Daily

Get follow-up drafts for emails with no reply

When someone hasn't answered your email in 3 days, a polite follow-up draft is waiting in the thread.

Runs: Daily
Apps: Gmail
AI: Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access: read+write (gmail.compose + read)

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every morning, find emails I sent 3 to 14 days ago that got no reply, and create a short polite follow-up draft in each thread. Don't send them.

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

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

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Sending a proposal, an invoice or an introduction is easy, and then nothing comes back. The recipient was busy, the email slid down their inbox and a deal that was one nudge from closing quietly dies. Most people intend to follow up, but it requires remembering which of last week's thirty sent messages deserved a second try, and writing an awkward note each time.

Each day, messages you sent between 3 and 14 days ago are listed, and their threads are checked so any that already have a later reply are skipped. For the rest, ClickRuntime's built-in AI writes a short, polite follow-up and saves it as a draft in the same thread. A record prevents the same thread getting two nudges.

Salespeople, recruiters, freelancers and founders who chase quotes and replies find it especially valuable.

What you get out of it

Deals stop dying from silence
A gentle second message is often all that separates a lost quote from a signed one, and having it ready means it actually gets sent. Persistence is polite when it is brief and timely.
You only chase threads that need it
Conversations where the other person replied are filtered out, so your drafts folder holds only real follow-ups and never a nudge to someone who already answered. That keeps follow-ups relevant and spares recipients any irritation.
Writing the awkward note is done
The draft already has a polite, specific tone, so what used to be a task you avoided becomes a quick read and a click. Many people avoid chasing simply because they dislike writing the message.
Nothing relies on your memory
The check runs daily regardless of how busy the week is, so a message you sent before a holiday is chased when you return and not forgotten. Consistency is exactly what a busy person cannot easily maintain alone.
Drafts, not sent mail
You see and approve every follow-up, which prevents a clumsy nudge going to a contact who is annoyed or whose situation you know changed. Control stays with you on every contact.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every day ClickRuntime looks at emails you sent between 3 and 14 days ago.
It skips any conversation where the other person has already replied, and any it has already followed up.
For the rest, AI writes a short, polite follow-up.
The follow-up is saved as a draft in the same Gmail conversation, ready for you to check and send.

Before it runs live

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

What you get

RunsDaily

Get follow-up drafts for emails with no replytoday, 9:00Succeeded

Gmail · DraftsRe: Proposal for Northwind Hi Casey, just checking you received the proposal last week. Happy to walk through it on a quick call.

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

Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
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 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.

follow_up_reminders_for_unanswered_sent_mail.pyexample

from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
import base64
from email.message import EmailMessage
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, state, ai

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    gmail = build("gmail", "v1", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False)
    sent = gmail.users().messages().list(userId="me", q="in:sent older_than:3d newer_than:14d").execute().get("messages", [])
    done = set(state.get("followed_up") or [])
    created = 0
    for thread_id in {m["threadId"] for m in sent} - done:
        thread = gmail.users().threads().get(userId="me", id=thread_id, format="metadata",
                                             metadataHeaders=["To", "Subject", "Message-ID"]).execute()
        last = thread["messages"][-1]
        if "SENT" not in last["labelIds"]:
            continue  # they replied
        h = {x["name"]: x["value"] for x in last["payload"]["headers"]}
        text = ai.generate(f"Write a two-sentence polite follow-up to this email I sent:\n{last['snippet']}",
                           max_output_tokens=120).text
        msg = EmailMessage()
        msg["To"], msg["Subject"] = h["To"], "Re: " + h["Subject"]
        msg["In-Reply-To"] = msg["References"] = h.get("Message-ID", "")
        msg.set_content(text)
        gmail.users().drafts().create(userId="me", body={"message": {
            "raw": base64.urlsafe_b64encode(msg.as_bytes()).decode(), "threadId": thread_id}}).execute()
        done.add(thread_id)
        created += 1
    state.set("followed_up", sorted(done)[-1000:])
    return {"drafts": created}

FAQ

Common questions

How does it know whether someone has replied?

It reads each thread and checks whether any message arrived after yours from another person. If so, the thread is skipped. Auto-replies such as out-of-office notes may count as replies, depending on how you want to treat them.

Will the same thread get several follow-ups?

No. Once a draft has been created for a thread it is recorded, so later days do not create another. If you want a second, firmer reminder after another week, that can be added as a separate step.

Can I limit it to certain emails?

Yes. Narrow the search to a label such as Proposals, to particular recipients or to emails with a certain phrase in the subject, so personal messages or casual notes never receive a business nudge. You can also exclude certain contacts.

What permissions does it need?

read+write (gmail.compose + read). 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 runs (daily). Checks that find nothing to do 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.

On a scheduleAI