<!-- mobian-agent-page publisher="dailydev" canonical="https://daily.dev/posts/i-hope-this-email-finds-you-before-i-do-d94qppmrp" -->

---
title: I Hope This Email Finds You Before I Do | daily.dev
description: A developer built an AI-powered email assistant called &quot;Billie&quot; to handle spam and low-effort pitches with passive-aggressive responses. The system uses AWS...
canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-hope-this-email-finds-you-before-i-do-d94qppmrp
twitter:card: summary_large_image
twitter:site: @dailydotdev
og:type: website
og:site_name: daily.dev
og:title: I Hope This Email Finds You Before I Do | daily.dev
og:description: A developer built an AI-powered email assistant called &quot;Billie&quot; to handle spam and low-effort pitches with passive-aggressive responses. The system uses AWS...
og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-hope-this-email-finds-you-before-i-do-d94qppmrp
og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/d94QppmRP.png
og:image:alt: I Hope This Email Finds You Before I Do
og:image:width: 1200
og:image:height: 630
og:locale: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# I Hope This Email Finds You Before I Do

**[The Last Week in AWS](https://daily.dev/sources/lastweekinaws)** · 11 min read · 86 upvotes · 9 comments

## Summary

A developer built an AI-powered email assistant called "Billie" to handle spam and low-effort pitches with passive-aggressive responses. The system uses AWS Lambda, Cloudflare Email Routing, Claude AI for classification and drafting, and SES for sending. Emails are classified into tiers (spam, low-effort pitches, podcast requests, real humans) with AI-generated responses that are technically professional but carry an undercurrent of menace. Shadow mode ensures human approval before sending, and an operator context panel allows real-time instruction updates without code changes.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.lastweekinaws.com/blog/i-hope-this-email-finds-you-before-i-do/>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@fabianletsch** · 27 upvotes

> I read all of this just to realize that there are no example answers :(
>
> I didn't care about the implementation details, i just wanted to see how billie the platypus gets what he deserves

**@code\_chimp** · 5 upvotes

> Examples or it didn't happen.

**@mirkan** · 4 upvotes

> perfect use case of AI

**@akkitto** · 4 upvotes

> I wouldn't answer to all spammers, because that just confirms your e-mail address in their databases. However, fun idea, overall.

**@a\_meb\_a** · 4 upvotes

> perfect stalking

## Similar posts on daily.dev

- [Why Email Spam Looks Better Than Usual These Days](https://daily.dev/posts/why-email-spam-looks-better-than-usual-these-days-puz1dfar0) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

---

Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#aws](https://daily.dev/tags/aws), [#automation](https://daily.dev/tags/automation), [#aws-lambda](https://daily.dev/tags/aws-lambda)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-hope-this-email-finds-you-before-i-do-d94qppmrp)

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]}
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I Hope This Email Finds You Before I Do","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-hope-this-email-finds-you-before-i-do-d94qppmrp","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-hope-this-email-finds-you-before-i-do-d94qppmrp"},"datePublished":"2026-01-14T15:16:42.555Z","dateModified":"2026-01-14T15:17:06.030Z","description":"A developer built an AI-powered email assistant called \"Billie\" to handle spam and low-effort pitches with passive-aggressive responses. The system uses AWS...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/41b605a99052f041fe3f459bc372546b?_a=AQAEulh","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/41b605a99052f041fe3f459bc372546b?_a=AQAEulh","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Last Week in AWS","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Last Week in AWS","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/68c51ceaac7b40798b7a65cd71c893bf","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/lastweekinaws"},"commentCount":9,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-hope-this-email-finds-you-before-i-do-d94qppmrp","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":86},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":9}],"keywords":"ai,aws,automation,aws-lambda","timeRequired":"PT11M"}
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Last Week in AWS","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/lastweekinaws"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I Hope This Email Finds You Before I Do"}]}
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-hope-this-email-finds-you-before-i-do-d94qppmrp","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"I read all of this just to realize that there are no example answers :(\nI didn’t care about the implementation details, i just wanted to see how billie the platypus gets what he deserves","datePublished":"2026-01-15T08:47:46.397Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/d94QppmRP#c-FMOCmg0bc","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Fabian Letsch","url":"https://daily.dev/fabianletsch","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKR6BVy_wn23EoOKq7-BlszlcXcLmASlnb7l-GtS-q1bePnkaJf=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":27}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Examples or it didn’t happen.","datePublished":"2026-01-19T18:12:04.469Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/d94QppmRP#c-o0JoSGEm0","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Tim Goshinski","url":"https://daily.dev/code_chimp","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--_5X3OG7c--/f_auto/v1726237311/avatars/avatar_WhpHe2ngWJ9QbTYmApeA3"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"perfect use case of AI","datePublished":"2026-01-16T20:06:54.162Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/d94QppmRP#c-yTzKSr0Kh","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"mirkan","url":"https://daily.dev/mirkan","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/32144322?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I wouldn’t answer to all spammers, because that just confirms your e-mail address in their databases. However, fun idea, overall.","datePublished":"2026-01-18T15:22:18.935Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/d94QppmRP#c-GUpD6injB","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/akkitto","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--FtwJqX4c--/f_auto/v1754900041/avatars/avatar_29TCpY2hJR72V3BlxPXzX?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"perfect stalking","datePublished":"2026-01-18T12:08:48.251Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/d94QppmRP#c-3Cv7pXZkH","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Phillippe Michel Weir","url":"https://daily.dev/a_meb_a","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--BwH-uTMq--/f_auto/v1740136991/avatars/avatar_N403VFK9lAHNRwlSAhl1h"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}}]}
```

