How does freehire get my job emails?

Two ways. Every account can claim a freehire address — you forward recruiter mail to it, or use it when you apply, and replies land there directly. Or you connect Gmail read-only, and freehire syncs the job-related mail it finds. Both feed the same inbox; you can use either or both.

Does freehire read all of my email?

No. The hosted address only ever receives what you forward or what employers send to it — freehire never sees the rest of your mailbox. The Gmail connection is read-only and scoped to job-related mail: freehire learns which senders write about your applications and syncs those. You can disconnect Gmail or release the freehire address at any time.

How does an email get attached to the right application?

By matching the mail thread, or the company name carried in the sender name or subject. When that match is certain, the email is linked to the application automatically. When it is not, freehire offers it as a suggestion for you to confirm — the AI classifier can propose a match, but it never links one on its own.

What statuses can an email be tagged with?

Acknowledgement, screening, interview invitation, assessment, offer, rejection, information request, and an unfinished application you started but never submitted. Anything that does not fit one of those is recorded as "other" rather than guessed at.

What if an email is attached to the wrong application?

Unlink it and pick the right one — every link is reversible from the message itself. If the mail is about a job you never recorded, one action creates the application from it and links it in the same step, dated by the email rather than by today.

Will it move cards on my tracking board by itself?

Only forward, and only for a linked email it is confident about: applied, then screening, responded, interview, offer. A card never moves backwards, an application you already marked as rejected, accepted or withdrawn is never touched automatically, and a rejection email never moves a card on its own — you stay in control of the outcome.

// inbox

Your recruiter replies, sorted automatically.

Job mail arrives in one place, tagged with what it actually says — received, rejected, interview, information requested — and attached to the application it belongs to. No folders, no digging through a mailbox to work out where you stand.

Open your inbox See your board

freehire · Inbox

A

Avenga Careers
yesterday

We have received your application!
Received
F

Fingerprint Recruiting
2 days ago

Regarding your application to Fingerprint
Rejected
G

Gabrielle Loureiro
2 days ago

Interview for Senior Full-Stack Engineer
Interview
P

Pack.com Recruiting
3 days ago

A few questions about your experience
Info requested

// connect

Two ways to get mail in.

Pick either, or run both — they feed the same inbox.

Recommended

Claim a freehire address

You get an address like you@mail.freehire.me. Use it when you apply and the replies land here directly, or forward the job mail you already have. Nothing else reaches it, and you can release it at any time.

Connect Gmail, read-only

Sign in with Google once and freehire syncs the job-related mail it finds — it learns the senders that write about your applications rather than reading your whole mailbox. Disconnecting stops the sync immediately. Google is still reviewing the app, so this route is open to test users for now.

// statuses

It reads each message and tags it.

Every message is classified into one controlled vocabulary — the same eight labels the inbox filters on. Anything that doesn't clearly fit is stored as other, never as a guess dressed up as a fact.

Received: They got your application.
Screening: A recruiter screen or first call.
Assessment: A take-home or a test to complete.
Interview: An interview is on the table.
Offer: An offer arrived.
Rejected: A no — recorded, never guessed at.
Info requested: They need something from you.
Incomplete: You started an application and never sent it.

// on your board

Every reply lands on the application it belongs to.

A message is attached automatically when the match is certain — the same thread, or the company's name in the sender or the subject. Otherwise it waits as a suggestion you confirm with one click. Either way the correspondence for a role ends up in one place, on the card, instead of scattered across a mailbox.

Open Tracking Go to the inbox

My jobs · Application

Tech Lead, Web Core Product

Speechify

Interview

Application Job Match Emails (2)

N

no-reply@us.greenhouse-mail.io

Thank you for applying to Speechify
Received
G

Gabrielle Loureiro

Interview for Senior Full-Stack Engineer
Interview

Applied
Screening
Responded
Interview
Offer

A confident reply nudges the card forward along that ladder, and only forward. It never walks a card back, never touches an application you already settled as rejected, accepted or withdrawn, and a rejection email never moves a card by itself — the outcome stays yours to record.

