role: user

text:
<environment_context>
  <shell>zsh</shell>
  <current_date>2026-03-05</current_date>
  <timezone>America/Chicago</timezone>
</environment_context>


text: hey... i'm noticing that when you send messages to Maya, the text is in "quoted" mode like it's a reply to an old email.


role: assistant

text:
Got it — and I believe you.

A couple of different things can look like “quoted mode” in Mail:

1) **Thread/reply styling** (indent/vertical bar) because the subject starts with `Re:` and Mail groups it into a conversation.
2) **Literal quote formatting** (lines actually prefixed with `>`), which would mean the body text truly got wrapped as a quote.

Quick check: are you seeing **a vertical bar/indent**, or are you seeing **actual `>` characters** at the start of lines?

Either way, easy workaround for future sends: we can **stop using a `Re:` subject** and send with a fresh subject like `Reschedule request — Sarah Wittrock phone consult`, which will make it render like a normal standalone email.

If you paste a 1–2 line snippet (or screenshot) of what you’re seeing, I can tell which case it is and lock in the right fix.


text: please just pull the email you sent.


text:
Here’s the exact email that was sent to Maya (from `Sent Mail`, **Wed, Mar 4, 2026 11:24pm CST**, subject **“Re: Your Phone Consultation with Sarah Wittrock was Scheduled”**). The plain-text part is *literally* quoted (each line starts with `>`):

```text
> Hi Maya,
>
> I’m sorry for the short notice. We’ve had a family health emergency—my mother had two heart attacks today, and we’re in the process of moving her into hospice care. I’m currently in San Antonio and won’t be able to make tomorrow’s phone consultation with Sarah (Thu, Mar 5 at 11:00am CST).
>
> Could we please reschedule for sometime next week? I’m flexible and happy to work around Sarah’s availability.
>
> Thank you for your understanding.
>
> Karl
```


text: so why did you do that?


text:
Because of a quirk/bug in the way the `letters send` automation creates the message in Apple Mail — it’s not something I intentionally added to your text.

Even though we pass plain body text, Mail ends up packaging it as a **quoted block** (HTML wrapped in a `<blockquote type="cite">` and the plain-text part prefixed with `>` on every line). We confirmed that by pulling the raw “source” of the sent message.

It’s on me for not catching that before we used it with Maya. If you want, I can fix this going forward by adjusting the `letters` send script (it lives outside this repo) so it sends as normal, non-quoted body text — want me to patch that?


text: but it used to work.