Follow-Up Tracker, Cowork Plugin

Never let an email fall through the cracks.

Label a sent email. Claude watches for replies, drafts follow-ups when they're overdue, and puts a calendar reminder on your morning. Two follow-ups. Then it moves on. Zero manual tracking.

01
How It Works
Label, scan, draft, remind
02
Install & Setup
Plugin install + 3 labels
03
Daily Workflow
What your morning looks like
04
Using Cowork
Commands + natural language
05
Escalation Logic
How it handles silence
06
FAQ
Common questions
1
How It Works

Label an email. Claude handles the rest.

Follow-Up Tracker is a Cowork plugin that connects to your Gmail and Google Calendar. You flag sent emails you care about. A daily scan checks if anyone replied. If they didn't, Claude drafts a follow-up and puts a reminder on your calendar.

The flow

Send email
Apply a label
🔍
Daily scan
6:30 AM auto
Draft follow-up
In same thread
📅
Calendar event
7 AM reminder
You review
Edit & send

Three labels, three speeds

You control how long to wait before following up. Just apply the right Gmail label after sending:

Follow Up 3d
3
days, urgent or time-sensitive
Follow Up
7
days, standard follow-up
Follow Up 14d
14
days, low-pressure check-in

What Claude knows when drafting

Claude doesn't just fire off a generic "bumping this" message. Before drafting, it reads the original thread and searches your Gmail for prior correspondence with that person. The result is a follow-up that sounds like you wrote it, references the actual conversation, and includes a natural call to action.

You're always in control

Claude saves follow-ups as Gmail drafts, never sends anything automatically. You review, edit if needed, and hit send yourself.

2
Install & Setup

Install the plugin, create labels, run setup.

Step 1: Install the plugin

Download the plugin file and install it in Cowork:

📦
follow-up-tracker.plugin
Download Plugin
Button not working? Go to GitHub Releases and download follow-up-tracker.plugin directly.

Installing in Cowork

1
Open Claude Desktop
Make sure you have Cowork mode enabled. If you don't see it, check for updates, it's a newer feature.
2
Drag the .plugin file into a Cowork session
Or double-click the file, Claude Desktop will handle the rest. You'll see a confirmation prompt asking if you want to install.
3
Click Install
The plugin registers its skills and commands. You'll see /setup, /scan-now, and /check-follow-ups become available.

Step 2: Connect Gmail & Calendar

The plugin needs two MCP connectors. If you don't have them yet, Claude will walk you through connecting them during setup.

Gmail MCP
Search emails, read threads, create drafts
📅
Google Calendar MCP
Create morning reminder events

Step 3: Create Gmail labels

You need three labels in Gmail. Go to Settings → Labels → Create new label:

  1. Follow UpThe default label. Triggers a follow-up after 7 days with no reply.
  2. Follow Up 3dFor urgent emails. Triggers after 3 days.
  3. Follow Up 14dFor low-pressure outreach. Triggers after 14 days.
Exact names matter

The label names must match exactly, including the space before "3d" and "14d". Gmail labels are case-sensitive.

Step 4: Run setup

Open Cowork and type:

/setup
I'll verify your Gmail and Calendar connections, check that your labels exist, and configure your preferences (email, timezone, reminder time). Takes about 30 seconds.

Step 5: Set up the daily scan (optional but recommended)

Ask Claude to create a scheduled task so the scan runs automatically every morning:

Set up a scheduled task to run the follow-up scan at 6:30 AM every day
Done. I've created a daily task called "daily-follow-up-scan" that runs at 6:30 AM. It will check all your labeled emails, draft follow-ups for anything overdue, and create calendar reminders for your 7 AM review.
That's it

Plugin installed. Labels created. Setup done. Start labeling sent emails and the tracker takes over.

3
Daily Workflow

What your morning looks like

During the day: label as you go

After sending an important email, apply one of the three labels. That's your only job. No spreadsheets, no reminders to set, no "I'll check back on Thursday."

6:30 AM: the scan runs

Claude scans every labeled email, reads each thread, and checks whether the person replied. For any that are overdue:

  • Searches your Gmail history with that person for context
  • Drafts a follow-up that matches your tone and references the actual conversation
  • Saves it as a draft in the same thread (so Gmail groups it naturally)
  • Creates a 7 AM calendar event: "Review draft follow-up to [Name]"

7:00 AM: you review

You see the calendar events. Open each draft, tweak if needed, and send. The whole review takes 2-3 minutes even with multiple follow-ups queued.

