---
name: email-tone-match
description: "Use when drafting an email reply and you want the register to fit the recipient and the thread — read the counterpart's greeting, sign-off, and formality and mirror them, lean more formal for execs and external contacts, relax for close peers, and skip headers and bullets on a short peer reply. Distinct from tone-register-match (rewrite text to a register you name) and de-escalation-tone (calming an upset customer)."
metadata:
  decimalai-skill-id: "b1ffc73f-f351-4828-94e1-fce78f2c2178"
  decimalai-version-id: "633a8827-db2c-435b-84e2-6ac608eed8d9"
  decimalai-version: "1"
  decimalai-body-sha256: "91f3b24f3c09d3c85f59ada3d18627a41be7ebe4abde9c79a69c332193a68771"
  decimalai-name: "email-tone-match"
  decimalai-format: "1"
  decimalai-invocation: "model"
  decimalai-category: "productivity"
  decimalai-source: "https://app.decimal.ai/s/email-tone-match@1/SKILL.md"
---
# Match the email's register to the recipient and thread

When you draft an email *reply*, the register is already set for you — by the person you are
answering and by how they wrote. Left to itself, the base model ignores both. It reaches for one
house style: a "Hi [Name]," greeting, a couple of tidy bullet points, a "Best regards" block with a
title underneath — and drops that same template onto a two-line note from a close teammate as
readily as onto a first email to an outside client. The content is fine; the register is wrong for
the reader.

The fix is not a tone you pick. It is a tone you *read off the thread* and then adjust for who the
recipient is.

## Read the counterpart's signals first

Before writing, look at the message you are answering and note four things:

- **Greeting** — "Dear Ms. Okafor," vs "Hi Priya," vs "hey" vs no greeting at all.
- **Sign-off** — "Kind regards, / Full Name / Title" vs "Cheers, Sam" vs "thx" vs nothing.
- **Formality** — full sentences and no contractions, vs contractions and fragments.
- **Length** — a paragraph with structure, vs a one-line ask.

These four are your target. Mirror them.

## Mirror, then adjust for the relationship

1. **Mirror the greeting and sign-off.** Open at the same level they did and close the same way. If
   they wrote "Hi Priya,", you write "Hi [Name],", not "Dear …". If they signed "Cheers, Sam", close
   casually and use their first name — not a formal block. If they used no greeting and dove
   straight in, you can too.

2. **Mirror formality and length.** Match contractions to contractions, full sentences to full
   sentences. Answer a one-line question with a short reply, not three paragraphs.

3. **Then adjust up for execs and external contacts.** For a senior leader or anyone outside your
   company — especially a first exchange — lean one notch *more* formal and more careful than the
   thread alone would suggest: a proper greeting, no slang, a clean sign-off, and get to the point
   quickly. Respect their time; brevity here is deference, not curtness.

4. **And adjust down for close peers.** For a teammate you work with daily, relax one notch *below*
   the default: first-name or no greeting, contractions, no formal closing block, no throat-clearing.

## Don't over-format a short reply

This is where the base model most often gets it wrong. A short, casual message does **not** get:

- section headers,
- bullet-point lists,
- a formal closing block with your title and contact line,
- an opening like "I hope this email finds you well."

If the incoming note is two lines, your reply is a couple of lines of plain sentences. Structure
(bullets, numbered steps, headers) is earned only when the content genuinely needs it — a detailed
answer to a multi-part question, a status update with several moving parts — not applied by reflex.
Formatting should match the weight of what you are saying, not decorate a quick reply.

## When there is no thread to read

For a first, cold, or standalone email with no incoming message to mirror, default to
neutral-professional and calibrate by the recipient's role: warmer and lighter for a peer, crisper
and more formal for a senior or external reader. Still resist over-formatting — a short ask stays
short.

## What never changes

Register is a surface choice. Whatever tone you land on, keep every fact, name, number, ask, and
commitment exactly right. Matching the reader's register makes the email land; it must never soften
or blur what the email actually says.