# How Jade works

The core idea: hand out a different email address to every sender, and let rules sort what comes back.

Source: https://jade.email/help/welcome/

## The idea

A normal email account has one address. You give that address to your bank, your dentist, every newsletter you ever signed up for, and the website that asked for it before letting you read an article. Then you spend the rest of your life defending that address against the senders you regret.

Jade flips that around. You own a domain. From that domain you hand out a different address to every sender. Netflix gets `netflix@yourdomain.com`, your dentist gets `dentist@yourdomain.com`, and you choose any local part you want for any sender. Each address you hand out becomes its own **inbox** inside Jade.

You don't have to create those addresses up front. The first time mail arrives at one, the inbox shows up in your list automatically.

## Why this changes things

Three things follow from one address per sender:

- **You always know who's writing.** A message at `dentist@yourdomain.com` is from your dentist's office or someone they leaked your address to. The address itself is the source.
- **Leaks stay scoped.** If a sender's database gets stolen and your address ends up on a spam list, you cut off that one address. The rest of your mail is untouched.
- **Sorting becomes structural.** You don't need a clever filter to recognize that something is from your bank, because its address says it is.

## What you do in Jade

A few things, mostly:

- **Read mail.** Across every inbox at once, or one inbox at a time, or one **category** at a time.
- **Set rules.** "When something with `verification code` in the subject arrives, tag it Priority and notify me." Rules can also unsubscribe, mark read, or bounce a sender back.
- **Hand out new addresses.** This is almost never a deliberate act. Usually you type a new local part into a sign-up form, and the inbox shows up the moment a confirmation lands.

The [glossary](https://jade.email/help/glossary.md) has one-line definitions of every term you'll see; this guide and the rest of the help center teach the concepts in context.

## Where to use Jade

- **On the web:** Sign in at [jade.email](https://jade.email).
- **On iPhone:** Download [Jade Email from the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6794716502).
- **In ChatGPT:** Install [Jade's official plugin](https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a85fc2856348191a597b910e7b057c9). See [connection instructions](https://jade.email/help/mcp.md#connect-chatgpt).

The fastest way to understand Jade is to set it up. Most of the mental model only clicks once you've handed out a few addresses and watched the rules sort the first day's mail. The [Getting started](https://jade.email/help/getting-started.md) guide is the standalone walkthrough.