What Smisto’s AI does, and where it runs

What it does

Smart sort

For new mail, suggests one of your folders, based on the descriptions you give them, and shows how sure it is. Moving the mail is one click; ignoring the suggestion is fine too.

Find to-dos

Reads a conversation and proposes to-dos, with a due date when there is one. Each must quote the message it comes from, or it is dropped. You add the ones you want.

Draft reply

Writes the body of a reply in the language of the conversation, with [brackets] where it cannot know something. You can tell it what to say, like “accept and suggest Tuesday”.

Summarise

Sums up where things stand in a folder from its newest messages, linking each point to the message it comes from.

Ask

Ask a question about a folder or about all your mail. Smisto searches your mail on your computer, sends the messages that match best, and the answer links to the ones it used. If your mail does not say, the answer says so.

Folder suggestions

Suggests a description for a folder, so smart sort knows what belongs there, or a new folder for a message that fits none. You edit it and save it yourself.

Where it runs, and where your mail goes

Off

Where every AI feature starts. No suggestions, no assistant buttons, nothing sent anywhere.

On this computer

Smart sort uses a small model in llama.cpp; the assistant uses Ollama with a model of about 5 GB. Your mail does not leave your computer. A server elsewhere on your network works too, but only after you confirm that mail is sent there.

OpenRouter

Hosted models, paid per use with your own OpenRouter key, which Smisto keeps in your system’s keychain. Your mail goes to OpenRouter and to the provider of the model you chose, and Smisto names that provider in Settings. Unless you choose otherwise, Smisto picks a paid model from a provider that does not train on API traffic. Free models are marked: their provider may use your mail to train AI.

What is sent

• Only the mail a feature is working on, and only when it runs. Never your whole mailbox.
• Smart sort: the email you open, with the names and descriptions of your folders.
• The assistant: the conversation you are reading, or for a summary or a question up to 30 messages that fit best.
• Under every answer, Smisto lists each message it sent and where it sent it.

It proposes, you decide

• Mail moves to a suggested folder only when you click.
• A to-do is added when you click “Add”.
• A draft goes nowhere until you put it in your reply and press Send.
• A suggested folder description stays editable, and nothing is saved until you save the folder.
• The assistant can be wrong. Answers link to their sources so you can check.

One switch per feature

Mail is data, not instructions

• An email can contain text written to trick an AI. Smisto passes mail to the model as data, under a rule never to follow instructions inside it.
• The model can only return text. It cannot send, move or delete anything, and its answer must fit a fixed format: anything else is thrown away.
• A source that is not one of the messages sent is dropped, and so is a to-do that does not quote its message.

Examples

“When does the signed rental form have to be back?”

Asked in the folder for your flat. The answer gives the date and links the messages from the property office it comes from.

Draft reply: “accept and suggest Tuesday”

A reply in the language of the conversation that accepts and proposes Tuesday, with [brackets] for anything the assistant cannot know. You edit it, then send it yourself.

Find to-dos in a message from the school

“Book the parent-teacher meeting”, due Wednesday, quoting the line it comes from. Click Add, or leave it.

“Has the insurance answered about the refund?”

Asked about all your mail. If no message says so, the answer tells you it was not found instead of guessing.

What you need