Ask Rookery a question about your mail

Ask Rookery answers questions about your mail in plain words: "What did we quote Lumen?", "When did Dana last pay?", "What's still open with Northwind?". Every answer comes with numbered sources, and each number opens the exact email, note, file or Ask it came from.

Ask a question

1. Press ⌘K (or Ctrl+K) and type your question. When it reads like a question, the first row is Ask Rookery: "…".
2. Press Enter on that row. The answer appears in the same box, a sentence at a time as it's written, usually starting within a couple of seconds. Each sentence is checked against its sources before it shows. The sources list and the buttons appear when it's done. Press Tab on the row instead to search your mail for the words.
3. Click a number to open its source. Back returns to the list, and stops an answer that's still being written.

If an answer stops partway (a dropped connection, say), you keep the sentences already shown, with The answer stopped and Ask again. An answer that stopped isn't kept in your questions. Screen readers hear the finished answer once, not each sentence as it arrives.

You can also ask:

• On a person's or company's page: the Ask about Dana box answers from mail with them only (everyone at the company, on a company page). Try the suggestions, like Last payment or Summarise this month.
• Beside a conversation: click Ask about this, or press ⌥A (Alt+A). It answers from that conversation; tick Search all mail to look further.

What the answer can and can't do

• It only uses mail you can see. Other people's private inboxes are never searched for you, and your private inbox is never searched for anyone else. Mail Scout is holding, new senders you haven't let in and blocked senders are left out too.
• It doesn't guess. When nothing answers the question, it says Nothing in your mail answers that, with what it searched and a few emails that might help.
• Every fact has a source. A sentence whose number, date or amount isn't in the email it cites is removed before you see it. When two emails disagree, it says so.
• It never acts. Draft a reply from this opens your reply with Quill's brief filled in from the answer; you start Quill, change the words, and send as usual. If the answer used your private inbox and the reply goes to a team conversation, Rookery warns you first, because teammates will see the draft.
• Your questions are yours. Each person's last 50 questions are kept for 30 days, so ⌘K can show them again. Nobody else sees them, not even owners. Forget this question removes one.

Turn it on

Owners and admins turn it on in Settings → Helpers → Ask Rookery. Rookery then reads the mail already in your workspace, newest first; answers work while it reads, and the card shows how far back it knows your mail. Answers are written by a model running on Cloudflare, even when Quill may use another provider.