Last updated: March 28, 2026
Create rules to customize how your email is organized — your rules always override AI classification.
Email rules are user-defined instructions that tell InflowMail how to handle specific emails. Each rule has conditions (which emails to match) and actions (what to do with them).
Rules give you full control over your inbox organization. While InflowMail's AI does a great job classifying most emails, rules let you fine-tune the results for senders, domains, or topics that matter most to you. Your rules always take priority over AI decisions.
When a new email arrives, InflowMail processes it through a pipeline. Rules run after the AI has classified the email, so your intent always wins:
AI Classification
The AI analyzes the email and assigns a category, priority score, and labels.
Rule Evaluation
Your rules are evaluated top to bottom in the order you set. Each rule's conditions are checked against the email.
Actions Applied
When all conditions in a rule match, the rule's actions are applied to the email, overriding the AI's decisions.
Stop processing: By default, multiple rules can match the same email. If you enable "Stop processing" on a rule, no further rules will be evaluated after that rule matches. All conditions within a single rule are AND'd together — every condition must match for the rule to fire.
The fastest way to create a rule is directly from your inbox using the "Change this" button.
Open any email in your inbox and look at the classification info in the reading pane.
Click "Change this" to open the rule creation form. InflowMail pre-fills the conditions using the email's sender domain, category, and other context — so you don't have to start from scratch.
Choose the actions you want (set priority, change category, apply a label, etc.) and save the rule. Future emails matching those conditions will be handled automatically.
Conditions determine which emails a rule applies to. All conditions in a rule must match (they are combined with AND logic). Leave a condition blank to skip it.
| Condition | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| From domain | Matches the sender's email domain | company.com |
| From address | Matches the sender's exact email address | [email protected] |
| Subject contains | Matches if the subject line contains the text (case-insensitive) | invoice |
| Category matches | Matches the AI-assigned category | newsletter |
| Has attachments | Matches emails with or without attachments | Yes / No |
You can also filter rules to a specific connected account if you only want the rule to apply to one of your email accounts.
Actions define what happens when an email matches a rule. You can combine multiple actions in a single rule.
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Set priority | Override the AI priority to High, Medium, or Low |
| Set category | Change the email's category (e.g., work, personal, bills) |
| Mark as read | Automatically mark matching emails as read |
| Star / flag | Automatically star or flag matching emails |
| Archive | Move matching emails out of the inbox to the archive |
| Apply label | Add a custom label to matching emails for easy filtering |
Every email in your inbox has a "Why?" link that opens the classification trace panel. This shows you exactly how InflowMail decided to classify that email, step by step.
The trace panel shows:
Use the "Why?" panel to understand unexpected classifications, then click "Change this" to create a rule that fixes it for all future emails from that sender or domain.
Start with domain rules. Broad rules like "all emails from @company.com are High priority" cover the most ground with the least effort.
Use "Why?" before creating rules. Check the classification trace to understand what the AI already does well. You may not need a rule at all.
Order matters. Rules are evaluated top to bottom. Put your most specific rules first and broader catch-all rules last.
Keep it simple. A few well-targeted rules are more effective than dozens of overlapping ones. Let the AI handle the rest.
Use "Stop processing" sparingly. Only enable it when you want to prevent later rules from also matching. Most of the time, letting multiple rules apply works fine.
No. Rules are evaluated when new emails arrive during sync. They do not retroactively change emails that are already in your inbox. You can use the rule test/preview feature to see which existing emails would have matched before saving a rule.
Yes. By default, all matching rules will apply their actions. If you want only one rule to apply, enable "Stop processing" on that rule to skip any rules below it.
Your rule wins. Rules run after AI classification, so any actions your rule sets will override the AI's decisions for that email. The "Why?" trace panel will show both the AI's original classification and your rule's override.
Yes. Each rule has an enabled/disabled toggle. Disabled rules are skipped during evaluation but kept in your list so you can re-enable them later.
Have questions about email rules?