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Part 5: Email Triage & GitHub Issues

Time: ~8 minutes
Goal: Turn a chaotic inbox into a prioritized action list, then create a GitHub issue from an email thread — all without opening Outlook

The Problem

You open Outlook. 150+ unread emails. Dozens of threads. You spend 30 minutes just figuring out what actually needs your attention today.

There's a better way.

Sample Data for This Demo

We've included a realistic email thread to practice with — no need to use your own inbox!

📁 File: workshop/sample-data/email-thread.txt

This is a fictional thread from the Contoso GitHub Copilot CLI Workshop Planning team — multiple senders, decisions made, open questions, and action items buried throughout. Perfect for practicing triage.

💡 To use it: In Copilot CLI, point to the file:

read the email thread in workshop/sample-data/email-thread.txt and summarize it for me

Or use your real inbox instead — the prompts below work for both!

What You'll Do in This Demo

  1. Triage your inbox by priority
  2. Find a specific actionable thread
  3. Summarize the key decisions and open questions
  4. Draft a professional reply with next steps
  5. Create a GitHub issue directly from the email content

Task 1: Triage Your Inbox

Launch Copilot CLI:

copilot

Start with the daily triage skill:

show me my inbox and calendar for today

Or go deeper with:

show me all unanswered emails from last week grouped by priority

Copilot will scan your inbox and return something like:

🔴 Action Required (3)
  - Budget approval request from Sarah Chen — waiting on you
  - Engineering timeline review — deadline Friday
  - Vendor contract renewal — needs sign-off

🟡 Review (5)
  - Weekly status report from Platform team
  - Design review feedback
  ...

🔵 FYI (12)
  - Team announcements
  - Calendar invites
  ...

💡 Try this too:

scan my Teams chats for messages where I am directly asked a question

Task 2: Dive Into the Most Urgent Thread

Once you've identified a priority thread, read it in full:

read the latest email thread from [sender name or subject], summarize the key decisions already made, and list all open questions

Example:

read the latest email thread about the Q3 budget approval, summarize the key decisions already made, and list all open questions

Copilot returns a clean structured summary:

📧 Thread: Q3 Budget Approval — 7 messages, 4 participants

Decisions Made:
• Engineering headcount approved at 3 new hires
• Marketing budget frozen at current levels
• Decision on cloud infrastructure deferred to Friday call

Open Questions:
• Who owns the final sign-off for the infrastructure line?
• Is the $50K contingency fund included in the current total?
• What's the timeline for the new hire start dates?

Task 3: Draft a Professional Reply

Now ask Copilot to draft a reply:

draft a professional reply to this thread with a clear summary of next steps and assign owners to each open question

Review the draft — Copilot will give you something like:

Subject: Re: Q3 Budget Approval — Next Steps

Hi team,

Following our email thread, here's where we stand and what needs to happen next:

✅ Agreed: Engineering headcount (3 hires), Marketing budget frozen
🔄 In Progress: Cloud infrastructure decision — owner: [you] — due: Friday call

Action Items:
• Sarah: Confirm final sign-off authority by EOD Wednesday  
• James: Prepare infrastructure cost breakdown for Friday
• Team: Review proposed hire start dates — respond by Thursday

Let me know if anything above is off.

Best,
[Your name]

You stay in control. Read it, adjust it, then send from Outlook. Copilot drafts; you approve.

Task 4: Create a GitHub Issue from the Email

If the email thread surfaces something that needs to be tracked as work, turn it into a GitHub issue:

create a GitHub issue in [your-org/your-repo] from this email thread — use the open questions as the issue body and the most urgent item as the title

Copilot will:

  1. Extract the key information
  2. Format it as a proper GitHub issue
  3. Ask you to confirm before creating it

✅ Expected result: A GitHub issue created with a clear title, description, and labels — without you leaving the terminal or copy-pasting anything.

Prompt Reference

What You Want Prompt to Use
Triage inbox show me all unanswered emails from last week grouped by priority
Find specific thread read the latest email thread about [topic] and summarize it
Extract decisions list all decisions made and open questions in this thread
Draft reply draft a professional reply with next steps and assign owners
Create GitHub issue create a GitHub issue in [org/repo] from this email thread

✅ Part 5 Complete

You just went from 150 unread emails to:

  • A prioritized inbox view
  • A structured thread summary
  • A ready-to-send reply draft
  • A GitHub issue — all in under 3 minutes

→ Part 6: Notes → Word Document