How It Works

Your Town assistant is an AI that understands your email, calendar, and connected apps. It runs workflows in the background, responds when you reach out, and can even modify its own behavior when you ask.

Your assistant

When you sign up for Town, you name your assistant and get a dedicated email address — like alex@town.com. This is how you communicate with your assistant from anywhere.

Your assistant has access to:

Email — Read, search, label, archive, and send
Calendar — View events, check availability, create meetings
Drive — Access documents and files
Connected apps — GitHub, Slack, Linear, Notion, HubSpot, and custom integrations

Workflows

Workflows are automated tasks your assistant runs in the background. Each workflow has:

Component	What it does
Trigger	When the workflow runs (new email, schedule, manual)
Logic	What the workflow does (instructions or code)
Tools	What actions are available (read email, add label, send message)
Mode	How much autonomy (autonomous, approval-required, read-only)

How a workflow runs

Triggers

Triggers determine when a workflow activates.

Trigger	When it fires	Example use
Incoming email	Every new email	Auto-inbox triage
Email to assistant	When you email yourname@town.com	Ask for help with anything
Schedule	Cron-based timing	Morning briefing at 7 AM
Manual	When you click Run	On-demand reports

Tools

Tools are the actions your assistant can take. Each workflow only has access to the tools you enable.

Email tools:

read_email, search_emails — Read and find emails
add_label, remove_label — Organize with labels
archive_email, trash_email — Manage inbox
create_draft, send_email_to_user — Write and send

Calendar tools:

list_calendar_events, get_calendar_event — View schedule
create_calendar_event, edit_calendar_event — Manage meetings
delete_calendar_event — Remove events

Research tools:

web_search — Search the web with AI-analyzed results
run_code — Execute Python for calculations and analysis

Integration tools:

GitHub, Slack, Linear, Notion, HubSpot tools become available when you connect those apps

Your assistant only has access to tools you explicitly enable. If a tool isn’t enabled, the workflow can’t use it.

Modes

Modes control how much autonomy your assistant has.

Autonomous — Actions execute immediately without asking. Best for low-risk, high-frequency workflows like inbox triage.

Approval required — Sensitive actions wait for your approval. You receive a notification with approve/reject options. Best for workflows that send emails or modify important data.

Read-only — The workflow can analyze but not change anything. Best for testing new workflows or analytics.

Talking to your assistant

Your assistant isn’t just a background automation engine — you can talk to it directly.

Email your assistant

Send an email to yourname@town.com with any request:

“Research this company before my call tomorrow”
“What emails did I get from John last month?”
“Create a workflow that reminds me about PRs waiting for review”
“Change my morning briefing to include weather updates”

Your assistant reads your message, uses its available tools, and replies with results.

The assistant can modify itself

Your assistant can create and update workflows. Just ask:

“Create a workflow that labels emails from my team and keeps them in inbox”

Your assistant will:

Understand what you want
Generate the workflow configuration
Test it (if needed)
Enable it for you

You can also ask it to adjust existing workflows:

“Stop archiving emails from newsletter@example.com”

Stock vs custom workflows

Stock workflows are pre-built automations that work out of the box:

Auto-inbox — Keep inbox organized
Schedule Assist — Handle meeting scheduling
Auto-draft — Prepare reply drafts
Morning Briefing — Daily summary

Custom workflows are ones you create:

Use the Workflow Builder — Describe what you want in natural language
Write code workflows — Full control with TypeScript

Both types use the same underlying system. You can export a stock workflow’s configuration and customize it.

Safety controls

Your assistant respects boundaries you set:

Per-tool approval — Some tools always require approval, even in autonomous mode
Blocked combinations — Certain tool combinations aren’t allowed for security reasons
Action logging — Every action is recorded so you can review what happened

Learn more in Safety.

What’s next?

Workflows — Explore stock workflows
Custom workflows — Create your own
Integrations — Connect more apps
Using Town — Email, web, and mobile access