How I Built an AI-Powered Email Manager After Nearly Missing a Deadline

#devchallenge #nylaschallenge #api #ai

This is a submission for the Nylas Challenge: AI Expedition.

What I Built and Why

I built an AI-powered Email Management System using the Nylas API and Cloudflare Workers AI. This project leverages AI to automate email management tasks such as summarization, categorization, and generating smart replies.

The motivation behind this project was to create a more efficient and user-friendly way to handle emails, especially for busy professionals who receive a large volume of emails daily. By using AI to assist with these tasks, the system reduces the time and effort required to manage an inbox effectively, allowing users to focus on more important tasks.

Additionally, I wanted to explore how AI can be integrated into everyday tools to enhance productivity and demonstrate the powerful capabilities of combining Nylas's API with modern AI technologies.

Demo

Watch the demo video

Click the above to watch a brief demo of the project, showcasing how the AI-powered email management system works, including how it summarizes, categorizes, and generates smart replies for emails.

Code

The code for this project is available on GitHub under the MIT License. You can find the repository here:

https://github.com/olivia07120/Nylas-AI-Powered-Inbox-Manager

Feel free to explore the code, contribute, or fork the project for your own use.

Your Journey

So, here’s what happened—I thought the deadline was August 18th. But then, over the weekend, I found out it was still open! I panicked a bit, canceled all my plans, and got back to work on the project. The funny part? I missed the deadline update because I don’t check my emails that often. I guess I really needed this app to organize my emails and keep me on track!

I started with Nylas, thinking I had everything under control. Setting up OAuth? No problem. Managing emails? Easy enough. But as I got deeper into the project, I realized it was going to be a bit more challenging than I thought.

Then came Cloudflare Workers AI. It was supposed to be the magic ingredient for summarizing and categorizing emails. We had some struggles, but after a few late nights and lots of coffee, I finally got it to work. Well, mostly.

The frontend was tricky. What looked good in my head didn’t look so great on the screen at first. But after some adjustments and a few “aha!” moments, it finally started coming together.

So, here I am, after a crazy but rewarding experience. This project wasn’t just about building an app; it was about learning, improving, and maybe—just maybe—getting better at checking my emails. Would I do it again? Absolutely. But next time, I’ll set a reminder!