Email Style Guide #

default_signature: @jeffrey force_lowercase: true append_signature_if_missing: true

Defaults #

• keep subjects and body copy all lowercase by default
• URLs are never lowercased — Drive file ids and similar are case-sensitive, and a lowercased link is a dead link
• sign emails as @jeffrey
• append signature automatically if missing

Overrides #

• set preserve_case: true in mail_send when casing must be preserved
• set signature in mail_send to override the default sign-off for a specific email

Register — when to override the lowercase default #

The lowercase voice is for internal, personal, peer, and Fia threads. Switch to proper caps + punctuation when the recipient is a professional collaborator — external research lab, client, vendor, institution, grant officer, deliverable-bearing first impression.

In the proper-caps register:

• Sentences start with capitals; proper nouns capitalized (Jeffrey, Dask, Linux, Allen, Google Drive).
• Tech / product / project names keep canonical casing (brainreg, atlas.roi — software stays as its authors style it).
• Acronyms uppercase (MIPs, ROI, OME-XML, AP/ML/DV).
• Code identifiers in backticks stay verbatim.
• Sign with the capitalized first name ("Jeffrey"), not the lowercase handle, unless the thread has already established the lowercase voice.

Set preserve_case: true in mail_send for these.

Closers — no motivation, no hype #

Cut motivational and enthusiasm-filler lines from the draft. Examples to strip before sending:

• "excited about this"
• "looking forward"
• "this is going to be great"
• "happy to help"
• "let me know if that works for you" / "let me know your thoughts" / any permission-seeking or confirmation-fishing tag — state the fact and stop; if a real question exists, ask it directly
• generic trailing "thanks!" when there's nothing being thanked for

End on the last functional sentence + signature. Concrete next-step phrasing ("send the JSON back") is information, not hype — keep that. The substance carries the energy; performed enthusiasm reads as filler and undercuts the work.

Drafts and authorization #

Never send any email without prior approval. This applies to every email — new threads, replies, logistics notes, one-liners, all of it. There is no "unambiguous intent" exception: even when the prompt says "email them," compose the draft, show the headers + body + attachment paths in the conversation, and wait for explicit authorization ("send it" / "go ahead") before calling mail_send. Drafting is the default; sending is a separate, explicitly-authorized step every time.