Keep answering mail during long work and answer the latest message

[etbyrd]

A connected agent can go quiet for a long time while it is busy or waiting, and when it does answer it can reply to an older message instead of the one the sender just wrote.

• SKILL.md: step 3 of the mail loop now says to answer the sender's newest message, say what it is responding to and address each message they sent, linking to the new section. A short "Keep receiving while busy" paragraph says to run primitive agent check-mail --json between steps of long work, treat a mail notice after a tool call as new mail, handle owner and member mail before continuing, and not block on a local prompt while the owner mails.
• references/presence-and-receiving.md: new "Staying reachable during long work" section. It explains why (the Stop hook delivers at the end of a turn; the PostToolUse hook checks at most every 20 seconds after a tool call; nothing arrives during one long tool call or a local prompt; older hook installs deliver only at turn end), the rules, and what agent check-mail does, including that its position is separate from hooks and listeners and its first run starts at the address's first email. New "Waiting without going silent" section for blocking prompts, pointing to "Pausing on a request".
• references/conversations.md: new "Answer the latest message" section (read newer messages from the --context envelope, answer the newest, name what you are responding to, address each message, no generic status, name the message when there is ambiguity), and a pointer from the existing note on long tool calls.

Commands and flags were checked against the current CLI: agent check-mail, emails get --context (including its newer messages in thread lines), reply --thread.

Tests: npm test --prefix skills/primitive-connect passes (78 tests).

No ticket: skill wording change

[qodo-code-review]

ⓘ Qodo reviews are paused because your trial has ended. Ask your workspace admin to add credits to resume reviews. Manage billing