Why does my inbox assistant offer times that I'm booked?

Questions
1

:bullseye: What is your goal?

My Inbox Assistant is supposed to draft a reply to emails that require scheduling by checking my availability and replying with times I’m free.

Here is the workflow:

Gmail (watch emails) > HTTP (make a request) > Anthropothic Claude (create a prompt) > Gmail (create a draft email)

Any ideas?

:thinking: What is the problem & what have you tried?

I have the workflow working correctly; however, Claude keeps offering times I’m booked and disregards other important aspects of the prompt.

I’ve tried adding different modules so Claude gets my availability data in a simple format, plus I’ve changed the prompt a bunch of times. I’ve spent countless hours troubleshooting with Claude, and it only ends up going around in circles.

:clipboard: Error messages or input/output bundles

Happy to share any input or output if it would help.

4

Hey @jal !

The issue is not really the availability data. It is that you are asking Claude to reason over scheduling inside a prompt, and LLMs are unreliable for rule based time selection.

Claude should not decide which times are free by itself. Make should do that part first. Get your calendar availability, filter out booked slots in the scenario, format only the valid free times, and then pass those exact options to Claude just to write the email.

So the fix is to move the scheduling logic out of Claude and keep Claude only for wording the reply. That is the only reliable way to stop it from suggesting booked times.

Ethan Marcellus- Automation Expert at Tuesday Wizard | Top Make Solution Partner | Make Community Contributor

5

Hello,

Welcome to the community, @jal.

It’s because you are using LLM/AI where it is completely unnecessary.

Use a more “classic” approach instead- make a request to Calendar to get free time slots, and then format them into the desired structure. With this approach, you will always get exact dates.

I don’t know which calendar you are using but in most cases it is as simple as combining get slots and aggregate them.

Have a nice day,
Michal

6

Thanks Ethan. Claude receives my availability from an API call to cal.com. Only open times are provided, so Claude should already know when I’m free.

I’m counting on Claude to:

  • Review open time slots provided times provided by cal.com.
  • Draft an email confirming a time that I am available or provide other options.
  • Confirm a time or provide other options which align with the senders time zone.

Based on your experience, am I expecting too much out of Claude?

Thanks,

John

7

Thank you, Michal.

Claude receives my availability from an API call to cal.com. Only open times are provided, so Claude should already know when I’m free.

I’m counting on Claude to:

  • Review open time slots provided times provided by cal.com.
  • Draft an email confirming a time that I am available or provide other options.
  • Confirm a time or provide other options which align with the senders time zone.

Based on your experience, am I expecting too much out of Claude?

Thanks,

John

8

For repetitive tasks? Unfortunately, yes. It may work 10 times, and on the 11th run return something incorrect - that’s the nature of LLMs.

How does your workflow look? Does the customer suggest a time and you verify availability and confirm/ suggest alternatives, or do you want to suggest available dates?

Why not simply provide a cal.com URL?

Keep in mind that in almost any email-based scenario, you can get stuck in a decision loop. For example, you send available slots for Monday at 10:00, 11:00, and 12:00. But in the meantime (between sending the email and receiving confirmation), someone else books 11:00 - and now you have a conflict.

Have a nice day,
Michal

9

Thanks Michal.

Yes, the customer suggests a time in an email. Claude is supposed to reply to confirm the time the customer requested, offer other times I am available, and a scheduling link the customer can use.

I don’t want to provide an automated scheduling link because that increases friction in getting the appointment scheduled.

Yeah, totally aware of the decision loop scenario. Another reason why I try to cut down on the use of automated scheduling links.