Recipe: Priority Tuning

Fine-tune who gets auto-prioritized by reviewing the current priority category and adjusting contact-level settings.

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

Access level required: triage.

Steps

Step 1: Review current priority mail

spark emails Inbox --filter "category:priority newer_than:14d"

Look at which senders appear in the priority category. Ask the user: are these the right people? Anyone missing? Anyone who shouldn't be here?

Step 2: Check who's currently marked as primary

Browse priority mail to identify the senders Spark is auto-prioritizing. Note any patterns - are important contacts missing, or are low-priority senders appearing?

Step 3: Add missing VIPs

For contacts whose emails should always be prioritized:

spark contact-action markContactAsPrimary vip@company.com

This tells Spark to auto-prioritize all future email from this sender.

Step 4: Remove false priorities

For contacts that are showing up in priority but shouldn't be:

spark contact-action unmarkContactAsPrimary noisy-sender@example.com

Step 5: Adjust notification importance

For contacts where the user wants push notifications:

spark contact-action markContactAsImportant boss@company.com

For contacts that are priority but don't need notifications:

spark contact-action unmarkContactAsImportant low-urgency@example.com

Step 6: Verify the changes

spark emails Inbox --filter "category:priority is:unread"

Check that the priority category now reflects the user's preferences. New mail from adjusted contacts will appear in the correct category.

Tips

• markContactAsPrimary is the strongest signal - it guarantees the contact's emails land in priority.
• markContactAsImportant controls push notifications, which is separate from category placement.
• Changes apply to all future mail from the contact, not retroactively to existing emails.
• Run this recipe after onboarding a new client, joining a new team, or changing roles - priority contacts change with context.
• When contacts are in the wrong category entirely (not just missing from priority), use spark contact-action changeCategoryPersonal / changeCategoryNotification / changeCategoryNewsletters to reclassify all future mail from that sender.
• A well-tuned priority category means the user can check just category:priority for a reliable "must-read" view.