Automation & Services Engine: Email, Calls, and Alerts
Integrating Real-World Actions Without Losing Control
Introduction
The Automation & Services Engine bridges the assistant with the external world. It executes real actions—sending emails, issuing alerts, initiating calls—based on explicit scenarios. This engine must be powerful yet tightly constrained, ensuring that convenience never overrides safety or ownership.
Design Philosophy
Automation is permissioned execution, not autonomous behavior. Every action must be explicitly defined, auditable, and reversible. The engine does not decide what to automate; it only executes what the Scenario Engine authorizes.
Core Capabilities
Typical capabilities include:
– sending and reading email summaries
– pushing notifications
– initiating calls to predefined contacts or services
– triggering webhooks or local integrations
– executing emergency workflows
No capability exists unless explicitly enabled by the owner.
Action Whitelisting
All actions are whitelisted. Each action definition specifies:
– allowed triggers
– allowed recipients or endpoints
– rate limits
– failure behavior
Actions outside the whitelist are impossible to execute.
Email Handling
Email integration is read-first by default. The engine retrieves headers and summaries, not full bodies, unless allowed. Sending emails is restricted to predefined contacts and templates. Credentials are stored locally and scoped to minimal permissions.
Calls and Voice Notifications
Calls are high-impact actions and require strict controls. Only predefined numbers (family, emergency services, trusted contacts) are callable. Calls are initiated only by owner-approved scenarios. Voice notifications follow scripted prompts to avoid ambiguity.
Emergency Workflows
Emergency scenarios are explicit and rare. Examples include medical alerts or safety notifications. Such workflows bypass non-critical scenarios but never bypass identity validation. Emergency actions are logged with maximum detail.
Rate Limiting and Cooldowns
To prevent abuse or runaway loops, all actions enforce cooldowns and rate limits. Even valid scenarios cannot trigger actions repeatedly beyond defined thresholds.
Failure and Retry Policy
Failures are handled conservatively. Actions may retry only if explicitly configured. Silent retries are forbidden. The system prefers partial failure with notification over uncontrolled repetition.
Security Boundaries
The Automation Engine enforces:
– no dynamic endpoint creation
– no arbitrary command execution
– no credential exposure to other engines
– no direct access from Dialogue Engine
All automation flows originate from validated scenarios only.
Testing and Dry-Run Mode
Every action supports a dry-run mode. In this mode, actions are logged but not executed. This enables safe testing and validation before enabling live automation.
Observability
All actions generate structured logs including timestamp, scenario ID, action type, and outcome. Logs are local, append-only, and reviewable by the owner.
Integration with Other Engines
The Automation Engine receives bounded instructions from the Scenario Engine and returns success or failure states. It cannot influence identity, dialogue, or scenario logic.
What Comes Next
With automation in place, the next article focuses on System Security, Auditing, and Ethics: ensuring long-term trust, maintainability, and responsible operation of a personal Edge AI assistant.
