Engagement models

The code is open-source and self-hostable on your own. These engagement models bring in a fractional CTO to implement it, tailor it to your workflow and compliance posture, and keep it running.

What every engagement is built around:
Hours a week back — and deadlines that stop slipping.
Drafted replies clear the response queue, the deadline clock catches regulatory mail, and the audit trail keeps you in control. For high-subscription readers, the newsletter digest alone can give back an estimated 60–90 minutes a day for a subscription-heavy inbox (illustrative, not a measured guarantee). See how →

Engagement models

Three ways to engage.

From a low-friction pilot to a full fractional-CTO retainer. Pick the model that matches how much involvement you want.

Pilot

Solo practitioners, individual researchers
  • Deployment to a single user / single account
  • Baseline category setup matching your workflow
  • OAuth / IMAP credential configuration
  • Initial style training on your sent mail
  • 30-day check-in with tuning recommendations
  • Outcome: validate the fit before scaling
Start a Pilot

Standard

Small clinics, research labs, professional-services firms
  • Multi-user deployment
  • Custom category taxonomy co-designed with you
  • Custom integrations (Slack, ticketing systems, internal APIs)
  • HIPAA review packet preparation
  • Quarterly tuning + category review
  • Security patch + version update cadence
Plan a Standard Engagement

Implementation Path

From kickoff to production in six weeks.

Standard implementations follow this arc. Pilot is compressed (single user); Embedded extends post-week-6 indefinitely.

Week 1 Discovery

Interview the team. Catalog mail volume + types. Define category taxonomy. Identify integration points (Slack, CRM, ticketing).

Week 1–2 Infrastructure

Provision the host (cloud or on-prem). Install dependencies. Configure TLS. Set up monitoring integration.

Week 2 Provider Connection

Register OAuth apps with Google / Microsoft. Configure IMAP credentials. Set up Pub/Sub or Graph push subscriptions.

Week 3–4 Calibration

Initial classification on a backlog of historical mail. Operator-review of category assignments. Rule additions where the classifier needs reinforcement.

Week 4–6 Style Training

Sent-mail mining for writing-style profile. Initial drafted replies for operator-review. Captured-edit feedback loop established.

Week 6 Production Cutover

Push integration enabled. Real-time triage active. Daily / weekly digest schedule established. 30-day post-launch hypercare begins.

Post-week-6 Ongoing

Monthly tuning calls. Quarterly category review. Security patch + version updates. For Embedded engagements, this continues as long as the retainer is active.

What's Included in Every Tier

The baseline.

Pre-Engagement HIPAA Review

Whether or not the customer is HIPAA-regulated. Demonstrates the privacy posture and surfaces gaps before deployment.

Backup + DR Setup

Two-bundle encrypted backup pattern, off-host storage guidance, restore-procedure rehearsal.

TLS Provisioning

Built-in ACME (Let's Encrypt) issuance and automatic renewal over DNS-01 (RFC-2136) or HTTP-01 (standalone or webroot); or bring your own operator-supplied certificate; a self-signed cert is generated on first start so the app is HTTPS by default. Renewed certs hot-reload without a restart.

Monitoring Integration

Nagios, Datadog, Prometheus, or your team's preferred system. Health endpoint exposure + alerting configuration.

Documentation

Runbook, recovery procedures, escalation contacts. Tailored to your team's operational shape.

30-Day Post-Launch Hypercare

Bug response, configuration tweaks, and tuning during the most disruption-prone window after cutover.

Self-service vs a guided engagement

When is each right?

It's real and inspectable. Anyone with engineering chops can deploy it from the public repository at github.com/Unlimited-Data-Works-LLC/Email-Triage using the signed container image at ghcr.io/unlimited-data-works-llc/email-triage (verification recipe in the repo's docs/install.md). A guided engagement is for organizations where:

If your team has Linux/Podman fluency and an Ollama host already, self-hosting is straightforward. If you'd rather get to value without owning the implementation, that's what a guided engagement is for.

Beyond Email

The Embedded tier is one of several Fractional CTO patterns I offer.

For broader technology leadership engagements that extend beyond email automation — sovereign AI strategy, compliance program design, infrastructure modernization, OT/IT convergence — explore the matching consulting vertical.