# Working with the agent

> What the agent does on its own, what always waits for your approval, how the briefing works, and how to ask it for something directly.

The agent is the colleague that takes the administrative half of a case. It reads
the file, notices what is missing, prepares the work, and comes back to you when
a decision or a signature is needed.

The rule that matters most is simple, so it is worth stating before anything
else.

> **Caution:** **By default, nothing reaches a family without a human approving it.** The agent
> drafts; you approve. A firm can choose to let the agent send to families on its
> own, with **Family emails** in the **Agent email** section of the **Company** tab
> under **Your Company**. Unless someone turns that on, no email reaches a family
> because the agent decided it should.
## What it does on its own

These things happen without you asking.

- **It reads the case** and keeps track of what is still open.
- **It drafts emails to the family**, in the family's language, from what the
  case already says.
- **It prepares documents** from your templates, filling in what it knows.
- **It records what it learns.** If a family mentions a change to the ceremony in
  a reply, that lands on the case, not just in a mailbox.
- **It remembers to come back.** If it is waiting on a document or an answer, it
  schedules its own follow-up rather than forgetting.

## What always waits for you

- **Emails to families are drafted for your approval.** They wait in the
  [inbox](/docs/getting-started/the-inbox/) until someone approves them, unless
  your firm has chosen to let the agent send on its own.
- **Emails to suppliers wait too.** Unless your firm turns on automatic sending
  for them under **Your Company**, **Vendors**, **Outbound emails**.
- **Decisions stay yours.** When the agent reaches something it should not
  decide alone, it asks you a question in the inbox and waits for the answer.
- **Documents are prepared, not filed.** Anything official is yours to check and
  submit.
- **Nothing is shared with a family** until you invite them and choose what they
  see.

## The briefing

Each case has an **Agent** tab, and at the top of it is the briefing. It is the
agent's answer to "where is this case, and what should I do next?", written fresh
rather than pulled from a checklist.

(Screenshot: The Agent tab on a case: the case agent header with its mailbox and 2 waiting on you, the agent briefing with What matters right now and Next steps, and the start of the Waiting on you list.)

It has two parts:

- **What matters right now** is the state of the case in a few lines. The things
  that are unusual, late, or waiting.
- **Next steps** is what the agent would do next, in order.

When there is genuinely nothing outstanding it says so rather than inventing
work. The briefing shows when it was last updated, so you can tell whether you
are looking at something written before or after this morning's phone call.

The briefing is the fastest way back into a case you have not touched for a few
days, and it is worth reading before you ring a family back.

## Asking it directly

Once a case has its own agent mailbox, which Lethra sets up for you, a bar at
the bottom of every tab reads *Ask the agent anything…*. What you type opens in
the case's **Assistant** tab, where the conversation carries on. You can also
talk to it by voice. It has the whole case in front of it, so you can ask in
plain language rather than going to find the answer yourself.

(Screenshot: The Assistant tab on a case: a question about the documents still needed before the cremation, the agent's answer, and the Ask the agent anything bar at the bottom.)

Useful things to ask:

- What is still missing from this file?
- Draft a reply to the daughter about Thursday's viewing.
- What did we agree about the flowers?
- Which documents do we still need before the cremation?

There is also **Assistant** in the main sidebar. That one is not tied to a single
case, so use it for questions across the whole firm rather than about one family.

## Which mailbox it sends from

Lethra can send from two places, and this catches people out, so it is worth
understanding.

- **Your Gmail**, so the family sees the message coming from you personally.
  Connect it once under **Your Account**, with **Enable email sending**.
- **The agent mailbox**, a separate address the agent uses for each case, on
  your firm's own domain if you have set one up under **Your Company**.

Before you approve a draft you can see which one it will go from, and switch it
for that message with **Use my Gmail** or **Use agent mailbox**.

(Screenshot: An agent draft marked From agent mailbox, with Approve and send, Discard, Use my Gmail and Save as rule beneath it.)

**Save as rule** teaches the agent that preference for this kind of email, so
you are teaching it once rather than correcting it weekly. Your saved
preferences are kept under **Your Account**, where you can also write them in
plain words. Most firms end up sending
family correspondence from a personal Gmail and supplier or administrative email
from the agent mailbox.

## What it will not do

Being clear about the limits is the point of trusting it with the rest.

- It does not invent facts. If the case does not say where the service is, the
  draft will not guess.
- It does not send anything to a family on its own, unless your firm has turned
  that on.
- It does not decide pricing, or commit your firm to a supplier.
- It does not act on a phone call it did not handle. If you agreed something on
  your mobile, the agent only knows once it is on the case.

## Next

Approving what it writes: [The inbox](/docs/getting-started/the-inbox/).

Source: https://lethra.ai/docs/getting-started/the-agent/