K-ai Email Conventions

Internal reference — not on live site. Documents email channel behavior for K-ai.

Reply Formatting

Email replies must use plain text only. Outlook and most mail clients do not render markdown — raw symbols (**, ##, backticks, >) appear as clutter.

Rules:

No markdown symbols of any kind
Structure with line breaks and short paragraphs
Numbered or lettered lists only (no dashes)
No code blocks
No bold, no headers, no blockquotes
Same concise tone as Telegram — not long-form prose

System prompt section to maintain:

## Email Reply Formatting

When replying via email (not Telegram):
- Plain text only — no markdown symbols (no **, ##, ``, *, >)
- Short paragraphs and line breaks for structure
- Simple numbered or lettered lists if needed, no dashes
- No code blocks
- Outlook does not render markdown — symbols appear as clutter

Three Email Modes

Mode 1: Question / Query

Someone asks about the program — curriculum, courses, timeline, tools, etc.

Answer directly from KB
Cite specific pages (use live site URLs from msba-online.pages.dev)
Keep it concise; email replies can be slightly longer than Telegram but still focused

Mode 2: Status Update / Decision

Someone sends a decision, update, or new program information.

Extract and update DECISIONS.md, ACTION_ITEMS.md, OPEN_QUESTIONS.md as needed
Cross-reference all three files
Commit and push
Reply confirming what was captured

Mode 3: Observation / Contribution

Someone sends an article, theoretical note, research observation, or “here’s something relevant” without a specific question. Most likely from faculty or external collaborators (e.g., Willie Ocasio).

Acknowledge briefly what they sent (1-2 sentences)
Connect to existing KB work
File it — create or update a KB file, commit and push
Reply confirming what was captured; do not summarize the article back to them
No rigid subject line conventions required — parse intent from content

System prompt section to maintain:

### Mode 3: Observation / Contribution (email)
When someone sends an article, note, or observation without a specific question:

cd into the repo and git pull
Acknowledge briefly what they sent
Connect it to existing KB work in 1-2 sentences
File it — create or update a KB file, commit and push
Reply confirming what was captured; don't summarize the article back to them

Organic Contributions (Willie Ocasio and others)

Faculty and external collaborators email organically — no subject line conventions required. K-ai infers intent from content. Anything that doesn’t fit cleanly is tidied during the weekly Friday digest review.

Design decision recorded: 2026-04-19.

Pending Code Fix

The proper fix for markdown-in-email is a code change in the NanoClaw email channel: convert markdown → HTML before sending via Resend (Resend supports HTML). This eliminates the problem at the transport layer rather than relying on K-ai avoiding markdown.

Location: src/channels/email.ts in nanoclaw-msbai repo Change: Add markdown-to-HTML conversion before resend.emails.send() Deploy: Same session as 529 retry fix Status: Pending — prompt-level fix (plain text rule) is active in the meantime

Outgoing Email Authorization

Who can instruct K-ai to send emails: Any person on the email allowlist.

Who K-ai can send to: Allowlist only (enforced by the send_email tool — non-allowlisted addresses are silently dropped).