Email to Calendar Extraction Engine

Email → Calendar Extraction Engine

Turn emails into structured calendar events with zero missed deadlines.

Quick Start

When you receive an email (forwarded, pasted, or from inbox): Parse — Extract every time-relevant item using the framework below Classify — Score each item by type and confidence Present — Show structured results with numbered selection Create — Use the user's calendar tool to create confirmed events Follow up — Track deadlines and send reminders

What to Look For

Scan every email for ALL of these categories: CategorySignalsPriorityHard Events"meeting at", "call on", "event on", specific date+time🔴 HighDeadlines"due by", "submit before", "RSVP by", "register by", "expires"🔴 HighSoft Events"sometime next week", "let's meet soon", "planning for March"🟡 MediumRecurring"every Monday", "weekly", "monthly", "standing meeting"🟡 MediumAction Items"please review", "can you send", "follow up on", "action required"🟡 MediumTravel/LogisticsFlight numbers, hotel confirmations, check-in times, gate info🔴 HighImplicit DeadlinesEvent is Feb 20 → ticket deadline is likely 1-2 weeks before🟡 Medium

Extraction Template

• For each item found, extract:
• title: "Descriptive name (max 80 chars)"
• type: event | deadline | action_item | travel | recurring
• date: "YYYY-MM-DD"
• day_of_week: "Monday" # Always include for verification
• time_start: "14:00" # 24h format, default 09:00 if unclear
• time_end: "15:00" # Default: start + 1h for meetings, all-day for deadlines
• timezone: "America/New_York" # Extract from email headers or content
• is_all_day: false
• is_multi_day: false # If true, include end_date
• end_date: null
• recurrence: null # "weekly" | "biweekly" | "monthly" | "MWF" | custom RRULE
• location: null # Physical address or video link
• url: null # Registration link, event page, or action URL
• attendees: [] # Names/emails mentioned
• confidence: high | medium | low
• source_quote: "exact text from email that indicates this event"
• notes: "any context the user should know"
• deadline_action: null # "RSVP" | "register" | "buy tickets" | "submit"
• deadline_url: null # Direct link to take action
• reminder_minutes: 30 # Suggested reminder (15 for calls, 60 for travel, 1440 for deadlines)

Confidence Scoring

ConfidenceCriteriaHighExplicit date + time + clear event type. E.g. "Meeting on Feb 15 at 2pm"MediumDate but no time, or time but approximate date. E.g. "next Tuesday afternoon"LowVague reference. E.g. "we should catch up soon", "sometime in March"

Smart Defaults

No time given for meeting → 09:00-10:00 (mark confidence: medium) No time given for deadline → 23:59 (end of day) No timezone → Use user's default timezone, note assumption "Morning" → 09:00, "Afternoon" → 14:00, "Evening" → 18:00, "EOD" → 17:00 "Next week" → Following Monday (mark confidence: medium) Multi-day event → Set is_multi_day: true, include start and end dates

2. Email Classification

Before extracting, classify the email: Email TypeHow to HandleCalendar notification (from calendar-notification@google.com, outlook, etc.)SKIP — these are responses to existing eventsNewsletter/marketingExtract only if contains relevant event datesPersonal/work emailFull extractionTravel confirmationExtract ALL logistics: flights, hotels, car rentals, check-insMeeting invite (ICS attachment or structured invite)Extract directly, high confidenceThread/replyOnly extract NEW events, not ones from quoted textForwarded emailProcess the forwarded content, note original sender

Ignore Patterns (Skip These)

Automated calendar responses (Accepted, Declined, Tentative) Unsubscribe confirmations Read receipts Auto-replies / Out of office Spam/promotional (unless user explicitly forwards it)

3. Presentation Format

Always present extracted items in this format: 📧 From: [sender] | Subject: [subject] | Date: [received date] Found [N] calendar items: 1. 🔴 **Team Standup** — Mon Feb 17, 9:00-9:30 AM EST 📍 Zoom (link in email) | 👥 Alice, Bob, Charlie 🔁 Recurring: Every weekday ✅ Confidence: High 2. 🔴 **Project Deadline: Q1 Report** — Fri Feb 28, EOD ⚠️ ACTION REQUIRED: Submit report 🔗 [Submission portal](url) ⏰ Suggested reminder: 3 days before ✅ Confidence: High 3. 🟡 **Team Lunch** — "sometime next week" 📍 TBD ⚠️ Confidence: Medium — date needs confirmation --- Reply with numbers to create (e.g. "1, 2"), "all", or "none". Type "edit 3" to modify before creating.

