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[Sml] Re: Structured Email and AI Agents

Michael Richardson <mcr+ietf@sandelman.ca> Wed, 27 August 2025 17:47 UTC

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From: Michael Richardson <mcr+ietf@sandelman.ca>
To: Adam Sobieski <adamsobieski@hotmail.com>, "sml@ietf.org" <sml@ietf.org>
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Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2025 13:47:48 -0400
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Subject: [Sml] Re: Structured Email and AI Agents
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Adam Sobieski <adamsobieski@hotmail.com> wrote:
    > Earlier, was looking at:

    > From: <alice.jones@company.com> From-Agent: assistant To:
    > <bob.smith@company.com> To-Agent: assistant To-Agent-Task-Hint:
    > calendar Subject: ...

Yes... a good example.

    > Now, considering that humans might also want to use these new headers,
    > perhaps something like:

    > From: <alice.jones@company.com> Reply-To-Attention: ...  To:
    > <bob.smith@company.com> Attention: ...  Subject: ...

    > Brainstorming, "attention", or "ATTN:", on an envelope, package, or at
    > the top of a letter, indicates who the mail is for. It is often used
    > when mailing something to a place other than the person’s home address,
    > for example their place of work, so that other people don’t open it.

yes, I think this is good analogy.
I definitely like Attention:
But, maybe Attention-Reply-To:... I don't care in the end.

    > So, maybe this existing "attention" concept could be useful for the
    > topics at hand. An Attention email header could be used to address
    > either a person, AI agent, or person or AI agent by role, who might not
    > be the primarily addressed entity or organization at an email address.

    > Any thoughts on these approaches towards new headers or on any other
    > approaches?


--
Michael Richardson <mcr+IETF@sandelman.ca>   . o O ( IPv6 IøT consulting )
           Sandelman Software Works Inc, Ottawa and Worldwide

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