Example scan output

Follow-Up Tracker, March 25, 2026 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ New emails being tracked: 2 Follow-ups drafted: 3 Replies received: 1 Gone cold: 0 Still watching: 4
No scan? No problem.

If you miss the automated scan or want to run one manually, just open Cowork and type /scan-now.

4
Using Cowork

Slash commands + plain English. Your call.

What is Cowork?

Cowork is a feature of the Claude desktop app that lets Claude run tools, connect to services, and manage tasks on your behalf. It's where this plugin lives. You open the Claude app, start a Cowork session, and interact with your plugins through slash commands or plain conversation.

First time with Cowork?

Download Claude Desktop from claude.ai/download. Once installed, you can enable Cowork mode and start connecting plugins and MCP servers. Everything runs locally on your Mac.

Slash commands

The plugin gives you three commands. Type them directly in Cowork:

/setup

First-Time Setup

Verifies Gmail + Calendar connections, checks labels, sets your email and timezone preferences.

/scan-now

Manual Scan

Runs the full follow-up scan immediately. Same thing the 6:30 AM task does, on demand.

/check-follow-ups

Status Report

Shows all tracked emails and their current status, without drafting anything new.

Or just talk to Claude

You don't need slash commands. The plugin triggers automatically when you ask about follow-ups in plain English:

Any follow-ups due today?
You have 2 follow-ups due. Sarah Chen hasn't replied to your partnership email (sent 8 days ago), and Mike Torres hasn't responded about the demo scheduling (sent 4 days ago, marked as 3-day follow-up). Want me to draft follow-ups for both?
What's the status on my email to James about the investor deck?
That thread is still in "watching" status. You sent it 4 days ago with a 7-day window, so the follow-up would be due on Friday if he doesn't reply before then.
Run a follow-up scan
[Runs the full scan, checks all labeled emails, drafts follow-ups for overdue threads, creates calendar reminders, and shows the summary report]

Scheduled tasks

The real power is automation. Once you set up the daily scan (see Setup, Step 5), the plugin runs every morning without you opening Cowork. Drafts appear in your Gmail, reminders appear on your calendar. You just review and send.

How it all fits together

Cowork is the brain. Gmail and Calendar MCPs are the hands. The plugin is the playbook. You just label emails and show up in the morning.

5
Escalation Logic

Two follow-ups, then it moves on

The plugin doesn't just send the same follow-up forever. It has a built-in escalation curve:

Status lifecycle

Watching Draft Ready Replied
or if no reply: Escalated Gone Cold

How it works

  • First follow-up: Warm, natural, references the original email. 3-5 sentences.
  • Second follow-up: Shorter and more direct. 2-3 sentences. Acknowledges they're busy.
  • After two: Marks the thread as "gone cold" and stops tracking. No more drafts, no more reminders.
Why two and done?

Three or more follow-ups start to feel desperate. Two is the sweet spot, persistent enough to stay top of mind, respectful enough to maintain the relationship. If they haven't replied after two, the ball is in their court.

What happens when they reply?

The scan detects replies automatically. As soon as someone responds to a tracked thread, it gets marked as replied and drops off the follow-up queue. No cleanup needed on your end.

6
FAQ

Common questions

Will Claude ever send an email without me reviewing it?

No. Follow-ups are saved as Gmail drafts in the same thread. You always review before sending. Claude never hits send for you.

What if I don't want to follow up on something anymore?

Remove the label from the email in Gmail. On the next scan, Claude will stop tracking it.

Can I change the follow-up window after labeling?

Yes, just swap the label. Remove "Follow Up" and add "Follow Up 3d" if you want to shorten the window. The next scan will pick up the change.

What if my Mac is asleep at 6:30 AM?

The scheduled task will run the next time your Mac wakes up. Or just type /scan-now when you sit down.

Does this work with Google Workspace / work email?

Yes, as long as your Gmail MCP is connected to that account. The plugin works with any Gmail-compatible account.

Where is my data stored?

Tracking state lives in a tracking.json file in your Cowork workspace. It's a simple JSON array. All email reading happens through the Gmail MCP, no emails are stored locally.

Can I customize the follow-up tone?

The plugin matches the tone of your original email automatically. If you sent something formal, the follow-up will be formal. Casual emails get casual follow-ups. You can always edit the draft before sending.

Ready to stop losing emails?

Three labels. One setup command. Never manually track a follow-up again.