Understanding Trust Levels
Outband has four trust levels, each giving the AI more autonomy:Observer
Outband reads your messages and provides summaries, categorization, and your Daily Briefing. It never takes any action. This is the default for all new users.
Drafter
Outband prepares draft responses for you to review. You approve, edit, or reject each draft before anything is sent. Available on Professional plan and above.
Auto+Review
Outband handles routine messages automatically and presents a daily digest for your review. Important or sensitive messages still require your approval. Available on Professional plan and above.
Setting Your Global Trust Level
Your global trust level applies to all contacts by default:- Go to Settings > Trust Configuration
- Select your preferred trust level
- Review the explanation of what changes
- Confirm your selection
Per-Contact Trust Configuration
You can set different trust levels for individual contacts:- Go to Contacts and select a contact
- Select Trust Settings on their profile
- Choose a trust level specifically for this contact
- Optionally configure per-intent overrides (see below)
Per-Intent Trust
For fine-grained control, you can set trust levels per intent type for each contact:| Intent type | Example |
|---|---|
| Reply to questions | Answering routine queries |
| Schedule meetings | Accepting or proposing meeting times |
| Forward information | Sharing documents or context |
| Escalate issues | Raising problems to you or others |
| Decline requests | Politely saying no to invitations or requests |
Trust Escalation with “Trust More Tomorrow”
Outband includes a gentle nudge system called Trust More Tomorrow that helps you gradually increase autonomy:- After Outband has been consistently accurate for a period, you may see a suggestion to increase trust
- The suggestion is always optional — you can dismiss it
- It follows the “SMarT” principle: small, scheduled increases that feel natural
- Trust auto-downgrades if Outband makes errors, so you are protected
Exclusion Controls
In addition to trust levels, you can exclude specific contacts, domains, topics, or folders from AI processing entirely:- Go to Settings > Exclusion Controls
- Add contacts, email domains, topics, or mail folders
- Excluded items bypass all AI processing — they appear in your inbox as normal, untouched by Outband
Exclusions are absolute. An excluded contact will not appear in your Daily Briefing, will not have a Contact Model built, and will never have AI-generated drafts.
Best Practices
Start conservative, upgrade gradually
Start conservative, upgrade gradually
Begin with Observer for everyone. After 1-2 weeks, move your most routine contacts to Drafter. Wait for consistent accuracy before considering Auto+Review.
Keep high-stakes contacts at lower trust levels
Keep high-stakes contacts at lower trust levels
Investors, board members, key clients, and legal contacts should stay at Observer or Drafter until you have high confidence in Outband’s accuracy for those relationships.
Use exclusions for sensitive topics
Use exclusions for sensitive topics
If certain topics (legal matters, HR issues, confidential projects) should never be processed by AI, add them as topic exclusions.