Categories are the foundation of how Cora organizes your emails. Each category determines what action Cora takes—whether to keep an email in your inbox, include it in your Brief, or archive it.
How categories work
Every email Cora processes gets assigned to exactly one category. Each category has an action:
Brief: Archive the email and include it in your next Brief with a summary
Draft: Keep in inbox AND create an AI-powered draft response
Inbox: Keep in inbox without any additional action
Archive: Remove from inbox without including in Brief
Default categories
Categories that stay in your inbox
Category | What it's for | Action |
Important Draft | Emails needing simple responses | Inbox + AI creates draft |
Important Context | Emails needing thoughtful responses | Inbox, no draft |
Important Info | FYI emails that matter but need no response | Prominent in Brief |
Important SOP | Routine requests with standard responses | Inbox + template-based draft |
Timely | Ultra-urgent emails (OTP codes, verification) | Inbox, never touched |
Categories that go to your Brief
Category | What it's for |
Action | Emails requiring action but not response |
Newsletter | Regular subscriptions and content |
Promotion | Marketing and sales emails |
Calendar | Meeting invites and events |
Payments | Financial transactions and invoices |
Updates | Automated notifications |
Other | Anything that doesn't fit elsewhere |
Creating custom categories
Tell the Cora Assistant what you need:
"Create a category called 'Client Projects' for project-related emails" "Make a category for emails from my kid's school" "Create a 'Board Meetings' category that keeps emails in inbox"
What you can customize:
Name
Description (what emails belong here)
Action (Brief, Draft, Inbox, or Archive)
Categorization prompt (instructions for AI classification)
Modifying existing categories
When you modify a system category, Cora creates a personal copy with your settings. Your customizations never affect other users.
Tell the Assistant:
"Change the description of my Newsletter category" "Make the Updates category brief emails instead of archiving"
Viewing and managing categories
"Show me all my categories" "What categories do I have?" "Delete the Old Projects category"
The one-category rule
Each email belongs to exactly one category. This keeps things simple:
No confusion about where an email was filed
Clear action for every email
No duplicate processing
If an email could fit multiple categories, Cora picks the most specific match or follows your rules.