> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.emanate.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Custom Tactics > Describe a tactic in plain language, Ray builds it, you test it, and your assistant runs it on the trigger you choose A **custom tactic** is one you describe in your own words. [Ray](/getting-started/emanate-ray) turns the description into a definition you can read and edit, you test it against your recent mail, and then your assistant runs it: when an email arrives, on a schedule, when a thread goes quiet, or when you say so. Custom tactics sit on the [Tactics](/home/tactics/overview) page under Custom tactics, and they look and behave like the built-in ones. Two shapes come out of the builder, and Ray picks the right one from what you ask for: * **A simple rule.** *When a customer emails an RFQ, draft a quote reply for me to review.* One trigger, a few conditions, one to three fixed actions (draft a reply, label the email, send you a digest, create a task, surface a deal, notify you). It runs the same way every time. * **A job it works out.** *Every Monday, pull last week's open quotes from the ERP into my tracker spreadsheet and email it to me.* Your assistant reads, looks things up, fills files and writes the result, using the abilities you allow it. Each run is different because the work is. ## Building one On the Tactics page, click the New tactic tile or Create tactic. You need an assistant first. The Tactics Builder opens with your definition on the left and a chat with Emanate Ray on the right. Type it the way you would explain it to a colleague. Three starters are offered: Draft RFQ quote replies, Morning reply rundown and Follow up on quiet threads. Attach a spreadsheet or PDF with the paperclip if the tactic needs your file. If something is missing Ray asks One quick question with a few choices and a box for your own words, or it requests a file: Your template (a workbook to fill), Your example (a finished document to copy the look of) or Reference (something to read). You can skip any question. The left pane fills in: Name, When it runs, Conditions, What it can use, Files it uses and What it does, with a one-line readback of the whole tactic. Edit anything directly. Anything it could not build appears under Couldn't include. To change the trigger type or the abilities, describe the tactic differently in chat. Press Next: Test Tactic. For a mail-triggered tactic, pick a recent email and Run Test to see the trigger match, the context it used and every action it would take, drafts included. For a scheduled or on-demand tactic, Run it now works the whole job for real (reading, looking things up, building files) and shows you everything it did. Nothing is sent during a test. Press Create & Enable Tactic. You cannot enable a tactic you have not tested. Save Draft keeps it off for later. ## Triggers | Trigger | Runs | | - | - | | **Inbound email** | When an email arrives that passes the conditions | | **Schedule** | On the days and time you set: Days of the week, Monthly (a day from 1 to 28) or One time (a date). Run at picks the hour and a quarter-hour mark, in your Timezone. | | **Sent thread goes quiet** | When a thread you sent has had no reply for the days you pick under Quiet for (1 to 30) | | **I ask my assistant** | When you email or chat your assistant asking for it | | **I run it** | When you press Run Now on its page or tile, optionally pointing it at a recent email or one of its files | | **Email I send** | When you send an email that matches the conditions | | **Business event** | When an order lands or a deal is spotted | ### Conditions For tactics that fire on mail, narrow it to the emails you actually want: Only from these domains, Never from these domains, Subject contains, Body contains, Known contacts only, and Also match when, a plain-language condition such as *"the email is from an oil and gas account asking about pricing"* that your assistant checks before acting. A tactic on the email you send must have at least one domain or keyword condition. ## What it can use The What it can use section starts with a strip showing what your workspace has connected: your ERP with its synced datasets, Platform data (accounts, contacts, deals, sequences), Documents (your drive, knowledge base and email attachments), Your inbox, and the Emanate actions available. A tactic that needs something not yet connected cannot be turned on until it is. Below that is the list of abilities Ray chose for this tactic, each with a one-line explanation, such as: * **Read the email conversation**, Search your past email, See what's attached and Read an attachment * **Read your files**, Fill your spreadsheet, Add rows to your spreadsheet, Build a document and Build a spreadsheet from the results * **Look up your numbers**, Look up ERP records, Search inventory, Find a customer's records and Pull today's orders from your ERP * **Find shared documents**, Read a shared document, Search inside a document and Search the web * **Send the finished work to you**, Draft a reply to the customer, Add a card to your inbox and Ask you a question * **Remember your instructions**, Recall your instructions and Run another tactic Emanate actions are the same things you can do in the app: create a segment, start a search, update a record. Each is badged Reads, Changes data or Needs approval. A change is proposed for your approval on the run unless you turn on Acts on its own, and anything that starts outreach, spends money or deletes something always waits for you. ## What it delivers * **An email to you**, from your assistant's address to your login email, with any files it produced attached. The subject is the tactic's name and the date, such as Weekly