Brendan
2.8 KiB
2.8 KiB
AI / Email Parsing Setup Assessment
This report assesses the Email Intake and AI parsing setup for SaaS Stage 1.
Current State
Email Intake exists under /enquiries/email-intake with backend routes under /api/email-intake. It supports:
- IMAP mailbox polling
- mailbox browser
- intake logs
- AI parsing/reparse
- trusted senders
- filters
- operational categories
- create enquiry from email
- link email to project/job/quote/enquiry
- apply project update
Required env vars in route map:
IMAP_HOSTIMAP_USERIMAP_PASSWORDOPENAI_API_KEY
Who Performs Parsing?
Current evidence indicates BoundHQ's platform performs parsing using server-side AI credentials, not customer-provided API keys. That is the correct Stage 1 model.
Customer API Keys
| Option | Stage 1 recommendation |
|---|---|
| BoundHQ-owned AI key | Use now |
| Customer-owned OpenAI key | Defer |
| Per-customer model/provider selection | Defer |
Customer-owned keys add support burden and do not move first-customer onboarding.
Setup Steps
- Confirm customer consent for mailbox connection and AI parsing.
- Create mailbox/app password or forwarding mailbox.
- Configure IMAP host/user/password for the tenant.
- Configure trusted sender/domain rules.
- Poll manually once.
- Review parsed logs.
- Create one enquiry from an email.
- Confirm bad/noisy messages can be ignored/filtered.
Privacy Considerations
- Emails may contain personal data, job details, addresses, quotes, and attachments.
- Parsed content must stay inside the customer's tenant.
- AI prompts/responses should avoid storing unnecessary sensitive data.
- Customer must know that AI parsing can make mistakes and requires review.
- The product needs a plain consent statement before enabling auto-polling.
Tenant Isolation Requirements
Before Stage 1 self-serve use, verify:
- intake logs include tenant/business scope
- settings and filters are tenant-specific
- mailbox credentials are not shared across businesses
- linked records cannot cross tenants
- AI parsing logs do not leak another tenant's content
Failure Modes
| Failure | Customer impact | Required behavior |
|---|---|---|
| IMAP login fails | No emails imported | Show clear setup error, no retry storm |
| OpenAI key missing | Emails not parsed | Queue/log with "AI unavailable" |
| AI parse wrong | Wrong enquiry details | Human review before commit |
| Duplicate email | Duplicate enquiry | Detect UID/message-id |
| Large attachment | Slow/fail processing | Keep email log, flag attachment issue |
| Tenant mismatch | Data leak | Block and alert |
Readiness Verdict
Email Intake is a strong Stage 1.5 differentiator. It should not block first customer launch. For the first customer, enable it only as a BoundHQ-assisted setup after core quote/job/invoice flow is working.