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126 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
126 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
# PRD — Inbound Email Reopen On Reply
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- Slug: `inbound-email-reopen-on-reply`
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- Date: `2026-03-31`
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- Status: Draft
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## Summary
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Add per-board inbound-email reopen policies for replies against closed tickets. Match ConnectWise-style behavior by allowing boards to opt into reopen-on-reply, configure a cutoff window, and choose a reopen status. Add optional Enterprise Edition AI suppression for short client acknowledgements when the tenant has the `AI Assistant` add-on.
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## Problem
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Inbound email threading already finds existing tickets and appends comments, but replies against closed tickets do not have a clear lifecycle policy. This creates ambiguity for technicians and customers, especially when a legitimate follow-up should resume work but a trivial "thanks" should not reopen a finished ticket.
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## Goals
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- Reopen closed tickets automatically for valid inbound replies using board-scoped policy.
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- Support a configurable cutoff window so old replies create a new ticket instead of reviving stale work.
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- Let boards configure an explicit reopen status while falling back to the board's default open status.
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- Always reopen for internal-user email replies.
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- Optionally suppress reopen for short client acknowledgements using the standard LLM path when EE + `AI Assistant` are available.
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- Keep inbound processing resilient and non-blocking when AI or configuration is unavailable.
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## Non-goals
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- Building a general-purpose AI classifier infrastructure.
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- Restoring the exact historical pre-closure status.
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- Making reopen policy provider-scoped or tenant-wide.
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- Adding new workflow automation surfaces for this v1.
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- Building advanced analytics or reporting for reopen decisions.
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## Users and Primary Flows
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- MSP technicians:
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- Need closed tickets to reopen automatically when internal discussion or new customer work resumes.
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- Need stale replies to become new work instead of mutating old tickets.
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- MSP admins:
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- Need board-specific control over reopen policy, cutoff, reopen status, and AI suppression opt-out.
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- Client contacts:
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- Their substantive replies should reopen active work.
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- Their simple acknowledgements should optionally remain attached without reopening when the board enables AI suppression.
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Primary flows:
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1. Internal user replies by email to a closed ticket within cutoff -> ticket reopens -> reply comment is added.
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2. Client replies by email to a closed ticket within cutoff -> ticket reopens unless AI suppression classifies the reply as a simple acknowledgement.
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3. Any threaded reply to a closed ticket after cutoff -> old ticket remains closed -> inbound flow creates a new ticket.
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## UX / UI Notes
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- Add reopen policy controls to board settings because ticket statuses are board-owned.
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- Expose AI acknowledgement suppression as a visible board option so admins know the feature exists and can opt out.
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- Reopen status picker should use board-owned ticket statuses.
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- If AI suppression is unavailable because the tenant lacks `AI Assistant`, the setting should either be disabled with explanatory copy or treated as inactive at runtime.
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## Requirements
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### Functional Requirements
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- Board settings must persist reopen-on-inbound-reply configuration:
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- enable/disable
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- cutoff duration
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- optional reopen status
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- AI acknowledgement suppression enable/disable
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- When inbound threading matches an existing closed ticket:
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- if reopen is disabled, attach the comment without reopening
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- if reply age exceeds cutoff, route into new-ticket creation instead of attaching to the closed ticket
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- if sender is internal, reopen
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- if sender is client/contact, reopen unless AI suppression is enabled and returns `ACK`
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- Reopen must update `status_id`, `is_closed`, `closed_at`, and `closed_by` consistently with existing ticket status transition semantics.
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- If no explicit reopen status is configured, fallback must use the board's default open status.
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- Existing dedupe and token-only self-notification guards must remain intact.
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- The AI acknowledgement decision path must be isolated behind a shared interface with an EE implementation injected in EE mode.
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- The EE implementation must only call AI when:
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- board AI suppression is enabled
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- tenant has `AI Assistant`
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- reply is short and plausibly acknowledgement-like
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- AI prompt/output must be minimal and return a tiny formatted response such as `ACK` or `NOT_ACK`.
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### Non-functional Requirements
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- Inbound email processing must not fail closed because of missing AI entitlement, missing EE code, invalid AI output, or AI runtime errors.
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- Fallback behavior for AI failures is reopen normally.
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- Logging or stored metadata must be sufficient to explain reopen decisions during debugging.
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## Data / API / Integrations
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- Add board-scoped configuration fields for reopen policy and AI suppression.
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- Reuse existing board-owned status selection and `TicketModel.getDefaultStatusId(...)`.
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- Reuse existing inbound threading flow in `shared/services/email/processInboundEmailInApp.ts`.
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- Reuse existing AI provider resolution pattern in EE code via `@ee/...`.
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- AI suppression uses the existing `AI Assistant` add-on entitlement (`ai_assistant`).
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## Security / Permissions
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- Board reopen policy editing follows existing board-settings permissions.
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- AI suppression execution must require the tenant `AI Assistant` add-on before any LLM call.
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- CE environments must not import or require EE AI code paths at runtime.
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## Observability
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- Log or persist decision metadata for:
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- reopen enabled/disabled
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- cutoff exceeded
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- reopen target source (explicit status vs board default)
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- AI suppression attempted / skipped / failed
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- AI result (`ACK` / `NOT_ACK`)
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## Rollout / Migration
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- Default existing boards to reopen disabled so behavior does not change silently.
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- New board settings become active only when configured by admins.
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- AI suppression is dormant unless both board config and add-on entitlement are present.
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## Open Questions
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- None blocking design. Future optimization work may replace the standard LLM call with a narrower classifier or heuristic layer once production examples are available.
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## Acceptance Criteria (Definition of Done)
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- Boards can configure reopen-on-inbound-reply behavior, cutoff window, optional reopen status, and AI suppression.
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- Closed-ticket inbound replies follow the configured policy for internal and client senders.
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- Replies beyond cutoff create new tickets instead of reopening stale ones.
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- AI suppression only runs in EE with `AI Assistant` entitlement and falls back safely on any failure.
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- Behavioral integration coverage proves reopen, no-reopen, cutoff, and fallback outcomes.
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