Recipe: New Sender Review

Process Spark's GateKeeper queue of new senders. Review each, accept legitimate contacts, and block unwanted ones.

Prerequisite: Read the use-spark base skill for command reference and filter syntax.

Access level required: triage.

Steps

Step 1: Check the new senders queue

spark emails Inbox --new-senders

This shows emails from senders that GateKeeper has quarantined (explicit mode). The normal inbox view filters these out automatically.

Step 2: Review each sender

For each new sender email, read the content:

spark thread <id>

Decide: is this a legitimate contact or unwanted mail?

Step 3: Accept legitimate senders

spark contact-action acceptContact sender@company.com

This moves the sender past GateKeeper - their future emails appear in the normal inbox.

To accept an entire domain:

spark contact-action acceptDomain company.com

Step 4: Block unwanted senders

spark contact-action blockContact spammer@example.com

To block an entire domain:

spark contact-action blockDomain example.com

Step 5: Verify

spark emails Inbox --new-senders

Confirm the queue is empty or report what's left.

Tips

• GateKeeper only shows new sender emails when --new-senders is used - they're filtered from the normal inbox view.
• When in doubt, accept the contact first. You can always block them later.
• acceptDomain is useful for legitimate companies with multiple sender addresses (support@, billing@, etc.).
• blockDomain is aggressive - use it for clearly spammy domains, not for individual unwanted senders.
• Run this recipe regularly (daily or every few days) so legitimate contacts don't wait too long in the queue.
• The new senders count appears at the top of the inbox output when there are queued items.