Inbox Drafts
Keep outreach drafts, sent mail, and prospect replies synchronized with Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, or any IMAP client.
Why It Matters
Kit’s AI drafts outreach emails, but sales teams often live in their inbox. Inbox sync lets them stay there: a Kit draft appears in Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, or another IMAP client; edits flow back to Kit; and sending it from the inbox advances the campaign automatically.
Kit also checks the connected Inbox for prospect replies and bounces. The campaign record and the shared sending mailbox stay aligned without a separate copy-and-paste workflow.
How It Works
- Kit’s AI researches a prospect and generates a draft email
- Kit pushes the draft to the connected mailbox’s Drafts folder via IMAP
- You review or edit it in Kit or your email client; Kit keeps the latest draft content in sync
- Send from the email client, or approve the message in Kit for Kit to send it—choose one path
- Kit detects the real message in Sent, stores its final content and Message-ID, and advances the campaign
- Kit schedules follow-ups and continues detecting replies and bounces from Inbox
Mailbox synchronization runs every five minutes and uses non-destructive IMAP reads, so Kit does not mark messages as read.
Setting Up
Prerequisites
- SMTP credentials configured in Email Delivery settings
- IMAP connection verified (Kit auto-discovers Drafts and Sent and checks for safe targeted deletion)
Enable Inbox Drafts
- Go to Outreach > Email Delivery
- In Inbox sync (IMAP), verify your connection
- Confirm that Kit detected Drafts, Sent, and Inbox
- After verification, enable Push drafts to inbox
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Push drafts to inbox | When enabled, AI-generated drafts appear in your email client’s Drafts folder |
| Drafts folder | Where Kit creates and reads editable drafts, such as [Gmail]/Drafts or Drafts
|
| Sent folder | Where Kit detects a native send and imports the final delivered copy |
| Inbox folder | Where Kit detects prospect replies and bounces; usually INBOX
|
Working with Inbox Drafts
Viewing Synced Drafts
Drafts that have reached the email client show an In Drafts badge in Kit. The message page also shows when the draft last synchronized.
Edits made in the email client are imported while the message is still a draft. Edits made in Kit replace the mailbox draft. Once you approve a message in Kit, Kit owns delivery and removes the mailbox draft so there is only one send path. Kit keeps SMTP blocked until it confirms that the Drafts copy was removed or finds the matching message in Sent.
Sending from Your Email Client
- Open your email client (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.)
- Navigate to your Drafts folder
- Find the Kit-generated draft (it has the correct To, Subject, and body)
- Review and edit as needed
- Press Send; do not also approve the same message in Kit
Your email client moves the message from Drafts to Sent. On the next synchronization, Kit records the final subject, body, sent time, and real Message-ID, then activates the prospect and schedules any configured follow-ups.
If a Send Is Not Detected
Kit normally detects native sends automatically. If the connected provider does not expose a Sent folder or the message has not appeared after a synchronization, use Already sent but not detected? Mark as sent on the message page.
This recovery action advances the campaign immediately. If the Sent copy becomes available later, Kit replaces the temporary identifier with the real Message-ID and final delivered content so future replies can still correlate correctly.
Manual Push and Remove
Even with auto-sync enabled, you can manually control individual drafts:
| Action | When to Use |
|---|---|
| Send to Drafts | Push a specific draft to your email client (shown when sync is available but draft isn’t synced yet) |
| Remove from Drafts | Remove a synced draft from your email client without sending it |
| Mark as Sent | Recovery only when automatic Sent detection has not completed |
Draft Lifecycle
| Event | What Happens in IMAP |
|---|---|
| AI generates draft | Draft pushed to your Drafts folder |
| You refine the draft in Kit | Old draft replaced with updated version |
| You edit the draft in your email client | Final subject and body imported into Kit |
| You approve in Kit | Draft removed from your Drafts folder while Kit queues the send |
| Kit sends the email | Delivery recorded in Kit with open and click tracking |
| Email bounces | Draft removed (terminal state) |
| You reject the draft | Synced copy removed from your Drafts folder; Kit keeps the message rejected |
| You send from your email client | Sent copy detected; Kit records delivery and removes any stale draft reference |
Tracking and Analytics
Emails sent from your email client do not have open or click tracking. This is intentional: Kit does not inject tracking pixels into Inbox Drafts.
What still works:
- Native-send detection with the real RFC Message-ID
- Reply detection via IMAP
- Bounce detection via IMAP
- Campaign sequence progression (follow-ups still schedule)
- Webhook events
What does not work:
- Open tracking (no pixel)
- Click tracking (no URL rewriting)
This tradeoff reflects Kit’s philosophy: authentic, personal outreach over surveillance metrics.
Supported Email Clients
Reply sync works with standard IMAP servers. Inbox Drafts additionally requires a discoverable Sent folder and a server that supports targeted deletion through UIDPLUS or MOVE. Kit checks this during verification and leaves draft sync off when the handoff cannot be made safely.
| Provider | Drafts Folder | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail | [Gmail]/Drafts |
Draft appears in Gmail’s compose UI |
| Outlook / Office 365 | Drafts |
Works with desktop and web |
| Apple Mail | Drafts |
Syncs via iCloud or any IMAP account |
| Fastmail | Drafts |
Full support |
| Generic IMAP | Auto-detected | Requires Drafts, Sent, and UIDPLUS or MOVE support |
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Toggle not visible | Verify IMAP first. Draft sync also requires detected Drafts and Sent folders plus UIDPLUS or MOVE; reply sync remains available without them. |
| Mailbox handoff is still pending | Use Retry mailbox handoff after reconnecting IMAP, or Mark as sent only if you already sent from your inbox. If you deleted the unsent mailbox copy yourself, use I deleted the mailbox draft to explicitly let Kit take over. Kit will not send a second copy while unresolved. |
| Draft not appearing | Check that IMAP credentials are correct and the Drafts folder was detected. Try re-verifying IMAP. |
| “In Drafts” badge not showing | The sync runs as a background job. Wait a few seconds and refresh the page. |
| Inbox edits not appearing in Kit | Edits import only while the message is in Draft status. If it is approved, Kit owns delivery. |
| Native send not detected | Use Sync now in the Reply Inbox. If the provider exposes no Sent folder, use the manual recovery action on the message. |
| Draft disappeared unexpectedly | Kit removes drafts when a message reaches a terminal state (sent, bounced, failed). Check message status. |
| Stale drafts in Drafts folder | Kit automatically cleans up synced drafts older than 30 days. |
Quick Checklist
- SMTP credentials configured and verified
- IMAP connection verified (Drafts, Sent, and Inbox detected)
- “Push drafts to inbox” toggle enabled
- Test: create a prospect, trigger an AI draft, and edit it in your email client
- Send it from the email client and confirm Kit marks it sent after the next sync
Next Steps
- Setting Up Email Delivery – Configure SMTP and IMAP
- Messages – Managing outreach messages in Kit
- Engagement Tracking – Understanding open and click metrics