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Every 5 minutes

Send support emails to your team in Slack

Every new support email is summarised with a priority and posted to your support channel.

Runs
Every 5 minutes
Apps
Gmail, Slack
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Gmail gmail.modify; Slack chat:write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every 5 minutes, take new emails sent to support@, summarise each one with a priority and topic, post it to #support and label it in Gmail.

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

A support inbox holds a mix of emergencies and everyday questions, and they look identical in a list of subject lines. A customer whose checkout is broken waits behind three password questions and a newsletter reply. The person watching the inbox has to open each message to judge urgency, and when that person is away, nobody looks at all, so the most serious message may wait longest.

Every 5 minutes new support emails are read, and the built-in AI in ClickRuntime produces a short summary and a priority for each. The summary and priority are posted in the support channel in Slack, and the email is labeled in Gmail, so the team can start with whatever matters most.

Customer support teams, small SaaS companies and agencies with a shared support address will see the most benefit.

What you get out of it

  • Emergencies jump the queue

    A priority beside each message means a broken checkout or data loss is handled first, even if it arrived behind a dozen routine questions. Fixing the biggest problems first limits the damage and the number of angry follow-up emails.

  • The team shares one view of support

    Because messages appear in a channel, coverage does not depend on one person watching the inbox, and colleagues can claim an email by replying in the thread. Nothing is missed when somebody is out sick or on leave.

  • Summaries cut reading time

    Knowing the gist of an email before opening it helps an agent choose what to handle next and brings the right context to the reply. Replies start from understanding rather than from a cold read of a long thread.

  • Gmail labels keep the mailbox organized

    Labels applied at the same time mean the inbox itself reflects priority, so searching later for all urgent emails from last month is quick and reliable. Reporting on volume by type becomes straightforward too.

  • Fewer customers feel ignored

    Quicker first responses reduce repeat emails and angry follow-ups, which cuts the number of messages the team has to read in the first place. The team ends up with fewer tickets to chase at the end of the day.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every 5 minutes, ClickRuntime checks Gmail for new emails sent to your support address, skipping any it has already handled.

  2. AI reads each email, gives it a priority and topic, and writes a one-line summary.

  3. The summary is posted to your #support Slack channel, such as "[HIGH] Login from ops@northwind.example: Whole team locked out".

  4. The email is labelled in Gmail so you can see it has been triaged.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google through your own Google app (a one-time, 10-minute setup), so it works with your own Gmail
  • Connect Slack, then invite the app to the channel (type /invite @ClickRuntime there)

What you get

RunsEvery 5 minutes
Send support emails to your team in Slacktoday, 9:00Succeeded
Slack · #support[HIGH] Login from ops@northwind.example: Whole team locked out after password reset, since 9am

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 Google Sheets
  • Combine it with other Gmail and Slack 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.
support_emails_turned_into_slack_alerts.pyexample
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, state, ai, notify, report_fetched

@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 = gmail.users().messages().list(userId="me", q="to:support@ newer_than:1d", maxResults=25).execute().get("messages", [])
    new = [m for m in msgs if m["id"] not in seen]
    report_fetched(len(new))
    if not new:
        return {"new": 0}
    labels = {l["name"]: l["id"] for l in gmail.users().labels().list(userId="me").execute()["labels"]}
    for m in new:
        msg = gmail.users().messages().get(userId="me", id=m["id"], format="metadata", metadataHeaders=["From", "Subject"]).execute()
        h = {x["name"]: x["value"] for x in msg["payload"]["headers"]}
        r = ai.generate(f"Subject: {h.get('Subject')}\n{msg['snippet']}", max_output_tokens=80,
                        json_schema={"type": "object", "properties": {"priority": {"enum": ["high", "medium", "low"]},
                                     "topic": {"type": "string"}, "summary": {"type": "string"}}}).json
        notify.slack(f"[{r['priority'].upper()}] {r['topic']} from {h.get('From')}: {r['summary']}", channel="#support")
        label = labels.get(f"support/{r['priority']}")
        if label:
            gmail.users().messages().modify(userId="me", id=m["id"], body={"addLabelIds": [label]}).execute()
    state.set("seen", [m["id"] for m in msgs])
    return {"processed": len(new)}

FAQ

Common questions

How is the priority decided?
The AI reads the message and rates urgency using rules you describe, for example outages, payment failures and cancellations as high. You can tune the wording so it matches how your team defines urgent. Examples help the AI match your standards.
Can it handle emails in other languages?
Summaries and priority work on many languages, and the summary can be written in your team's language. Results for less common languages may be less precise, so spot check a few messages when you begin.
Is the customer's email shown in full in Slack?
Only the summary, sender and a link to the email are posted, not the full message. Link access depends on who in your workspace can open the shared Gmail account, so keep access aligned with your team.
What permissions does it need?
Gmail gmail.modify; Slack chat: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 “Send support emails to your team in Slack” from your assistant

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