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Every 10 minutes

Turn emails that ask for something into Airtable tasks

Emails that ask you to do something become tasks in Airtable, with a clear title, a due date and a priority.

Runs
Every 10 minutes
Apps
Airtable, Gmail
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Gmail gmail.readonly; Airtable write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: check my Gmail every 10 minutes; if an email asks me to do something, create a task in Airtable with a title, due date and priority.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

An office manager's inbox is where most of her work arrives: a supplier needs a form signed by Friday, a colleague asks for a room booking, the accountant wants last month's receipts. The requests are mixed in with newsletters and FYIs, and the ones that slip are the ones that cost money.

This automation reads new email, recognises the ones that ask for action, and adds them to your Airtable task table with a short title, a due date when one is mentioned, and a priority. Your task list fills itself from the inbox.

What you get out of it

  • Requests stop getting buried

    A request that lands in a busy afternoon is captured as a task even if the email is scrolled past and forgotten.

  • Due dates are not left in the text

    Deadlines written as 'by Friday' or 'end of month' become real dates on the task, so they can be sorted and reminded.

  • One list for everything

    Tasks from email sit next to tasks you add yourself in Airtable, so planning the day happens in one place.

  • Only actionable emails become tasks

    Newsletters, receipts and FYIs are left alone, so the task list does not fill with noise.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every 10 minutes ClickRuntime checks your Gmail for new emails in your inbox.

  2. Promotions and automated messages are skipped, and emails already checked are never checked again.

  3. AI decides whether each email asks you to do something, and if so writes a short title, a due date and a priority.

  4. A new task is added to your Airtable table with a link back to the email.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Airtable
  • Connect Google through your own Google app (a one-time, 10-minute setup), so it works with your own Gmail

What you get

RunsEvery 10 minutes
Turn emails that ask for something into Airtable taskstoday, 9:00Succeeded
Airtable · TasksNew task: Sign Acme supplier onboarding form · Due 24 Oct · High

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Airtable and Gmail steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
emails_into_ai_extracted_tasks_in_airtable.pyexample
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, ai, state, report_fetched
AIRTABLE_URL = "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/Tasks"
SCHEMA = {"type": "object", "properties": {"is_task": {"type": "boolean"}, "title": {"type": "string"},
          "due": {"type": "string"}, "priority": {"type": "string", "enum": ["High", "Medium", "Low"]}}}

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    gmail = build("gmail", "v1", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False)
    seen = set(state.get("seen") or [])
    msgs = [m for m in gmail.users().messages().list(userId="me", q="in:inbox category:primary newer_than:1d")
            .execute().get("messages", []) if m["id"] not in seen]
    report_fetched(len(msgs))
    if not msgs:
        return {"tasks": 0}
    created = []
    for m in msgs:
        msg = gmail.users().messages().get(userId="me", id=m["id"], format="metadata").execute()
        out = ai.generate(f"Does this email ask me to do something? Due date as YYYY-MM-DD or empty.\n{msg['snippet']}",
                          json_schema=SCHEMA, max_output_tokens=120).json
        if out.get("is_task"):
            created.append({"fields": {"Title": out["title"], "Due": out.get("due") or None, "Priority": out["priority"],
                                       "Email": f"https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/{m['id']}"}})
        seen.add(m["id"])
    for i in range(0, len(created), 10):
        http.post(AIRTABLE_URL, headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.secret('AIRTABLE_API_KEY')}"},
                  json={"records": created[i:i + 10], "typecast": True})
    state.set("seen", list(seen)[-1000:])
    return {"tasks": len(created)}

FAQ

Common questions

How does it decide an email is a request?
AI reads the subject and the start of the message and decides whether it asks you to do something. Promotions and automated mail are filtered out before that.
What if no due date is mentioned?
The due date is left empty, and the priority reflects how urgent the email sounds, so you can set a date yourself when you plan.
Does the task link back to the email?
Yes. Each task includes the sender and a link to open the original email in Gmail.
What permissions does it need?
Gmail gmail.readonly; Airtable write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Turn emails that ask for something into Airtable tasks” from your assistant

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