Commitments
What you promised and what you wait for, found in your mail, with follow-up drafts.
Last verified 2026-10-11
In the web app
What zonask reads
zonask finds what you promised and what you wait for in the mail you send, each as a short paraphrase.
It reads the mail you send from each connected account, a few minutes after you send it.
It skips mail you send only to your own addresses and automatic replies, and reads the text of the others once, in memory, without the quoted earlier mail and the signature.
The AI says whether you promised something or asked someone for something, and the due date when you named one; text in an email that tries to give the AI instructions is ignored.
Requests other people send you
zonask can also find what other people ask of you in the mail you receive. This part is switched off for now; it is switched on for everyone once its quality check has passed.
When it is on, zonask looks only at an email it already read to sort it, that needs you and that is a request or a question, and at only a few such emails per account each time it sorts new mail.
The AI says who owes the next step: you, or the sender who said they will send or do something for you.
An email that tries to give the AI instructions makes no proposal, and neither does an answer of the AI that holds a link, an address or a name.
Under Approvals you then see, for example, "Asked of you by Anna Muster (acme.ch): send the Q3 figures" or "You wait for Peter Keller (capptoo.ch): the revised offer"; Approve, Edit and Reject work as for the mail you send, and nothing becomes a task without you.
One conversation is proposed once: while a proposal waits or its task is open, a further email in the same thread adds none.
When you answer that person in the same thread, the desk asks "You answered Anna Muster. Close "send the Q3 figures"?", and Approve marks it done.
What zonask stores
No mail you send or receive is stored for this, and neither is its text.
A commitment it found waits on your approvals desk, with the paraphrase and the person's name encrypted; if you do not answer it within 30 days, its text is deleted.
For a request someone sent you, zonask keeps the same: a paraphrase of at most 140 characters and the sender's name, encrypted, and never the email.
The person's address is never stored, only a keyed fingerprint of it, so zonask can tell when that person answers.
The approvals desk
Under Approvals you see, for example, "You promised Anna Muster (acme.ch): send the revised offer" or "You wait for Peter Keller (capptoo.ch): the signed NDA", with the due date when there is one.
Approve adds it as a task in the role of the account you sent it from; Edit lets you change the text, the role and the due date first; Reject drops it. Nothing becomes a task without you.
When the person you wait for answers in the same thread, the desk asks "Peter Keller answered. Close "the signed NDA"?", and Approve marks it done.
Follow-up drafts
When nobody answered for 5 working days (Monday to Friday), the desk asks "No answer from Peter Keller for 6 working days. Draft a follow-up?".
Draft writes a short follow-up in the language of the thread, which you can change; Save as draft puts it in Gmail Drafts of the same mailbox, in the same thread, addressed only to that person. zonask never sends it.
Under Settings, Commitments you choose Suggest a follow-up after 3, 5 or 10 working days, or Never.
Where you see them
Tasks, Commitments shows I promised, I wait for and Overdue, with the role filter and the counts per role.
Today shows Overdue promises at the top while one is past its due date, and so does the morning summary.
Delete all my data removes your commitments and what zonask kept to find them.
In Claude or ChatGPT
list_commitments lists them, as a card with the three tabs where the host supports it; ask, for example, What do I still owe Acme?
create_commitment adds one and close_commitment marks one done, after your confirm.
draft_followup writes a follow-up and, after your confirm, saves it as a Gmail draft in the thread, never sent; list_approvals and answer_approval show and answer the desk.
list_commitments also carries your follow-up threshold, and set_followup_days changes it, after your confirm.