Helpful tips

Once you're running lots of automations across several addresses, the random part of an address (cc99fdc2@airbox.fyi) gets hard to tell apart. On Pro and Team you can add a readable prefix so each address says what it's for — ideas-cc99fdc2@airbox.fyi, work-189ab533@airbox.fyi. Set it in the inbox editor under Address prefix.

The prefix is purely a label — the unguessable part stays, so your address is exactly as secure as before. (Changing a prefix mints a new address, so the old one stops working.)

Typing a hashed address on a phone is painful and easy to get wrong. From each inbox in the dashboard, use Save as contact to download a contact card, or Email to me to send it to yourself and tap to add it on your phone. Then you just email the contact by name — “Ideas”, “Work” — instead of the raw address.

Combine this with prefixes (above): a contact named Ideas whose address starts with ideas- makes it obvious you're mailing the right place, even when autocomplete shows several Airbox contacts.

On iPhone, no “Create New Contact” option? Some mail apps (e.g. Gmail and Outlook for iOS) open the contact card but don't show an Add to Contacts button. Tap the small share button at the top of the card, choose Contacts in the share sheet, and you'll get the option to add it. (If Contacts isn't listed, use Save to Files, then open the .vcf from the Files app instead.) Apple documents the contact-import flow in Import contacts on iPhone; on Outlook, see Import vCards to Outlook contacts.

Instead of writing -repo=you/notes in every email, set a routing default on the inbox (in the editor, under Routing defaults): a GitHub/GitLab repo and folder, a Notion parent page, or a Slack channel. Every email to that address then goes there by default — and an explicit command in any one email still overrides it.

This pairs naturally with prefixes: an ideas-… address that defaults to you/notes at folder Writing turns “capture a book idea” into a one-line email.

Airbox is an email→AI router, not a coding agent — it doesn't automatically read AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, or any config file the way an IDE assistant might. It only reads what you ask it to. So if your repo has a notes-filing convention or house style, point at it explicitly:

Subject: @github read AGENTS.md and follow it, then file this idea

Two things make this reliable:

• Keep the file in the repo root (e.g. AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md). If it lives in a subfolder, give the path: read AI/AGENTS.md.
• Set a default repo on the connection or the inbox (above) so the AI knows which repo without you repeating -repo= each time.

For instructions you reuse a lot, a Context doc is even more reliable than a repo file — it's applied automatically on every email, with no extra round-trip to fetch it.

Airbox replies land in the same thread, and replying back continues it — the AI remembers the earlier instruction and its own answer, so you don't need to restate context. Ask a follow-up in plain language:

(reply to Airbox's email)

Can you find a link to the primary source?

Your reply's first line is the new instruction; the quoted thread below it is just context. You don't need to repeat the original @target or command.

For prompts you use often, save them once and call them with a symbol:

• +slug attaches a saved Context doc (a style guide, a filing convention) for that one email.
• $slug expands a saved command macro (Pro & Team) — a whole instruction behind a short name, e.g. $idea.

Similarly, you can also save common prompts in your phone's Notes app, a Google Doc, Notion, or wherever you save your text notes so you can easily reference, search, copy, and paste them.

For your security, Airbox only takes instructions from the subject, the first line of the body, or a (* … *) block at the top. Plain writing further down is treated as content to read, never as a command.

On a forwarded email the subject is the original email's subject, so put your instruction in a (* … *) block at the very top of the body instead. Add !noreply when you want Airbox to file or act on something silently with no reply.

• Command syntax cheat sheet
• Threading & reply-to-continue
• Context & Rules