FAQ

FAQ

The basics

Question	Answer
What is Preen?	A Thunderbird add-on. It asks an AI model what kind of mail each message is. Then it adds tags. See Home.
What is Jev?	Jev is the AI model Preen asks. It is TypeSafe's model. Preen reaches it through OpenRouter or TypeSafe.
Does Preen cost money?	No. Preen has no fee of its own. You only pay your provider for the tokens Preen sends, with your own key. See Costs and limits and Getting an API key.
Can I use Preen at work? Can I change it?	Yes. You can install and use Preen on any computer, for personal or business use. The code is source-available under the PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0, so you can read it and change it for your own use. What you may not do: • sell Preen, or offer it as your own product or service; • rebrand it, or claim the code as your own; • remove the credit to its author, Jerry Reinitz. The PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0 is the exact legal text. If this summary and the licence differ, the licence wins.
Which mail accounts does Preen work with?	Preen is built to work with any account Thunderbird can open: IMAP, POP, Exchange, Local Folders, news and feeds. If one doesn't work for you, please report it.
What do I need?	Thunderbird 140 or newer, and an API key from OpenRouter or TypeSafe. See Installing and Getting an API key.
Does Preen update itself?	Installs from ATN update through Thunderbird. The .xpi file from GitHub does not update itself yet. You install each new version by hand.

Safety

Question	Answer
Will Preen delete my mail?	No. Preen never deletes mail. It also never clears a junk mark. It moves mail to the Junk folder only if you turn that on.
Will Preen mark my mail as read?	No. Preen never marks mail as read. "Read" means you read it. It can mark a message as unread, if you set that for a category.
Can I undo what Preen did?	Yes, for real runs. Use Undo on a row in the activity log, or Undo last run. Only Preen's own changes are undone. Your own tags stay. See Tags and categories.
What is the difference between "dry run" and "Preview"?	• Preview with Preen (no changes) is a right-click choice. It never changes anything. • Dry run is a switch in the Advanced section of the settings. It is off unless you turn it on. While it is on, Classify with Preen and automatic runs only log what they would do. Both show their results in the activity log. Neither changes your mail.
Does my mail leave my computer?	Your mail goes out only when Preen asks Jev (step 3 of 5). It goes only to the provider you chose, after you agree. Nothing else leaves your computer, and Preen sends nothing to its developer. Surface depth never sends the message text. Deep sends about 2,000 characters of it. See Privacy and data.
Where is my API key kept?	In your Thunderbird profile, without encryption. It is sent only to your provider. Use a key made just for Preen, with a credit limit.
Does Preen keep a copy of my mail?	The activity log holds each message's sender and subject, the tags, scores and token counts. It never holds the message text. The exception is the debug log, which is off by default and holds full text. Both stay on your computer. You can save the debug log as a file or clear it in Settings, Debug. See Privacy and data.

Using Preen

Question	Answer
What does the toolbar button do?	It opens a small pop-up. • The chip shows On, On · dry run, Paused or Off. • Waiting is the number of messages in the queue. • Today shows messages and tokens used, against your daily limit. • This month shows tokens. • Limit and Problem lines show up when a limit is reached or something went wrong. The toolbar icon also shows a mark. • Run now processes the waiting messages. • Pause or Resume stops or starts automatic processing. It is hidden when no mailbox is ticked. • Classify selected and Preview selected work on the messages you selected. • Links open the Activity log and Settings.
What is on the activity page?	Before Preen has sorted anything, the page looks like this. • Chips for dry run and automatic processing. • Buttons: Run now, Stop, Pause or Resume, Undo last run, Export CSV, Export JSON, Clear history and Settings. • A card with the status, the queue and the last run. • This month's totals, a chart by category and a chart of tokens by month. • A table with one row per message: time, message, result, scores, header hints and tokens. Each row says if it was a preview, a dry run or applied. Each row has Undo if it changed something.
How do I classify messages by hand?	Right-click one message or several. Choose Classify with Preen, or Preview with Preen (no changes). You can also right-click a folder and choose Classify this folder or Preview this folder (no changes). There are versions for the folder and its subfolders too.
How do I always treat one sender as a real person?	Right-click a message. Choose Preen: this sender is…. Then pick "Always a real person", "Never a real person" or "No rule (let Preen decide)".
Why did a message get no tags?	Maybe Jev was not sure enough. A tag is only added when the score reaches your certainty. Open the activity log. It shows the scores and the reasons. Then see Tags and categories.
Why does a message show Review?	Preen was not sure which category fits, so it gave the message no category. The activity page shows it as Review. Look at it yourself.
How do I make Preen tag more, or less?	Change the certainty for that tag. Higher means fewer tags and fewer mistakes. Lower means more tags and more mistakes. After you have made at least 10 corrections to one tag, Preen can suggest a level. See Settings.
How do I add my own category?	Open the Categories section. Click Add category. Write a name, an Is line and, if it helps, an Is not line. Click Save. See Settings.
Why do tags differ on my other computer?	By default Preen adds a tag Preen: processed so other computers skip messages it has handled. This syncs through IMAP. It does not work on Gmail, which does not keep tags. See Settings.
Can I use Preen only to catch junk?	Yes. Open the Categories section and turn the Categories switch off. Then turn Junk on under Junk & sensitive info. Preen then asks Jev no category question, so requests are smaller, and only the yes/no checks you turned on still run. Click Save. See Turning categories off.
Which mailboxes does Preen watch?	Only the ones you tick under Automatic processing. It never processes Trash, Junk, Sent, Drafts, Outbox, Templates or Archives on its own.
Can I move my settings to another computer?	Yes. Use Export settings… and Import settings… in the Backup section. The key is left out unless you tick Include my API key.
What if the provider changes the model?	Preen tells you: "Your provider now answers with [new model] (was [old model])..." Check your results for a few days and adjust your settings if tags look off.

Getting help

See Troubleshooting.

Questions or requests go to the issues page: https://github.com/JR91387/Preen-AI-email-sorting/issues.