How Shunbox Works
Platform Architecture Overview
We believe in complete transparency. Shunbox operates entirely in the background, utilizing stateless connections and real-time triggers to keep your inbox clean without holding onto your data. Here is exactly what happens behind the scenes.
1. Real-Time Webhook Signals
Instant Event Triggers
Instead of periodically polling or loading your inbox at slow intervals, Shunbox is built on a real-time webhook architecture. The moment an incoming message lands in your Google Gmail account, Google fires a secure, encrypted webhook notification to our ingestion server. This instantly queues the notification for processing without any delay.
2. Semantic AI Analysis
Intent-Based Inbox Sorting
Our worker reads only the necessary header data and a cleaned text snippet. It transmits this context securely over TLS to private, sandboxed AI completions. The AI evaluates the email against your personalized category descriptions (such as Clients, Support, or Recruiting) to find where it fits, evaluating the sender's semantic intent rather than relying on rigid, breakable keyword matches.
3. Zero-Retention Memory Wipe
Strict Stateless Processing
Once the AI determines the correct destination category, the full text snippet is instantly discarded from our server memory. We do not store your email bodies in our SQLite database, we do not log transaction details to disk, and we pass special headers ensuring no data is retained or audited by third-party APIs. Your data is handled on a strict zero-retention basis.
4. Background Folder Delivery
Automatic Label Management
Shunbox automatically registers your new category structure in Gmail, creating nested folders (such as Shunbox/Clients). We shift matched messages smoothly out of your main Inbox and apply the appropriate label, keeping your priorities sorted. If an incoming email does not match any of your custom categories, it remains untouched in your standard Inbox.