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Automation2026

Inbox Cleanup Automation

A daily job that clears junk from my inbox and never touches real mail

Results

  • The inbox is clear before I open it
  • Nothing important has been swept, because the guard makes it structurally impossible
  • Every action is reversible for 30 days

The Situation

  • Marketing blasts and recruiter auto-rejections buried the mail that mattered
  • Clearing it by hand every morning was the definition of repeat work
  • Any automation here has to be safe: deleting a real message is unforgivable

The System

  • A cron job that runs once a day and reads sender and subject only
  • An allow-list: it acts only on senders that match marketing or ATS rejections
  • A keep-guard that protects real people, financial, government, and booking mail
  • Trash and archive instead of delete, so every action is reversible

How it runs

A daily cron job. It only ever acts on senders that match the allow-list, and the keep-guard means real mail cannot be caught in the sweep.

Stack

PythonGmail APIcron

What's Next

  • Widen the allow-list only when a sender proves repeatedly safe
  • Report weekly on what it cleared

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