Premise
A six-figure inbox can be cleaned without one reckless select-all. First classify senders, then approve rules, then process small batches with a recoverable trash folder and a complete log.
Setup
- Connect one Gmail account with the minimum permissions needed.
- Create permanent exclusions for people, banks, government, legal mail, receipts, and security codes.
- Run a dry audit grouped by sender and message type.
- Approve deletion and unsubscribe rules separately.
Boundaries
- Never empty trash automatically.
- Never delete mail from a person you have corresponded with or unsubscribe an unapproved sender.
After I approve the rules, process messages in small batches. Before every batch, show its sender, date range, message count, and action. Keep a running ledger of trashed, unsubscribed, skipped, failed, and remaining items.
Use standard List-Unsubscribe headers or an official sender form only. Never follow a suspicious link. Do not touch personal correspondents, financial institutions, government, legal notices, receipts, authentication codes, or any sender I excluded.
Stop when an unseen sender would account for more than 20% of a proposed batch. Leave trash recoverable for my final review.
Prompt
Clean this inbox in three stages. First, make no changes: count recurring senders and classify their mail as keep, trash candidate, or unsubscribe candidate. Explain each rule and show the protected-sender list.