// what we don't do

Handing over your mail is a big ask.

So here is the shape of it, written down.

Only the mail you point at us

The freehire address receives what you forward and what employers reply to — nothing else. Connect Gmail instead and the sync is read-only and scoped to job mail: freehire learns which senders write about your applications and leaves the rest of your mailbox alone.

A guess is a suggestion, not a decision

An email is linked on its own only when the match is certain — the same thread, or the company's name in the sender or subject. The AI classifier can propose a match, but its pick waits for your confirmation. Read the asymmetry the other way: model output never silently rewrites your board.

Leave whenever, in one click

Disconnect Gmail and the sync stops. Release the freehire address and it stops receiving. Delete a message and it stays deleted — a later re-sync will not resurrect it, because read, deleted and triaged are your state, not the mail server’s.

Open, so you can check

The classifier, the matcher and the stage rules are in the repository. Every claim on this page is a file you can read — including the one that says an out-of-vocabulary answer is stored as “other” instead of being taken at face value.

// for agents

Bring your own mail client.

The whole inbox is in the freehire CLI, so your own client — himalaya, mbsync, anything that speaks IMAP — can fetch the mail and hand it over with inbox push. Each message is keyed by its Message-ID, so a nightly re-sync updates rather than duplicates. freehire stores it, links it and shows it on the board like any other message, but never classifies it: that tier costs nothing to run and nothing to use.

inbox list --unclassified --body is then your agent's work queue — a whole page of messages to judge in one call, and unlike inbox read it marks nothing read. inbox triage records the verdict and moves the application's stage.

Get the CLI API reference

terminal

# hand over a batch your client fetched (external_id = Message-ID,
# so re-pushing updates instead of duplicating)
freehire inbox push --file mail.json

# the work queue: unjudged mail, bodies inline, nothing marked read
freehire inbox list --unclassified --body

# record the verdict; the application's stage follows
freehire inbox triage <id> interview_invitation --slug <job>

# the queues the matcher won't guess at
freehire inbox list --link suggested   # confirm / reject
freehire inbox list --link unlinked    # inbox application

// faq

Frequently asked questions.

How does freehire get my job emails?: Two ways. Every account can claim a freehire address — you forward recruiter mail to it, or use it when you apply, and replies land there directly. Or you connect Gmail read-only, and freehire syncs the job-related mail it finds. Both feed the same inbox; you can use either or both.
Does freehire read all of my email?: No. The hosted address only ever receives what you forward or what employers send to it — freehire never sees the rest of your mailbox. The Gmail connection is read-only and scoped to job-related mail: freehire learns which senders write about your applications and syncs those. You can disconnect Gmail or release the freehire address at any time.
How does an email get attached to the right application?: By matching the mail thread, or the company name carried in the sender name or subject. When that match is certain, the email is linked to the application automatically. When it is not, freehire offers it as a suggestion for you to confirm — the AI classifier can propose a match, but it never links one on its own.
What statuses can an email be tagged with?: Acknowledgement, screening, interview invitation, assessment, offer, rejection, information request, and an unfinished application you started but never submitted. Anything that does not fit one of those is recorded as "other" rather than guessed at.
What if an email is attached to the wrong application?: Unlink it and pick the right one — every link is reversible from the message itself. If the mail is about a job you never recorded, one action creates the application from it and links it in the same step, dated by the email rather than by today.
Will it move cards on my tracking board by itself?: Only forward, and only for a linked email it is confident about: applied, then screening, responded, interview, offer. A card never moves backwards, an application you already marked as rejected, accepted or withdrawn is never touched automatically, and a rejection email never moves a card on its own — you stay in control of the outcome.

Stop guessing where you stand.

Claim your freehire address, apply with it, and watch the replies sort themselves onto your board. It's free, like the rest of freehire.

Open your inbox Find jobs to apply to