Presentation Rules

Always show day of week — humans verify dates by day name Group by date when >5 items Flag conflicts — if new event overlaps existing calendar Highlight deadlines with ⚠️ and days remaining Show source quote for medium/low confidence items Never auto-create without user confirmation

4. Calendar Creation

After user confirms, create events using their calendar tool:

Google Calendar (via gog or API)

gog calendar create \ --title "Event Title" \ --start "2026-02-17T09:00:00-05:00" \ --end "2026-02-17T10:00:00-05:00" \ --description "Extracted from email: [subject]" \ --location "Zoom link or address"

Apple Calendar (via osascript)

osascript -e 'tell application "Calendar" tell calendar "Work" make new event with properties {summary:"Event Title", start date:date "Monday, February 17, 2026 at 9:00:00 AM", end date:date "Monday, February 17, 2026 at 10:00:00 AM", description:"Extracted from email", location:"Zoom"} end tell end tell'

Notion / Other

Format as structured data and use the appropriate API Or output as .ics file the user can import anywhere

ICS Export (Universal)

BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART:20260217T090000 DTEND:20260217T100000 SUMMARY:Event Title DESCRIPTION:Extracted from email LOCATION:Zoom link END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR

5. Duplicate Detection

Before creating any event, check for duplicates: Search calendar for events on the same date with similar title (fuzzy match) Check tracking file — maintain a log of created events: // memory/email-calendar-log.json { "created_events": [ { "email_id": "msg-123", "email_subject": "Team Offsite", "event_title": "Team Offsite", "event_date": "2026-02-17", "calendar_event_id": "cal-456", "created_at": "2026-02-13T10:00:00Z" } ] } If duplicate found: Show user and ask — "This looks similar to [existing event]. Skip, update, or create anyway?"

Deadline Patterns to Detect

PatternExampleActionRSVP deadline"RSVP by Feb 10"Create reminder 3 days beforeRegistration"Register by March 1"Create reminder 1 week beforeEarly bird"Early bird ends Feb 15"Create reminder 2 days beforeTicket sales"Tickets on sale until..."Create reminder + calendar eventSubmission"Submit proposal by..."Create reminder 3 days beforeExpiration"Offer expires..."Create reminder 1 day before

Reminder Strategy

>30 days away: Remind 1 week before 7-30 days away: Remind 3 days before <7 days away: Remind 1 day before Deadlines with URLs: Include the action URL in the reminder Create reminder as separate calendar event: "⚠️ DEADLINE: [action] for [event]"

7. Travel Email Handling

Travel confirmations get special treatment:

Extract ALL of these:

✈️ Flights: airline, flight #, departure/arrival times+airports, terminal, gate, confirmation # 🏨 Hotels: name, address, check-in/out times, confirmation # 🚗 Car rentals: company, pickup/dropoff times+locations, confirmation # 📋 Transfers: shuttle times, train bookings

Create these calendar events:

Flight departure — include terminal, gate, flight # in description Flight arrival — for connecting flights too Hotel check-in — with address and confirmation # Hotel check-out — with reminder to pack Car pickup/dropoff — with location details

Travel-specific reminders:

Flight: 3 hours before (domestic), 4 hours before (international) Hotel check-out: Morning of departure Include all confirmation numbers in event descriptions

8. Batch Processing

When scanning an inbox for events: Fetch unread emails (or emails from last N days) Filter out noise — apply ignore patterns Extract from each — run extraction framework Deduplicate across emails — same event mentioned in multiple threads Sort by date — nearest first Present grouped summary: 📬 Inbox Scan: 47 unread → 12 with calendar items → 18 events found THIS WEEK (Feb 13-19): 1. 🔴 Sprint Review — Thu Feb 13, 3:00 PM 2. 🔴 1:1 with Manager — Fri Feb 14, 10:00 AM ... NEXT WEEK (Feb 20-26): 5. 🟡 Team Lunch — date TBD (mentioned in 2 emails) ... DEADLINES: ⚠️ Q1 Report — Due Feb 28 (15 days) → [Submit here](url) ⚠️ Conference RSVP — Due Feb 20 (7 days) → [RSVP](url)

9. Edge Cases

SituationHow to HandleMultiple timezones in one emailExtract each event in its stated timezone, convert to user's TZ for display"TBD" or "TBA" timesCreate all-day event, flag for follow-upCancelled eventsCheck if already in calendar → offer to deleteRescheduled eventsFind original → offer to update (not create new)Recurring with exceptionsNote specific exception dates in descriptionDate ambiguity (02/03 = Feb 3 or Mar 2?)Use email's locale/origin for MM/DD vs DD/MM, ask if unclearEvents in quoted/forwarded textOnly process if user explicitly forwarded itAttachments with .ics filesParse ICS directly — highest confidence source"Save the date" emailsCreate tentative event, mark as placeholderConference with multiple sessionsExtract all sessions as separate events with shared description

10. Session Memory

Track user preferences across sessions: # memory/email-calendar-prefs.yaml default_timezone: "America/New_York" default_calendar: "Work" default_reminder_minutes: 30 auto_create_patterns: - "standup" - "1:1" ignore_patterns: - "newsletter" - "marketing" preferred_format: "12h" # or "24h" travel_reminder_hours: 3 Update preferences when user corrects you or states a preference.