Local-first Gmail helper • Anti-inbox brief

SignalBrief

Catch what matters. Skip the inbox.

SignalBrief surfaces work, money, family, and opportunity signals hiding inside personal email — without making Gmail the place you have to live.

top 3 total priority matrix clear persists no Gmail mutation

The Problem

Personal email is still where important things leak through: job leads, client asks, family logistics, school forms, insurance notices, payment risks, referrals, and direct requests. The cost is not just missing something. The cost is getting pulled into the inbox every time you check.

Work

Referrals, client requests, recruiting, consulting, and business opportunities.

Finance

Bills, payment risk, insurance, mortgage, premium, penalty, and account notices.

Family

School, camp, appointments, pickup changes, permission forms, and schedules.

Personal

Direct asks from people who know you, without burying you in low-value noise.

How It Works

SignalBrief is built as a small, ruthless decision layer over visible Gmail rows. It is not a second inbox.

1

Scan

The extension reads visible inbox rows and sends them to the local backend.

2

Classify

Messages are tagged into Personal, Business, Family, and Finance lanes.

3

Rank

A priority matrix boosts consequence-bearing senders, domains, and phrases.

4

Brief

The popup returns at most three active signals with reasons and source actions.

Product rule: clearing an item should not create an inbox treadmill. Clear from Brief removes the item, remembers the dismissal, and does not auto-fill the empty slot.

SignalBrief in Action

The current prototype is intentionally simple: a Chrome extension popup, a local Flask backend, and a narrow brief that keeps the user out of inbox drift.

SignalBrief loaded as a local Chrome extension
SignalBrief runs as a local Chrome extension pointed at the project’s extension folder.
SignalBrief popup ready state with category filters
Category filters let the user choose which lanes matter right now before generating the brief.
SignalBrief popup showing top three signals over Gmail
The brief returns a small set of active signals with categories, reasons, and Clear from Brief.

The Priority Matrix

A configurable signal table helps SignalBrief fit different users without silently learning or changing rules behind their back.

Lane What it catches Priority escalators
Business Work, job, client, broker, consulting, referral, and opportunity messages. Priority senders, domains, phrases like opportunity, interview, referral, contract.
Finance Money risk, bills, insurance, mortgage, subscriptions, fees, and payment notices. Payment failed, overdue, premium due, final notice, penalty, sender/domain boosts.
Family School, camp, medical, coaches, appointments, forms, pickup, and schedule issues. Names, organizations, and phrases that indicate direct household logistics.
Personal Direct human asks and personal obligations that are easy to miss. Trusted senders and phrases like call me, need your help, can you, let me know.

Built to Stay Small

SignalBrief follows the same pattern as the workshop tools behind BasisBridge and SessionPeak: a narrow local utility, a clear proof path, and no hidden authority jump.

No Gmail mutation

No delete, archive, mark read/unread, label, send, or auto-reply behavior.

Local proof first

Backend tests, popup checks, and manual rehearsal before broader release work.

User-tuned, not silent

The settings table lets users choose priority signals. No automatic rule promotion.

Lane A: backend category matrix and top-three contract.
Lane B: popup filters and persistent clear.
Lane C: Settings Lite priority matrix editing.
Lane D: manual extension rehearsal and V2 handoff.

Current Prototype Status

V2 is ready for operator walkthrough. The next small fix pack is known: de-dupe duplicate/near-duplicate signals and suppress zero-score/no-reason items.

SignalBrief is a helper, not a full inbox review. For best results, still glance at your first page of email and ask trusted senders to mark truly urgent messages clearly.

Prototype posture: local demo, narrow Gmail helper, no external AI calls, no Gmail writes.

Inquire

Interested in testing SignalBrief, adapting the anti-inbox pattern, or discussing a narrow workflow tool for messy personal-email obligations? Share the use case and the kind of signals you cannot afford to miss.

This form uses the same lightweight inquiry pattern as the model sites and can be swapped for another handler before publishing.