Email and calendar with Outlook
Connect Outlook, have an email thread summarised, a reply written as a draft and a meeting proposed that you confirm yourself.
With Outlook connected, Custodos searches your emails, summarises threads, saves replies as drafts in your mailbox and proposes meetings. Nothing goes out without you: you send drafts yourself, and invitations only go out once you confirm them.
The example: Andrea Sutter of Holzwerk Brunner GmbH has written to Lea Keller several times about the 2025 annual accounts and asks for a meeting.
Before you start
Workflow
Connect Outlook
Open Account settings from the account menu. Under Connected accounts, click Connect next to Outlook (mail & calendar) and sign in with Microsoft. Outlook is also in the message box under Add.
In some organisations a Microsoft 365 administrator has to approve the connection first. Custodos then shows a notice with the Approval link for administrators, which you pass on to your IT. More in Outlook.
Find and summarise the thread
Narrow the search down by sender, topic and period:
Search my emails from the last 30 days for messages from Andrea Sutter about the annual accounts. Summarise: what is Ms Sutter asking, which documents has she sent, what is still open and by when? Give the date and subject of the email for each point.
During the search the answer shows Searching e-mails…, and afterwards the note Outlook consulted. Check dates and open points briefly in Outlook before you reply.
Have a reply written as a draft
For the right tone, select the brain with your client communication guide under Brain:
Write a reply to Andrea Sutter's last email as a draft in Outlook. Follow our Client Communication Guide. Content: we have received the inventory, only the lease agreements for the two delivery vans are still missing. The accounts will be ready by the end of October. She will receive a separate invitation for the meeting. At most 120 words, formal tone, British spelling.
Custodos saves the reply in your Outlook Drafts folder, usually as a reply in the same thread, and gives you the link. Open the draft, read it in full, check the recipients and send it yourself.
Find a time and propose a meeting
Look at my calendar for next week and name three free one-hour slots between 9:00 and 17:00.
Once you have picked a slot, ask for the invitation and give the addresses:
Invite Andrea Sutter ([email protected]) on 24 September at 14:00 to a one-hour meeting about the annual accounts, location: Kieselmatt office.
Custodos does not create the invitation straight away. It shows a Confirm meeting invitation card with the subject, time, location, the Invitations to: list and the message to the invitees. Only Create & send invitations makes Outlook create the event and send the invitations from your account. Afterwards, open the event with Open in Outlook.
An event without invitees, such as a reminder for yourself, goes straight into your calendar without a card.
Keep important emails in a brain
If an email should stay available to the team, for example an agreement with the client, import it into a brain. Open the brain, click Add sources and choose Outlook (mail & calendar). Find the email and import the message text, the attachments or both. Choose a brain whose access suits the content; see Building a good brain.
What makes this workflow safe
| Feature | What it does here |
|---|---|
| Only your mailbox | The connection belongs to you. Colleagues cannot reach your mailbox, and Custodos cannot reach anyone else's. |
| Drafts only | Custodos cannot send emails. Replies land in Outlook as drafts. |
| Invitations after confirmation | Meetings with invitees only go out when you confirm on the card. |
| Pseudonymisation | Email texts are checked like attachments. In Pseudonymise mode, detected values go to the model as placeholders, and the draft contains the real values again. In Block mode, emails with protected identifiers are not read. |
| Disconnect any time | In account settings, end the connection with Disconnect. |
Limits
Best practices
- Name the sender, topic and period instead of asking for "my emails" to be searched.
- Ask for the date and subject of every statement, so you can check faster.
- Keep your communication guide in a brain and switch it on for replies.
- Write addresses out in full when you invite people.
- When you work with client data, check first whether an ordinary chat with pseudonymisation is suitable. In security mode the model deliberately does not work with Outlook.
Frequently asked questions
No. Custodos only saves drafts in your Outlook; only you can send. Outlook sends meeting invitations only once you confirm the card in the chat.
Check whether Outlook is connected in your account settings, whether the chat runs in security mode, whether the chosen model supports tools and whether the workspace's credits are used up. If Custodos asks you to connect Outlook again, disconnect and reconnect.
No. Custodos only accesses your own mailbox through your own connection. Each person connects Outlook for themselves.
Your organisation only allows new connections to Microsoft 365 once an administrator has approved them. Send your IT the approval link for administrators from the notice. Once approved, connect Outlook again.
Next steps
Spreadsheet analysis
Ask questions about an Excel or CSV file, have unusual entries found and cells filled with checked formulas, and recalculate the result in Excel.
A handbook for the whole team
Put policies and processes in a brain, add an agent for the team's questions on top, share both and keep the handbook current with a named owner.