Give your OpenClaw agent its own email address. Ask it to check email and reply to threads — from WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, or wherever your agent lives.
| Without Commune | With Commune |
|---|---|
| Agent can chat | Agent has its own inbox: assistant@yourdomain.commune.email |
| No email context | Agent reads, threads, searches your email |
| One-off messages | Full conversation threading with RFC 5322 compliance |
| No external comms | Agent emails people on your behalf, tracks replies |
flowchart LR
You["You\nWhatsApp / Telegram\n/ iMessage"] -->|"message"| OC["OpenClaw\n(Mac Mini / VPS)"]
OC --> LLM["Claude / GPT /\nLocal Model"]
LLM --> OC
OC <-->|"Commune SDK\n/ REST API"| Commune["Commune\nEmail"]
Commune <-->|"real email"| Email["Email\nInbox"]
Email -->|"new email arrives"| OC
flowchart TD
Customers["Customers\n(email)"] <-->|"email"| Commune["Commune\nEmail Infrastructure"]
Commune <-->|"webhook / poll"| OC["OpenClaw Agent\n(company server)"]
OC --> LLM["Claude / GPT"]
OC -->|"auto-reply"| Customers
OC -->|"notify team"| Slack["Slack / Discord\n(via OpenClaw)"]
Team["Your Team\n(WhatsApp / Slack)"] -->|"commands"| OC
OpenClaw manages your personal email inbox. You message your agent on WhatsApp, it checks email and replies on your behalf. You're in control — your agent is your proxy.
- "Check my email and tell me what's urgent"
- "Reply to Mom's email and say I'll call Sunday"
Setup guide for personal use →
OpenClaw handles customer-facing email. Customers email support@yourco.com, OpenClaw triages, drafts replies, escalates urgent issues to Slack, and keeps your team informed — without a human touching the queue first.
- Full inbox triage: classify, prioritize, respond
- Daily digest emails to management
This starter includes two OpenClaw skills:
| Skill | What it does | File |
|---|---|---|
commune-email |
Send, receive, search, and manage email threads | skills/commune-email/SKILL.md |
commune-agent-network |
Agent-to-agent task delegation via email addresses | skills/commune-agent-network/SKILL.md |
Each skill includes a companion Node.js CLI helper so your agent can shell out to perform operations without needing to construct raw HTTP requests.
Option 1: ClawHub (one command)
clawhub install shanjairaj7/communeThis installs all Commune skills — email and agent network — directly into your OpenClaw workspace.
Option 2: Manual install
# Clone and copy skills
git clone https://github.com/shanjai-raj/commune-openclaw-email-quickstart
cd commune-openclaw-email-quickstart
cp -r skills/commune-email ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/
cp -r skills/commune-agent-network ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/Then talk to your agent:
You: Check my email inbox and summarize what's new
Agent: [reads Commune inbox, summarizes threads]
You: Reply to Sarah's email about the contract and say we'll sign next week
Agent: [finds thread, sends reply via Commune]
| Category | What you say | What the agent does |
|---|---|---|
| Email triage | "Summarize my unread emails" | Lists threads, extracts key points |
| Email triage | "Which emails need a reply?" | Finds threads with last_direction: inbound |
| Email reading | "Read the email from Alex about the contract" | Semantic search + full thread view |
| Email sending | "Email Sarah the meeting notes from today" | Composes and sends via Commune |
| Email replying | "Reply to Mom and say I'll call Sunday" | Finds thread, replies with thread_id |
| Email search | "Find anything about the lease agreement" | Vector search across inbox |
| Email management | "Mark the billing thread as resolved" | PUT /v1/threads/:id/status |
| Email management | "Tag this as urgent" | POST /v1/threads/:id/tags |
| Automation | "Every morning summarize my inbox" | Recurring task via OpenClaw scheduler |
| Automation | "If I get an email from my bank, notify me on WhatsApp" | Event-driven agent behavior |
| Company | "How many support tickets came in today?" | Thread count from support inbox |
| Company | "Draft a reply to the refund request and show it to me first" | Draft workflow before sending |
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
COMMUNE_API_KEY |
Yes | Your Commune API key (comm_...) |
COMMUNE_INBOX_ID |
Recommended | Default inbox ID for email operations |
COMMUNE_INBOX_ADDRESS |
Recommended | Your full inbox address (e.g. me@domain.commune.email) |
See setup/README.md for step-by-step installation, inbox creation, troubleshooting, and USER.md/SOUL.md templates.
Commune provides real email inboxes via a REST API. Every inbox is RFC 5322 compliant — replies thread correctly in any email client. Built-in spam filtering and prompt injection detection protect your agent from malicious inbound content.
Base URL: https://api.commune.email
Auth: Authorization: Bearer $COMMUNE_API_KEY
OpenClaw is a self-hosted AI agent runner with 150k+ GitHub stars. It connects messaging apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, Slack, Discord) to LLMs (Claude, GPT, local models) and runs on a Mac Mini, VPS, or Raspberry Pi. Skills are markdown files that teach your agent new capabilities — this repo provides two.
openclaw-email/
├── README.md # This file
├── skills/
│ ├── commune-email/
│ │ ├── SKILL.md # Agent-readable email skill
│ │ └── commune.js # CLI helper for email operations
├── use-cases/
│ ├── personal-assistant/
│ │ └── README.md # Personal use guide + example prompts
│ └── company-assistant/
│ └── README.md # Company deployment patterns + SOUL.md templates
└── setup/
└── README.md # Step-by-step setup + troubleshooting