Flag no-reply senders so untrustworthy display names can be suppressed

.changeset/email-classifier-isnoreplysender.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@plotday/email-classifier": minor
+---
+
+Added: isNoReplySender(address) helper that reports whether an address's local part marks it as an automated/no-reply/notification sender.

.changeset/twister-newcontact-automated.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@plotday/twister": minor
+---
+
+Added: NewContact.automated flag marking a sender address as automated/no-reply, so the runtime can suppress an untrustworthy display name that varies per message on a shared address.

connectors/gmail/src/gmail-api.test.ts

@@ -552,6 +552,41 @@ describe("buildForwardMessage", () => {
  });
 });
 
+describe("transformGmailThread sender classification", () => {
+ it("marks a no-reply From sender contact as automated", () => {
+ const t = thread({
+ from: "Susan Braun <notify@payments.interac.ca>",
+ to: "me@x.com",
+ subject: "INTERAC e-Transfer",
+ payload: part("text/plain", { data: "hi" }),
+ });
+ const link = transformGmailThread(t);
+ const sender = (
+ link.accessContacts as Array<{ email: string; automated?: boolean }>
+ ).find((c) => c.email === "notify@payments.interac.ca");
+ expect(sender?.automated).toBe(true);
+ const author = link.notes![0].author as {
+ email?: string;
+ automated?: boolean;
+ };
+ expect(author.automated).toBe(true);
+ });
+
+ it("does not mark an ordinary From sender as automated", () => {
+ const t = thread({
+ from: "Bob Smith <bob@company.com>",
+ to: "me@x.com",
+ subject: "hi",
+ payload: part("text/plain", { data: "hi" }),
+ });
+ const link = transformGmailThread(t);
+ const sender = (
+ link.accessContacts as Array<{ email: string; automated?: boolean }>
+ ).find((c) => c.email === "bob@company.com");
+ expect(sender?.automated).toBeFalsy();
+ });
+});
+
 describe("classifyCalendarThread", () => {
  const icsUpdate =
  "BEGIN:VCALENDAR\r\nMETHOD:REQUEST\r\nBEGIN:VEVENT\r\nUID:uid-1\r\nSEQUENCE:2\r\nEND:VEVENT\r\nEND:VCALENDAR";

connectors/gmail/src/gmail-api.ts

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import type {
 } from "@plotday/twister/plot";
 import { markdownToPlainText } from "@plotday/twister/utils/markdown";
 import { markdownToHtml } from "@plotday/twister/utils/markdown-html";
+import { isNoReplySender } from "@plotday/email-classifier";
 
 
 export type GmailLabel = {
@@ -956,6 +957,7 @@ export function transformGmailThread(thread: GmailThread): NewLinkWithNotes {
  name: fromName,
  // See parseEmailAddressesToContacts for the email-vs-sub keying rationale.
  source: { accountId: fromContact.email.toLowerCase() },
+ automated: isNoReplySender(fromContact.email),
  } as NewContact,
  ]
  : []),
@@ -1006,6 +1008,7 @@ export function transformGmailThread(thread: GmailThread): NewLinkWithNotes {
  const senderName = isFromAddressRewritten(message, sender.email)
  ? undefined
  : sender.name || undefined;
+ const senderIsNoReply = isNoReplySender(sender.email);
 
  const { content: rawBody, contentType } = extractBody(message.payload);
  const body = stripQuotedReply(rawBody, contentType);
@@ -1027,13 +1030,15 @@ export function transformGmailThread(thread: GmailThread): NewLinkWithNotes {
  const senderActor: NewActor = {
  email: sender.email,
  name: senderName,
+ automated: senderIsNoReply,
  };
  const messageContacts: NewContact[] = [
  {
  email: sender.email,
  name: senderName,
  // See parseEmailAddressesToContacts for the email-vs-sub keying rationale.
  source: { accountId: sender.email.toLowerCase() },
+ automated: senderIsNoReply,
  },
  ...parseEmailAddressesToContacts(to),
  ...parseEmailAddressesToContacts(cc),

connectors/outlook-mail/src/graph-mail-api.test.ts

@@ -181,6 +181,51 @@ describe("small helpers", () => {
  });
 });
 
+describe("transformOutlookConversation sender classification", () => {
+ const base = {
+ attachmentsByMessageId: new Map<string, GraphAttachmentMeta[]>(),
+ accountEmail: "me@work.com",
+ };
+
+ it("marks a no-reply From sender contact as automated", () => {
+ const link = transformOutlookConversation({
+ ...base,
+ messages: [
+ msg({
+ from: {
+ emailAddress: {
+ name: "Susan Braun",
+ address: "notify@payments.interac.ca",
+ },
+ },
+ }),
+ ],
+ });
+ const sender = (
+ link.accessContacts as Array<{ email: string; automated?: boolean }>
+ ).find((c) => c.email === "notify@payments.interac.ca");
+ expect(sender?.automated).toBe(true);
+ const author = link.notes![0].author as {
+ email?: string;
+ automated?: boolean;
+ };
+ expect(author.automated).toBe(true);
+ });
+
+ it("does not mark an ordinary From sender as automated", () => {
+ const link = transformOutlookConversation({
+ ...base,
+ messages: [
+ msg({ from: { emailAddress: { name: "Bob", address: "bob@company.com" } } }),
+ ],
+ });
+ const sender = (
+ link.accessContacts as Array<{ email: string; automated?: boolean }>
+ ).find((c) => c.email === "bob@company.com");
+ expect(sender?.automated).toBeFalsy();
+ });
+});
+
 describe("GraphMailApi queries", () => {
  it("getConversationMessages requests meeting fields + expands event", async () => {
  const calls: Array<Record<string, string> | undefined> = [];

