CC'd threads out of your inbox without writing filters
Tidy up a messy inbox in one go, not one email at a time
Spend your email time on deals and customers rather than on sorting mail
Where to find it
In the sidebar, open Actions → Email Manager Agent.
You can also reach it from Settings → Email. Both open the Email Settings page, where the agent appears in the AI Communication Agent section.
The Email Manager Agent is being rolled out workspace by workspace. If you don't see it in your sidebar, contact your CRED account manager.
How to set it up
Prerequisites:
A Gmail or Microsoft Outlook mailbox connected to CRED. You can connect one under Linked Accounts on the Email Settings page (see CRED Email Integration).
1. Turn on the agent
On the Email Settings page, go to AI Communication Agent and switch on Run the AI agent on incoming email. From this point, every new inbound email is classified and labelled in your mailbox.
If you have more than one connected mailbox, tick the ones the agent should work on. It only classifies and drafts on the mailboxes you tick.
2. Review your labels
When you first turn on the agent, it adds four labels to your mailbox. The number at the start of each name keeps them in order in Gmail and Outlook.
Label | What lands here | Auto-draft | Skip inbox |
|---|---|---|---|
1: to respond | Emails from a real person that need a reply from you, such as colleagues, customers and deal counterparts | On | Off |
2: FYI | Emails written by a person that don't need a reply, such as status updates and cold outreach | Off | On |
3: comment | Threads you're CC'd or looped into just to keep you informed | Off | On |
4: notification | Automated, transactional and no-reply emails | Off | On |
Each label has two switches:
Auto-draft: when this label is applied, the agent writes a reply draft and saves it to your mailbox's Drafts folder.
Skip inbox: the agent applies the label and moves the email out of your main inbox view.
3. Add or edit labels (optional)
Click Add label to create your own label, for example "Sales", "Support" or "Product feedback". You can also click the edit icon on any existing label. Give each label:
A Name (up to 64 characters). If your mailbox already has a label or folder with that name, the agent uses it rather than creating a duplicate.
A Description of what belongs there. This is required, because the agent reads it to decide whether an email matches, so the clearer it is the better the sorting.
Click Save when you're done. You can have up to 25 labels. Emails that don't fit any label go to Uncategorized.
💡 Tip: Write descriptions the way you'd brief an assistant: "Emails from existing customers asking about renewals or pricing" sorts far better than "Customers".
4. Give the agent instructions (optional)
The agent drafts replies in your own tone, which it learns from emails you've sent. To steer it, add a line in the Instructions card. For example: "Direct, lowercase, no exclamation marks. Sign off with just my first name." Click Save. Your instructions take priority over the tone it picks up from your sent emails.
5. Backfill your existing inbox (recommended)
New emails are handled automatically, but older ones aren't. To sort the emails already in your inbox, go to Backfill existing emails:
Under How many emails, choose Entire inbox, a set batch (from 200 emails to 10,000 emails), or Custom… for any number up to 50,000.
Under Mode, choose Classify only to apply labels, or Classify and draft replies to also create drafts for labels that have auto-draft switched on. We recommend Classify and draft replies.
Click Start backfill, then confirm.
The backfill runs in the background. It can take a few minutes for a small batch or several hours for a large inbox, and you can leave the page while it runs. You'll get a notification and an email when it's finished.
💡 Tip: Changed your labels after a backfill? Turn on Re-classify emails already labeled by the agent and run the backfill again to re-sort those emails with your new setup.
6. Confirm it worked
Open your mailbox:
Gmail: your emails carry the new labels, and anything in a skip-inbox label is no longer in your inbox.
Outlook: emails are filed into folders with the same names as your labels.
For emails labelled 1: to respond, check your Drafts folder. A threaded reply should be waiting for you to review and send.
Credits
Action | Credit cost |
|---|---|
Classifying and labelling new inbound emails | Free |
Drafting replies | Free |
Backfilling your existing inbox | Free |
The Email Manager Agent doesn't use any credits at the moment. If that ever changes, the pricing will be shown on the Email Settings page before you're charged.
Full breakdown: credit consumption table · FAQs (Credits)
Permissions
Every role, Admin or Member, can turn on the Email Manager Agent for their own mailbox once it's available in your workspace.
The agent is personal. Your labels, instructions and on/off setting apply only to your own mailbox, and nobody else in your workspace can turn it on for you or change your setup.
Separately, you can let a teammate send emails and sequences on your behalf using Grant access to your account on the same Email Settings page. This lets them send as you but not read your emails.
More on roles: CRED Role Overview: Admin & Member
Data privacy
The agent reads the sender, subject and body of new inbound emails in the mailboxes you've ticked. It never processes emails you've sent, and a backfill reads only your Inbox folder, not Sent, Archive or Spam.
Email content is processed by an AI model only to choose a label and, where auto-draft is on, to write a reply. Email content is treated as data, so instructions hidden inside an email can't change what the agent does.
The agent never sends an email. Every reply is saved as a draft for you to review, edit and send yourself.
Because the agent processes personal data in your emails (names and email addresses), it's covered by CRED's data processing commitments in the same way as the rest of your connected mailbox.
Details: GDPR & Data Privacy in CRED
FAQs
Does the Email Manager Agent use credits?
No. Classifying emails, drafting replies and backfilling your inbox are all free at the moment.
Why don't I see Email Manager Agent in my sidebar?
The agent is being rolled out workspace by workspace, so it may not be turned on for your workspace yet. Contact your CRED account manager. If you can see the page but the switch is greyed out, you need to connect a Gmail or Outlook mailbox under Linked Accounts first.
Will the agent send emails without me?
No. It only creates drafts in your mailbox's Drafts folder. Nothing is sent until you send it.
Which email providers are supported?
Gmail (including Google Workspace) and Microsoft Outlook (including Microsoft 365). In Gmail the agent applies labels. In Outlook it files emails into folders with the same names.
What happens to my labels and drafts if I turn the agent off?
New emails stop being processed, but everything the agent has already done stays in place. Labels stay on your emails and drafts stay in your Drafts folder. Deleting a label in CRED doesn't remove it from emails that already have it.
An email ended up in the wrong label. How do I improve the sorting?
Edit that label's Description to say more precisely what belongs there and what doesn't. The agent sorts emails using these descriptions. To re-sort older emails, run a backfill with Re-classify emails already labeled by the agent switched on.
How long does a backfill take?
Anything from a few minutes for a small batch to several hours for a large inbox. It runs in the background, and you'll get a notification and an email when it's done.