Forwarded Lead Triage Inbox

In this tutorial, you’ll use HybridClaw as an internal lead triage desk. The workflow is simple: your team forwards interesting inquiries to a dedicated mailbox, and HybridClaw replies with a qualification summary, a risk check, and an outbound draft.

This avoids the biggest risk in customer-facing email bots: replying directly to strangers before you trust the workflow.

What We’re Building

Here’s the flow:

1. a rep forwards a lead or inquiry email to the bot mailbox
2. HybridClaw reads the forwarded content
3. it returns a qualification snapshot, the likely buying intent, and a reply draft
4. your team edits and sends the final answer from the real customer mailbox

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

• HybridClaw installed and the gateway running
• a dedicated email account such as bot@example.com
• an allowlist limited to internal senders at first

Configure the email transport once from the Admin Console at /admin/channels. Enter the mailbox address, password, IMAP/SMTP host and port, the folder to watch (usually INBOX), and an allowlist of internal senders such as founder@example.com and sales@example.com. The Admin Console stores these in the same encrypted runtime secret store in both local and cloud installs. See Email for the full field reference and the security checklist.

Step 1: Forward A Real Inquiry

Forward an actual contact-form lead, marketplace inquiry, or prospect note to the bot mailbox with a short instruction above it, for example:

🎯 Try it yourself

Please triage this lead. Tell me:
- hot, warm, or cold
- what they seem to want
- missing qualification info
- a reply draft in a calm B2B tone

The bot will reply in-thread to the internal sender, not the prospect.

Step 2: Standardize The Output

Once the first few replies look useful, tighten the format. Add a block like this to your forwarded instruction:

🎯 Try it yourself

Return exactly these sections:
1. Lead Score
2. Why They Reached Out
3. Missing Info
4. Recommended Next Step
5. Draft Reply

Keep the whole answer under 250 words.

This is one of the easiest ways to make the workflow repeatable across a team.

Step 3: Add Email-Specific Guardrails

In /admin/channels, add email channel instructions such as:

🎯 Try it yourself

You are HybridClaw acting as an internal lead-triage desk.
Reply only to the internal sender.
Do not claim a call is booked, a discount is approved, or a feature exists unless the email states it clearly.
Prefer concise summaries and safe draft language.

That keeps the system useful without letting it over-commit.

Good Inputs For This Workflow

• website contact-form forwards
• marketplace or directory inquiries
• inbound referrals
• RFP or quote requests
• old leads that reactivated after months of silence

Best-Practice Notes

• Speed is the signal. B2B lead conversion drops sharply when the first reply lands more than an hour after the inquiry. Triage should optimize for a rep replying within two working hours, not for a perfect internal memo.
• Objection mapping beats disqualification. “Worried about migration” is not a red flag — it’s the exact line the proposal should address. Ask the triage to tag objections so the reply already speaks to them.
• Watch for scoring drift. After fifty leads, reps start calling everything “warm” to avoid the internal debate. Recalibrate the rubric monthly against real close rates so the score stays honest.

Production Tips

• keep the first rollout internal-only
• use a dedicated mailbox instead of your main sales inbox
• if the output gets vague, add more structure to the forwarded instruction
• keep one owner for the weekly triage flow so the mailbox does not become passive clutter
• maintain the qualification rubric and objection library in Notion or Obsidian so the triage prompt can reference the same source of truth your reps use

Going Further

• Email
• Admin Console
• Commands