Email should come with help. Help you can see.
Email is very good at one thing: delivering messages. Dealing with them was left to you. Sorting, answering, chasing, filing, spotting the fake ones. For a lot of people, that has quietly become a second job.
We don't think the answer is a chatbot in the corner, or an AI that sends things while you sleep. We think email should come with helpers who do the busywork in the open, show their working, and wait for your yes. Here's what that means, in twelve rules we build by.
Twelve rules we build by
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Nothing goes out without your yes.
Helpers draft. You decide. Every reply waits for you to read it, change it or send it, and there's a short undo after you do.
If you approve the same kind of reply again and again, you can let Quill send that kind on its own, topic by topic. It still holds anything it isn't sure of, and you can take that back any time.
Your yes →Quill: Your reply to Priya is ready. I used your quote from October 2. Send it?
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Show the working.
A draft you can't check is a draft you can't trust. Every draft lists what it used: your notes, your playbooks, the other person's own words. If it followed one of your playbooks, it says which. If a helper isn't sure, it says so.
Shows its working → -
Ask whose turn it is, not what's unread.
An inbox should answer one question: whose turn is it? Yours come first, each with a reason, like Draft ready, Mentioned you or Documents in. The rest is with a teammate, a helper or the other person, and you can see which.
Your turn → -
One number.
The only loud number in Rookery is how many things are your turn. Newsletters, receipts and bills don't get a badge. They wait on Today until you have a minute.
Today → -
Asking for things is work. Let a helper do it.
Writing the third “just checking in about those receipts” isn't email, it's a chore. Fetch asks for exactly what's needed, checks each file as it arrives, and reminds people kindly until it's all in. You send the request; Fetch keeps track of the rest.
Fetch chases it → -
No portal for the people you serve.
Your clients get a link, not an account. They open it on their phone, see your name and a checklist, and upload. No password, no app, no “forgot my login”.
Fetch chases it → -
New people wait at the door.
Turn on New senders, and someone writing to you for the first time waits outside until you say they can come in. One tap lets them in. One tap keeps them out for good. People you already write to never wait.
New senders → -
Pictures wait for you.
Lots of emails hide a tiny picture that tells the sender when you opened them. Rookery removes those every time and tells you how many it found. Other pictures stay hidden until you ask to see them. We never add trackers to the mail you send.
Pictures wait for you → -
Calm facts, not alarms.
When an email looks like a scam, Scout marks it so you can't miss it and says why, in plain words: “The address uses a 1 instead of an l.” “Replies would go to a different address.” No red capitals, no scare screens. Just the reasons, so you can decide. And Quill won't draft a reply to it.
Scout says why → -
Helpers can be fooled. So they can't do much harm.
Nobody can promise an AI will never be tricked by a cleverly written email. So we build as if it will be. Only people give the helpers instructions. Words inside an email are treated as something to read, never as orders. And a helper can only send on its own when plain checks pass that don't depend on the AI at all: a sender you know, no warnings, nothing odd in the links.
Your yes → -
Teach it once.
Write down how you like things done, in plain words: “Refunds within 30 days, full refund. Never promise a date for the money.” The helpers follow it, say which playbook they used, and every version is kept.
Teach it once → -
Your mail isn't for sale.
The people who use Rookery pay for it, and the prices are on the page. That's the whole business. Your mail and files are never sold, never used for ads and never used to train AI. Every action on a conversation, by a person or a helper, shows in its history with who did it.
Take everything with you whenever you like: your mail as standard files, your contacts, your files and your playbooks. Coming soon
Three more, for teams, trades and your own tools
What we won't do
- Send anything in your name that you didn't approve, or didn't choose to let a helper send.
- Put trackers in the mail you send.
- Sell your mail, show you ads, or train AI on your mail.
- Charge per email, per reply or per “resolution”. The helpers come with the plan.
- Make your clients create an account to send you a file.
- Hide what a helper did. If it acted, it's in the conversation's history, with its name.
The small print we're proud of
From $8 a month. Every plan includes the helpers. Every Feather is included from Pro. 14-day free trial, no card needed.
Scout: That's the whole list. The rest is just us keeping to it.
Get your evenings back from your inbox.
It takes ten seconds. We're letting people in a few at a time, so we can set each one up properly.
14-day free trial · no card needed · founding members get 50% off the first year