inbox and email

Pixies work while you are somewhere else. The inbox collects what they need from you, and each pixie's email address lets you hand them work from your mail app.

the inbox

The inbox button sits at the top of the canvas (tooltip: "Pixie inbox — approvals, questions & updates"). A red badge counts what is open. Click it to see the list.

Each row shows the pixie's sprite and name, a coloured tag, a note, how long ago, and the process and run it belongs to.

tag	means
Approval	an approval card is waiting for your click
Question	the pixie is waiting for a typed answer
Choice	a question card is waiting for your pick
Update	the pixie has news; it isn't blocked

Click a row to open that pixie's chat. For a pixie working a run, that opens the run's chat; the small arrow on the row opens the run's workspace.

Approvals, questions and choices stay in the list until you answer the card, even if you closed the tab and came back later. Updates quiet down once you open the list and clear when you open the row.

The list refreshes about every 25 seconds, and when you return to the tab. It shows whatever every pixie on this canvas, including those working runs of your processes, is waiting for. When nothing is open it says "Nothing needs you — all pixies are content."

email a pixie

Every pixie has an address:

<pixie name>.<org slug>@ixi.so

The slug is your organisation's short name. Names are unique across the organisation, so an address always reaches one pixie.

Write to it like a teammate: a request, and files if you have them.

1. The pixie reads the mail and any attachments.
2. It does the work, with no mode picker: an email turn always runs it in Executing.
3. It replies to you by email with its answer, and with what it made attached.
4. Reply to that email to carry on. The thread stays with the same pixie, even if you rename it.

On the canvas the pixie's sprite shows it just handled an email.

who can email a pixie

Only members of your organisation. This is checked on every message:

• The message must pass the sender checks of the mail system. Forged senders are rejected.
• The verified From address must belong to a member of that organisation. Anyone else is turned away at the door and gets a rejection from their own mail server.
• Automated mail and mail from ixi's own addresses is ignored.
• A member who writes to a name that doesn't exist gets a friendly reply that lists who can be reached.

Mail from a person outside the organisation never reaches a pixie and is never acted on.

mail limits

limit	value
messages per sender	3 a minute
message size, with attachments	20 MB
images read per message	6
audio clips per message	3 (transcribed)

If your organisation is over its storage cap, the message is still delivered but its attachments are dropped.

email from a pixie

A pixie can email you, too, from its own address. It only writes to members of your organisation. It attaches up to 8 files up to about 17 MB in total, and sends any larger ones as links.

limits & good to know

• Pixies working a run show up on the canvas the run came from, not only inside the run.
• The inbox doesn't send mail. It is a list of what is waiting on this canvas.

related

• chat: the cards the inbox points to.
• members and roles: who counts as a member.