connectors/outlook-mail/src/graph-mail-api.ts

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import type {
  NewContact,
  NewLinkWithNotes,
 } from "@plotday/twister/plot";
+import { isNoReplySender } from "@plotday/email-classifier";
 import { stripQuotedReply } from "./email-parsing";
 
 export type GraphRecipient = {
@@ -550,7 +551,8 @@ export function isViaRewrittenName(name: string | undefined): boolean {
 
 function recipientToContact(
  r: GraphRecipient,
- suppressName = false
+ suppressName = false,
+ automated = false
 ): NewContact | null {
  const address = r.emailAddress?.address?.trim();
  if (!address) return null;
@@ -562,6 +564,7 @@ function recipientToContact(
  // contact_external_account on the lowercased address (same tradeoff and
  // rationale as gmail's parseEmailAddressesToContacts).
  source: { accountId: address.toLowerCase() },
+ ...(automated ? { automated: true } : {}),
  };
 }
 
@@ -666,7 +669,8 @@ export function transformOutlookConversation(opts: {
  addParticipant(
  recipientToContact(
  message.from,
- isViaRewrittenName(message.from.emailAddress?.name)
+ isViaRewrittenName(message.from.emailAddress?.name),
+ isNoReplySender(message.from.emailAddress?.address ?? null)
  )
  );
  }
@@ -696,6 +700,9 @@ export function transformOutlookConversation(opts: {
  const senderName = suppressName
  ? undefined
  : message.from?.emailAddress?.name || undefined;
+ const senderIsNoReply = isNoReplySender(
+ message.from?.emailAddress?.address ?? null
+ );
 
  const contentType: "text" | "html" =
  message.body?.contentType === "html" ? "html" : "text";
@@ -720,10 +727,11 @@ export function transformOutlookConversation(opts: {
  const senderActor: NewActor = {
  email: fromAddress,
  name: senderName,
+ automated: senderIsNoReply,
  };
  const messageContacts: NewContact[] = [
  ...(message.from
- ? [recipientToContact(message.from, suppressName)]
+ ? [recipientToContact(message.from, suppressName, senderIsNoReply)]
  : []),
  ...(message.toRecipients ?? []).map((r) => recipientToContact(r)),
  ...(message.ccRecipients ?? []).map((r) => recipientToContact(r)),

libs/email-classifier/src/classify-email.test.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
-import { classifyEmail, type EmailSignals } from "./classify-email";
+import { classifyEmail, isNoReplySender, type EmailSignals } from "./classify-email";
 
 function signals(overrides: Partial<EmailSignals> = {}): EmailSignals {
  return {
@@ -181,3 +181,23 @@ describe("classifyEmail — calendar invitation responses", () => {
  ).toBe("message");
  });
 });
+
+describe("isNoReplySender", () => {
+ it("flags notify@ / no-reply@ / notifications@ localparts", () => {
+ expect(isNoReplySender("notify@payments.interac.ca")).toBe(true);
+ expect(isNoReplySender("no-reply@github.com")).toBe(true);
+ expect(isNoReplySender("noreply@github.com")).toBe(true);
+ expect(isNoReplySender("notifications@github.com")).toBe(true);
+ expect(isNoReplySender("alerts@bank.com")).toBe(true);
+ });
+
+ it("does not flag ordinary personal addresses", () => {
+ expect(isNoReplySender("susan.braun@gmail.com")).toBe(false);
+ expect(isNoReplySender("shane@company.com")).toBe(false);
+ });
+
+ it("is null-safe", () => {
+ expect(isNoReplySender(null)).toBe(false);
+ expect(isNoReplySender("")).toBe(false);
+ });
+});

libs/email-classifier/src/classify-email.ts

@@ -84,6 +84,17 @@ function localPart(address: string | null): string {
  return (at === -1 ? address : address.slice(0, at)).toLowerCase();
 }
 
+/**
+ * True when an address's local part marks it as an automated / no-reply /
+ * notification sender (no-reply@, notify@, notifications@, alerts@, …). This is
+ * the identity-trust signal used to enable name-conflict detection for shared
+ * sender addresses; it deliberately ignores list/precedence headers (those are
+ * per-message automation signals, not shared-identity signals).
+ */
+export function isNoReplySender(address: string | null): boolean {
+ return NOREPLY_LOCALPART.test(localPart(address));
+}
+
 function computeAutomation(s: EmailSignals): Automation {
  const prec = (s.precedence ?? "").toLowerCase();
  if (prec === "bulk" || prec === "list" || prec === "junk" || prec === "auto_reply") return "automated";

libs/email-classifier/src/index.ts

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-export { classifyEmail, type EmailSignals } from "./classify-email";
+export { classifyEmail, isNoReplySender, type EmailSignals } from "./classify-email";
 export { extractCta } from "./extract-cta";
 export { extractLinkCandidates, type LinkCandidate } from "./extract-link-candidates";

twister/src/plot.ts

@@ -1112,6 +1112,16 @@ type NewContactBase = {
  * `thread.contact_meta[contact_id].role`.
  */
  role?: string;
+ /**
+ * True when this address is an automated / no-reply sender whose From
+ * display name must not be trusted as a stable identity — e.g.
+ * notify@payments.interac.ca, which puts a different person's name on every
+ * message. When two different names are seen for such an address, the
+ * runtime suppresses its name and it displays as the email address instead.
+ * Connectors set this from the email classifier (isNoReplySender). Omitted ⇒
+ * treated as false (normal identity trust).
+ */
+ automated?: boolean;
 };
 
 /**