We shipped email-triggered duties — the biggest change to how specialists wake up since scheduled cron runs. You can also create schedule-less duties that run only from email, webhooks, or Run Now. The duty editor got a cleaner Runs when section, spam-folder watching for misfiled mail, and fixes that were blocking Save and Add new duty.
Duties can now wake up when the right email arrives
A nine-person agency runs an intake specialist. Every afternoon, a client emails a signed scope doc or a change request. The team used to forward it into chat, paste the subject line into a note, or wait for the next morning's batch duty to sweep the inbox. Half the time someone forgot. The other half the agent processed stale mail from yesterday because cron does not know what just landed.
That workflow changes this week. Open the Agents app, pick a specialist, open a duty, and expand the Runs when section. Add an email trigger: pick the connected Gmail or Outlook account, set sender rules (domain or address), subject includes, and optional subject excludes. When a matching message hits the mailbox, CloudAxis fires the duty within about a minute. The agent reads a small envelope file dropped at ~/files/email-trigger-inbox/, fetches the actual message with email_get, and acts on it — same specialist, same file paths, same skills as a scheduled run.
This is not an LLM guessing whether to wake up. Matching is deterministic server code: headers only, no bodies in the trigger path, OTP subjects masked before storage. Bursts of mail debounce into one run. Overlap guards stop a second fire while the duty is already running. Paused duties suppress pending triggers instead of firing behind your back. If you need a duty that never runs on cron — only when mail (or a webhook) arrives — pick the No schedule preset. Manual mode keeps the gateway job disabled for auto-fire; email and Run Now still work.
Why this matters inside CloudAxis: the product is built around specialists with duties, not one-off prompts. A Research agent drops CSVs at fixed paths; an Analysis agent reads them on Wednesday. Email triggers add a third wake-up signal beside cron and Run Now — reactive work without abandoning the persistent OS model. Connect your mailbox once in the Launchpad (same flow as our guide to connecting Gmail and other accounts), wire the trigger once, and the specialist behaves like an employee who checks their inbox instead of only showing up at 7am.
Edge cases we handled on purpose: enabling a trigger never replays your whole inbox — the watcher cursor starts at now. New triggers prefill subject excludes for verification codes and password resets so a bare from-domain rule does not waste runs on auth mail. You can also watch up to three extra folders per trigger, including Spam/Junk, because provider misfiles are real — platform mail that never hits INBOX would otherwise never fire. On mobile, the trigger editor lives inside the same duty sheet as schedules and run history from last week.
Next for this area: tighter links from a fired trigger straight into run history and the output file the duty wrote. For now, test your rules with the built-in dry run over recent mail before you rely on it for client intake.
Also shipped
- No-schedule duties. Create duties that run only via email trigger, webhook, or Run Now — the natural pairing for inbox-driven workflows.
- Spam and extra folder watching. Each email trigger can watch INBOX plus up to three additional folders so misfiled mail still wakes the duty.
- Duty editor cleanup. Decongested layout, working Save button, and a clearer Runs when section — fixes that were blocking real setups on the Agents tab.
- VPN reliability for browser agents. Sessions recreate when VPN intent mismatches; proxy-listed URLs route through residential VPN more consistently — fewer silent datacenter-price reads on monitoring duties.
- Pro and Max file limits doubled. Pro workspaces now hold 400 files (was 200); Max holds 2,000 (was 1,000) — more room for agent artifacts and pipeline handoffs.
- Files app save indicator. Clearer unsaved-state feedback when you edit agent CSVs or markdown in place — less risk of closing a tab before changes stick.
- Plan downgrade safety. Specialists over your new plan cap pause automatically instead of running in a broken over-limit state.
- Mobile home CTA. Clearer copy and a live Cloudia orb on the phone home screen — less jargon, faster path to hiring your first specialist.
What's next
We are wiring email-trigger fires into the same run-history panel you got last week — one tap from "duty started" to the output file. If you are new to scheduled work, the 24/7 scheduling guide still covers cron and file handoffs; add email triggers when reactive beats recurring.
Try it at app.cloudaxis.ai