Open Quotes, Sep 15. By default the email is two short paragraphs; turn on Detailed email under Tools for the long form with the file's tables shown inline. * **A draft in your mailbox**, when the tactic is allowed to Draft a reply to the customer. It can never send. * **A card in your Agent Inbox**, when the tactic is asked to notify you. * **A staged quote**, for tactics that read RFQs, handed to [Quote Runner](/home/tactics/quote-runner) for your approval. No custom tactic can email a customer. The furthest anything reaches is a draft in your own Drafts folder or a quote staged for your approval. ## The tactic's page Each custom tactic has its own page with the same shape as a built-in: the on/off switch, Edit Tactic (reopens the builder), a More actions menu, and Run Now for on-demand tactics. * **Activity** lists every run. Filter by All runs, Ran, Needs you, Held, Skipped, Failed or Practice runs, or search. Open a run to see its summary, What it made, Actions it proposed (with Approve and Dismiss), Draft it wrote, What it did step by step, its Lookups and any Tactics it ran. A run that stopped to ask you something says Asked you a question, check your email. * **Practice** (for tactics that work a job out) rehearses without sending: Practice on recent emails picks up to three emails or lets you describe a scenario, and a scheduled or on-demand tactic runs as if it were now. The result shows the exact email it would have sent, with Send this to me if you want it in your inbox. * **Settings & Info** has a rail: Info, then Schedule or Trigger, Conditions, Tools, Documents, Instructions and Learnings. Edits save themselves. ### Learnings Learnings holds the standing instructions this tactic follows. Add one in the box (*"Quote FOB unless they ask otherwise"*), or reply to one of the tactic's emails with a correction and your assistant remembers it here, marked Saved from chat. Each has its own switch. Instructions you give your assistant in general apply here too. ### Documents Under Documents you keep up to five files, each up to 10 MB, as a spreadsheet, CSV or PDF. Each has a role: Template (the workbook it fills or adds rows to; one per tactic), Example (a finished document whose layout it copies) or Reference (something to read). When you attach an example PDF, your assistant rebuilds it as a template so new documents come out with the same layout, artwork and wording, with only the deal changing. A badge tracks it: Matching your example…, then Matches your example, 93%, or Close to your example, 78% with the remaining differences listed. If the layout cannot be copied, documents still use your example's colours and type. ### Sharing From the More actions menu, Share to Library puts a snapshot of the tactic, files included, on your workspace's [Tactics Library](/home/tactics/overview#tactics-library) for teammates to add or customize. Your later edits do not reach the library until you choose Update Shared Version. Remove from Library takes it down; copies teammates already added are unaffected. Delete Tactic turns it off and removes it with its run history. ## Automations: tactics your assistant proposes Once a week your assistant looks at how you actually work and, when it spots repeated effort, proposes an automation: a new tactic, or a change to one you already run. It compiles the proposal as a real tactic, turned off, rehearses it on your recent emails for receipts, and puts a card in the Automations rail of your [Agent Inbox](/home/agent-inbox#automations) marked Proposed by Rivet, with your assistant's name. It emails you too, if you let it. Nothing turns on by itself. Open the card, read what it noticed and how it would have handled your recent emails, then Review Automation to enable it on its own page, or Dismiss. A proposed change to an existing tactic appears on that tactic's page as Suggested change from Rivet with Apply and Dismiss. Control it under Assistant Settings → Automations: | Setting | What it does | Default | | - | - | - | | **Look for automations every week** | Whether it looks at all, and the day and hour it does (On, At, Timezone) | On, Monday 7:00 AM | | **What it looks at** | Your email, What you do with its drafts, Your ERP activity, Documents and CRM | All on | | **Email me each proposal** | Writes to you when it has something, besides the card | On | | **Proposals per week** | At most 1 or At most 2. Most weeks it will propose nothing. | At most 2 | Look now starts a look immediately. Recent proposals lists what it has suggested and what became of each: Waiting for you, Applied, Turned on, Dismissed or Expired. A kind of tactic you dismissed is not proposed again for three months, and at most two proposals wait on you at a time. ## Limits * Up to 10 custom tactics per person, and up to 5 enabled at once for each of the two mail triggers (incoming and sent). * Up to 15 abilities and 12 Emanate actions per tactic; up to 3 actions for a simple rule. * Up to 5 files per tactic, 10 MB each. * A tactic that works a job out gets a bounded amount of time per run, longer for scheduled and on-demand runs than for mail-triggered ones. A run that hits the limit says so in Activity. ## Admins: a teammate's custom tactics Workspace admins can open a teammate's Tactics from the switcher beside the title and view, edit, enable, run, practise and delete their custom tactics, or add a library tactic to their list. Sharing to the library stays with the author. ## Next steps Your assistant, its settings and the Tactics Library Where proposals and cards from your tactics land Connect the ERP, CRM and document sources a tactic can reach The product knowledge your assistant can draw on This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.