Elie Steinbock's Inbox Zero

Table of content

Elie Steinbock is a full-stack developer and founder based in Tel Aviv. He created Inbox Zero, an open-source AI email assistant that has reached 15,000+ signups and hit #1 on GitHub Trending. He also runs a YouTube channel teaching developers about open source and AI coding, and serves as a Cursor Ambassador leading Cursor Israel.

The core idea: write email rules in plain English, and let an AI execute them 24/7.

Background

Full-stack developer with CS degree from Hebrew University
Founded Skilled, a seven-figure Israeli freelance developer agency
Created Draft Fantasy, a fantasy football game with 250,000+ users
Launched CryptoFighters (2018 NFT game) and created ERC-5507 (trustless NFT refunds)
Winner of Best AI Software at the 2025 FOSS Awards

GitHub | Twitter | YouTube | Site

The Plain English Rules System

Steinbock built Inbox Zero after spending too much time on email while running a previous business. Instead of hiring an assistant, he created an AI that follows rules you write in natural language.

The system works like this:

When a newsletter from Substack arrives, label it "Reading" and archive it.
If someone asks for a meeting, check my calendar and draft a reply with available times.
Cold emails from recruiters go to spam. Always.

The AI can take any action a human assistant would:

Action	Example
Draft reply	Write a response matching your tone
Label	Categorize by sender type
Archive	Remove from inbox without deleting
Reply	Send immediately for routine responses
Forward	Route to the right person
Mark spam	Block unwanted senders
Call webhook	Trigger external automations

How It Works

Inbox Zero runs as a layer on top of Gmail or Outlook. You keep using your existing email client.

The three-step flow:

Connect your Gmail or Outlook account
Write rules in plain English describing how to handle emails
Let it run 24/7 organizing, labeling, and drafting

The AI learns from your email history and calendar to generate contextually appropriate responses. It matches your voice by analyzing past messages.

Smart Categories

The system auto-categorizes every sender:

Newsletter
To Reply
Marketing
Calendar
Notification
Cold Email
Team
Urgent

You can create custom categories for your specific workflow.

Open Source Architecture

Inbox Zero is fully open source. The codebase includes:

apps/web/          # Next.js frontend
apps/cron/         # Background job processing
packages/prisma/   # Database schema
packages/tinybird/ # Analytics pipeline
.claude/           # Claude Code skills and commands

Tech stack: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui, Prisma, Upstash, Turborepo.

Self-hosting options include Docker Compose and cloud deployment guides for AWS EC2/Fargate.

Cursor Ambassador Work

Beyond Inbox Zero, Steinbock shares his AI coding workflows publicly. He open-sourced his Cursor .mdc rules, which received 162K views.

One technique he uses:

Create a .md file with this line at the top:
"As you complete tasks and reference relevant files,
update this file as our memory to help with future tasks."

This gives Cursor persistent context across sessions.

Key Takeaways

Principle	Implementation
Plain English over code	Write rules anyone can read
Layer, don’t replace	Work with existing email clients
Open source for trust	Users see exactly how emails are handled
24/7 automation	Set rules once, AI runs continuously
Learn from history	Match user’s voice and preferences

Getting Started

Try the hosted version at getinboxzero.com or self-host from the GitHub repo.

git clone https://github.com/elie222/inbox-zero
cd inbox-zero
pnpm install
pnpm dev

The project includes DevContainer support for fast local setup.

Links

Next: Jesse Vincent’s Superpowers Framework