Email forwarding
Forward school emails, get the dates on the family calendar
Every HouseChief family gets its own email address. Forward a school newsletter, a sign-up email or a party invite to it, and HouseChief pulls out the dates and to-dos and puts them in your Inbox to approve, with a push to your phone. It never needs access to your mailbox, and nothing lands on the calendar until you say so. Free while in early access.
Your family's own address
When you set up HouseChief, your family gets a forwarding address like parker@email.housechief.app. You'll find it in Settings under Forward emails, where you can also change it. Add it to your contacts on your phone, and forwarding becomes a two-tap habit: the PTA newsletter, the coach's schedule, the dentist's reminder, the birthday invite from Leo's classmate.
What happens when you forward an email
HouseChief reads the email you forwarded and proposes what it finds: events with dates, times and places, and to-dos like "return the permission slip by Friday". Each proposal appears in your approval Inbox and you get a push notification. Open it, untick anything it misread or you don't need, and tap Approve; you can adjust an event on the calendar afterward. The events go on the family calendar, copied to your default calendar for new events unless you pick another on the card, and the to-dos go onto your list.
Sam forwards the fall newsletter from Maya's school on Sunday night. By the time Sam opens HouseChief, the Inbox has picture day, the book fair week, the early-release Friday and a to-do for the field-trip form. Sam approves three, deletes the book fair, and the week is set. If a newsletter is vague or a flyer is blurry, HouseChief can miss or misread a date, which is why you review before anything is added.
Nothing goes on the calendar until you approve
Forwarded email follows the same rule as everything HouseChief's AI does: it proposes, a parent approves. No event is created, no to-do is added and no one is notified until you tap Approve in the Inbox. Approve one item, all of them, or none. Kids never see the Inbox.
Flyers and photos too
Not everything arrives by email. The soccer schedule is a paper handout; the camp dates are a PDF. In the app, quick add takes a photo or a PDF (up to three at once) as well as typed or spoken text, and proposes the dates the same way, into the same Inbox. Snap the handout on the fridge and approve what you want.
Who can send to it
Only a parent can. HouseChief accepts mail at your family address only from a parent's own email address, and only when the message passes the standard email authentication checks (SPF and DKIM). Mail from anyone else is dropped. That means the school can't email HouseChief directly, kids can't use it, and no one can fill your Inbox by guessing the address.
Forwarding never requires access to your mailbox. Separately, a parent can choose to connect Gmail or Outlook so their Chief of Staff can search and read mail on request; that connection is read-only, and the assistant can't send, edit or delete anything. Both are described on the privacy and safety page.
For the full routine (subscribe to the school calendar, filter the email, forward the rest), read how to get school emails onto the family calendar. The family calendar page explains where approved events end up.
Questions
How do I get dates from school emails onto our calendar?
Forward the email to your family's HouseChief address (shown in Settings under Forward emails). HouseChief finds the dates and to-dos in it and puts them in your Inbox, with a push to your phone. Tap Approve on the ones you want and they go on the family calendar. The school email guide has the full weekly routine.
Does HouseChief need access to my inbox?
No. Forwarding works like sending any email: you choose what to send to your family's address, and HouseChief never sees the rest of your mailbox. A parent can separately choose to connect Gmail or Outlook so the Chief of Staff can read and search mail on request, but that's optional and read-only.
Is anything added without my approval?
No. Everything HouseChief pulls out of a forwarded email waits in the approval Inbox. Pick the items you want and approve them, or dismiss the whole thing. Nothing goes on the calendar or the to-do list until a parent taps Approve, and kids never see the Inbox.
Can it read a flyer or a PDF?
Yes. In the app, quick add accepts a photo or a PDF (up to three at once) as well as typed or spoken text, and proposes the dates and to-dos it finds for your Inbox. It works well on clear printed schedules and invitations; a blurry photo may be misread, so check the proposals before you approve.
Does it work with Gmail and Outlook?
Yes. Forwarding works from any email account, including Gmail, Outlook, iCloud and work addresses, as long as you send from the email address on your parent account and the message passes standard authentication. Forward from your phone or computer; no setup beyond saving the family address is needed.