How to Connect Your First Data Source in 30 Seconds

Why Email First

You could start with Slack, GitHub, or any of the 15 supported integrations. But we recommend email for a simple reason: it has the highest density of actionable information.

Your inbox contains customer requests, internal updates, scheduling needs, document reviews, and follow-up obligations. It is the one source that touches every part of your work. Start here, and Ostavio immediately has enough context to be useful.

The Connection Flow

Step 1: Click "Add Source" from your dashboard. You will see a grid of available integrations. Select Gmail (or Outlook, if that is your provider).

Step 2: Authorize via OAuth. Google shows a standard permissions screen. Ostavio requests read access to your messages -- the same permission any email client uses. No passwords are stored.

Step 3: Initial sync begins. Ostavio pulls your recent email history (typically the last 7 days) to build initial context. A progress indicator shows the sync status. This usually takes 15 to 45 seconds depending on volume.

That is it. Three clicks, about 30 seconds total.

What Happens Next

Once connected, Ostavio begins processing your email in real time. Here is what happens behind the scenes:

Analysis -- Every incoming email is analyzed for content type, urgency, required action, and related context. The AI categorizes messages into actionable items, informational updates, and noise.

Queue population -- Items that need your attention appear in your queue. Each item shows the original message plus AI-generated context: a summary, suggested action, and any related information from other connected sources.

Draft generation -- For emails that need a response, Ostavio drafts a reply based on the content and your communication patterns. These drafts wait in queue for your review -- nothing is sent without your approval.

Your First 24 Hours

Hour 1-2: Your queue starts filling with analyzed items from recent emails. You will see summaries, suggested responses, and priority flags. Take a few minutes to review items and approve or dismiss them. This teaches the AI your preferences.

Hour 3-12: As new emails arrive throughout the day, Ostavio processes them in real time. You will notice items appearing in your queue within seconds of emails landing. The AI starts recognizing patterns -- which senders are important, which threads are ongoing, which emails are noise.

Hour 12-24: By the next morning, you get your first morning briefing -- a summary of everything that happened overnight, ranked by importance. This is when most users have their first "this is actually useful" moment.

Tips for Getting the Most Value

Connect a second source within the first week. Email alone is powerful, but the real magic happens when Ostavio can cross-reference. Connect Slack, and suddenly it can link a customer email to the internal Slack discussion about that customer. Connect your calendar, and it knows which emails are about upcoming meetings.

Review your queue daily for the first week. The more you interact with items -- approving drafts, dismissing noise, editing responses -- the better the AI learns your preferences. After a week, the signal-to-noise ratio improves dramatically.

Use keyboard shortcuts. Press J/K to navigate items, A to approve, D to dismiss, E to edit. Power users process their entire queue in under 5 minutes.

Trust the priority flags. Ostavio marks items as high, medium, or low priority. In our testing, the AI correctly identifies urgent items with over 90% accuracy after the first week of use.

Ready to Connect

Head to your dashboard and click "Add Source." Your first 30 seconds with Ostavio start now. Two sources are included free -- no credit card required.

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