Inboxintel/docs/discovery/README.md

InboxIntel — Discovery & Blueprint

This folder is the product discovery output: a world-class specification that will become the blueprint for the next generation of InboxIntel. It is a planning artifact — no application code is changed during discovery.

Vision: become one of the best email search and management experiences available — extremely fast, scalable, secure, and intuitive. AI is introduced only where it clearly beats traditional approaches, and never as a hard dependency.

Non-negotiable constraints (carried into every phase)

• AI is optional & modular. The app must work fully with AI disabled. All AI sits behind an IAIProvider abstraction (already seeded: NullAiProvider / OllamaProvider / OpenAiProvider) so providers swap without touching application logic.
• Local-first AI. Primary target: Ollama on an NVIDIA RTX 3080 (10 GB).
• Privacy. Read-only Gmail scope; AI advisory-only; no destructive AI actions.
• Speed & security are features, not afterthoughts.

Document index

Start here: Executive Summary

#	Document	Phase	Status
—	Executive Summary	all	✅ draft
00	Design Brief	4A (interview)	✅ locked
01	Architecture Review	1	✅ draft
02	Competitor Analysis	2	✅ draft
03	User Research & Journey Maps	3	✅ draft
04	UX/UI Redesign + Design System	4A	✅ draft
05	Search Redesign	4B	✅ draft
06	AI Strategy & Model Recommendations	5	✅ draft
07	AI Feature Catalogue	6	✅ draft
08	Technical Architecture	7	✅ draft
09	Product Roadmap (MVP→v3)	8	✅ draft
10	Git Implementation Plan	10	✅ draft
11	Risk Assessment & Future Opportunities	cross-cutting	✅ draft

Extension designs

• Multi-Provider Email Platform + Admin/Settings — evolves InboxIntel into a small-team, multi-provider (Gmail/Outlook/IMAP) platform with OAuth-as- login, settings, feature flags, and an admin panel. Reshapes the core assumptions above (see the "Update" callouts in 08 and 09).

Conventions

• Every recommendation is a durable markdown doc suitable for long-term maintenance.
• Each feature is specified with: problem solved · why AI (or why not) · complexity · estimated effort · user value · perf & privacy considerations.
• Nothing here is implemented until explicitly approved and scheduled via the Git plan.