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Aiva quickstart

This guide covers the Email Handler MVP: connect a mailbox, review drafts, and send approved replies with Scout governance.

Before you start​

  • You need an Aiva workspace on a paid or trial plan.
  • Email ingestion must be enabled for your workspace (pilot flag or global enable on core).
  • For Gmail or Outlook, use OAuth from the worker connect dialog when available.

1. Create an Email Handler​

  1. Open Aiva in your workspace.
  2. Create a worker and choose the Email Handler role (or use onboarding if this is your first worker).
  3. Give the employee a name and persona that matches how you want replies to sound.

2. Connect your mailbox​

From the worker settings, open Connect email and choose one of:

MethodBest for
Gmail OAuthGoogle Workspace or personal Gmail
Outlook OAuthMicrosoft 365 or Outlook.com
IMAPCustom host, app passwords, or providers without OAuth
Inbound forwardingProviders that forward to a Carina inbound address

After IMAP or OAuth connect, Carina adds your mailbox as an allowed sender and polls every five minutes.

3. How incoming mail is handled​

For each new message Carina:

  1. Saves a digest and assigns a category (client query, invoice, spam, urgent, or other).
  2. Drafts a reply for client query and urgent messages only.
  3. Places the draft in your Approvals inbox. Nothing is sent without your decision.

Invoices and spam are logged but do not create approval items.

4. Approve, edit, or reject​

Open Aiva > Approvals. For each pending draft you can:

  • Approve to send immediately.
  • Edit then approve to change the body before send.
  • Reject to discard the draft.

If you take no action within four hours, the item is flagged and is not sent automatically.

5. Scout audit trail​

Every step (email received, draft created, approval requested, decision, send) is streamed to Scout Govern when your workspace is provisioned. Open Aiva > Governance to confirm heartbeat and policy status.

6. Billing and seats​

  • Starter (£49/mo) includes 1 AI Employee.
  • Team (£99/mo) includes up to 5 AI Employees.
  • Business (£199/mo) includes unlimited AI Employees.
  • Extra seats (where offered) are billed from Billing settings.

Trial workspaces get a small managed credit (~£1 / ~20 messages), then a soft wall: BYOK at /settings/keys or upgrade on /billing/aiva.

FAQ​

How do I connect my email?​

Use Connect email on the worker. Prefer OAuth for Gmail and Outlook. Use IMAP with an app password if your provider requires it.

What does the AI Employee do with my emails?​

It reads new messages from configured senders, categorises them, and drafts replies for client-style mail. Outbound sends always require your approval in the MVP.

What is Scout?​

Scout Govern is included on paid Aiva plans. It records an audit trail, supports kill switch suspension, and provides compliance export for AI Employee actions.

How do I cancel?​

Open Billing in your workspace or use the Stripe customer portal from the billing page. You can also email [email protected].

How fast is support?​

We aim to respond on business days. Team and Business plan customers receive same-day priority when possible.

Need help?​