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Quick answer
Add one rule before every lead reply: search sent mail and the lead's notes for anything sent in the last 7 days. If a teammate already answered, the agent stops and logs it. If not, it drafts a reply for approval.
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At a glance
All outcome figures are estimates from cited sources, not independent verification by us.
- What it is allowed to do
- Drafts for you
Writes drafts (emails, posts, plans, replies). You review and send. Nothing goes out without you.
- Time saved (estimate)
- About 10 minutes to set up.
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Tools needed
- Claude, ChatGPT, Gmail
- Typical cost
- Gmail connectors depend on your plan. Prices: Not stated in sources.
Reviewed Nov 2, 2026
Basis (estimate): Estimate only: based on the steps above, not timed.
What does this setup do?
Make your AI agent search sent mail and notes for an existing reply before it drafts an answer to a lead, so leads never get two replies.
Who is it for?
Teams where both people and an agent answer leads from email, forms and other channels.
How do you set it up?
Tools
- Claude or ChatGPT with a Gmail connector
- Your lead notes or CRM export
- The agent's standing instructions
Steps
- Decide where replies can live: sent mail, a shared inbox, CRM notes.
- Add the check from the prompt below to the agent's instructions, before any drafting step.
- Keep approval on. Anthropic says its Google Workspace connectors ask before sending by default.
- Test it: answer a test lead yourself, then ask the agent to handle the same lead. It should stop.
- Ask teammates to log phone and text replies in the notes, since the agent cannot see those otherwise.
- Review the log of stopped drafts weekly to see where leads are coming in twice.
Example output
Illustrative. Your results will differ.
- STOP: Dana Ortiz, rental inquiry. Sam replied by email Nov 1, 3:14 PM.
- DRAFT: Lee Chen, no reply found in sent mail or notes (searched both).
Where to paste this prompt
Claude → Project knowledge & custom instructions
Copy-paste prompt
Adapt bracketed fields to your situation.
Before drafting any reply to a lead, do this check:
1. Search my sent mail and the lead notes for this person's name, email and phone from the last 7 days.
2. If anything was sent: STOP. Do not draft. Log: lead name, what was sent, by whom, when.
3. If nothing was sent: draft a reply for my approval and say which places you searched.
4. If you cannot search one of the places, say so and do not draft.
Lead: [PASTE LEAD]Newsletter
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What usually goes wrong?
Where agents tend to stall on this job. More patterns in Where AI gets stuck.
- The agent can see email but not the CRM, so it misses replies logged there.
- Searching by name only and missing a different spelling.
- Turning off approval once it seems to work.
Which chat tools work with this prompt?
This prompt needs routines and connectors, so it's written for:
- Claude
- ChatGPT
Common questions
- Why did my AI auto-responder reply to a lead we already answered?
- It did not check for an existing reply. Add a search of sent mail and notes before every draft.
- Can the agent see phone calls?
- Only if someone logs them in the notes it searches.
- Should it send automatically after the check?
- Keep approval on, so you see every reply before it goes.
What tips make it smoother?
- Phone and text replies are invisible unless someone logs them.
- Search by email and phone, not just name.
- Stopped drafts are useful data on duplicate lead sources.
Where do the claims come from?
Summaries use public sources linked below, not independent verification. How setups are picked.
- Read Anthropic’s write-up (support.claude.com)
Anthropic: Use Google Workspace connectors: approval before send, reply or forward by default (read 2026-10-31 through a page fetch tool, not a direct browser open)
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