Self-install guide

Run AnswerThing in your own agent.

AnswerThing ships as an open, portable SKILL.md skill. It works in any agent that loads SKILL.md skills - OpenClaw, Hermes, and more. It reads your Gmail, recalls how you’ve answered similar questions before, drafts the reply in your voice, and sends in-thread only after you approve.

01Before you start

An agent that loads SKILL.md skills (OpenClaw, Hermes, …) with shell access.
A Gmail app password - create one here. It needs 2-Step Verification, and is separate from your normal password.

The easy way

02Let your agent install it

Copy this and paste it into your agent. It will install the skill, walk you through connecting Gmail, and ask how you want it to run.

Install and set up the "AnswerThing" email skill for me.

1. Install it by running:
   curl -fsSL https://answerthing.yoelgal.com/install.sh | sh
   If you can't run shell commands, instead download
   https://answerthing.yoelgal.com/answerthing-skill.tgz, unpack it into your skills directory, and run
   `npm install` inside the unpacked folder.

2. Open the installed SKILL.md and follow it. In short: it reads my Gmail, finds
   how I've answered similar questions before, and drafts replies in my voice —
   but it never sends anything without my explicit approval.

3. Help me connect Gmail. I need a Gmail app password
   (https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords — requires 2-Step Verification),
   then set GMAIL_USER and GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD in your environment.

4. Ask me whether I want it to answer on-demand (only when I ask) or to check for
   new questions proactively. If proactive, set up the recurring check using your
   own scheduling/automation — the skill ships no scheduler — running the normal
   inbox → draft → approve flow each time.

5. Then list my most recent inbox questions to confirm it works — but do not send
   anything. You draft, I approve, and only then does a reply send.

The manual way

03Prefer the terminal?

Run the installer yourself. It drops the skill into your agent’s skills directory (auto-detected), and installs its dependencies.

override the target with ANSWERTHING_DIR=/path/to/skills/answerthing

Or unpack the tarball by hand and read everything first:

04Connect Gmail & choose a mode

Set your credentials:

Then tell your agent how to run it - on-demand (only when you ask) or proactive (checks for new questions on a schedule). The skill ships no scheduler: in proactive mode your agent sets up the recurring check with its own automation and runs the normal inbox → draft → approve flow each time - still approval-gated.

The one rule: the agent proposes, you dispose, code commits. AnswerThing can read, recall, and draft - but a reply only leaves your outbox when you approve it. There is no autonomous send.

← Back home