Do I need a Google Calendar or Apple Calendar account to use the agenda?

No. Every invite that lands in your Emcognito inbox is parsed in place and rendered in the message view; accepting or declining sends the RSVP under the alias the invite was addressed to. The /app/calendar page is the self-hosted second window — no third-party calendar account is required to read invites, RSVP, or see your week.

Which alias signs the RSVP when I accept an invite?

The alias the invite arrived at. A meeting sent to hello@studio.example replies as hello@studio.example, even if you signed in under cigan@gmail.com. The address you sign in with does not leak into the RSVP From line.

What if the LOCATION field has multiple URLs in it (Meet link plus a doc link plus a project tracker)?

The Join chip prefers known video providers (Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Whereby, and a handful more) over generic URLs and labels the chip with the provider name. Sibling URLs are kept on the per-message invite panel under an Also linked row, never crowded into the agenda chip.

Are recurring invites rendered as a series or as individual events?

The RRULE on the inbound invite is parsed (FREQ / INTERVAL / BYDAY / BYMONTHDAY / COUNT / UNTIL) and rendered as a short human sentence on the card — for example, 'Weekly on Mondays · until Sep 29'. Each occurrence is materialised on the agenda so a Monday standup shows up on every Monday it falls on, not only the series start.

Reading the invite

Emcognito WebMail renders the full calendar invite — description, attendees, recurrence sentence, and a Join chip that picks the real video URL — inside the message view, so you decide on the RSVP without leaving the inbox. The alias the invite arrived at signs the reply on your behalf: an invite to hello@studio.example replies as hello@studio.example, not as your sign-in identity. The /app/calendar page collects every accepted event and can be subscribed to from Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook via a private, revocable iCal feed URL.

Calendar invites arrive in the inbox like any other letter, and they stay readable there. The agenda is a second window onto the same set, never the source of truth.

May 2026· Updated 2026-05-18·5 min read

An invite to lunch is still a letter. It arrives in the inbox, wears the stripe of the alias it was addressed to, and the From line of the RSVP is already correct — because the alias the invite landed on is the alias the reply goes out under. You do not switch tabs to Google Calendar to figure out what the meeting is; the meeting is rendered where it landed.

§ Inside the message

Opening a calendar invite shows the full briefing — description body, attendees with their RSVP status, recurrence sentence, and a single Join chip that points at the real video URL. Accept, Maybe, and Decline live at the foot of the panel. Replying is one click; the RSVP is DKIM-signed under the alias the invite arrived at.

§ RSVP from the right alias

An invite to hello@studio.example replies from hello@studio.example — not from the address you signed in with. The organiser sees your studio identity, not your personal one. This is the alias system from Book II applied to calendaring: the inbound address is the identity, calendar or not.

Aside

The Join chip names the recognised video provider (Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, Webex, Whereby, GoTo, BlueJeans, Around, Riverside, Jitsi, Discord). Sibling URLs in the LOCATION field — a project tracker, a doc, a GitHub thread — are surfaced separately on the per-message invite panel under an Also linked row, never crowded into the agenda chip.

§ The agenda page

/app/calendar collects every accepted invite into Today / Tomorrow / weekday rails. Each row is editorial: time on the left, the briefing pull-block in the middle, guests as named chips with partstat-coloured dots, the recurrence sentence above the briefing, and the Join chip on the right. The cover at the top of the page carries a small ledger — Today, Upcoming, Needs reply, In view — and a filter by identity so a portfolio operator can see one brand's week at a time.

§ Subscribing from any calendar app

From the second column of the agenda page, mint a private feed URL. Paste it into Apple Calendar (File → New Calendar Subscription), Google Calendar (Other calendars → + → From URL), or Outlook (Add calendar → Subscribe from web). The feed is read-only, revocable at any time, and exposes only your accepted events. Your meetings travel with you without sending them through a third party's calendar service.

§ Conflicts

Accepting an event that overlaps another accepted event surfaces the conflict in a confirm step before the reply goes out — with the conflicting meeting named. You can accept anyway (the organiser will not know) or keep the new one tentative.

§ Common questions

Do I need a Google Calendar or Apple Calendar account to use the agenda?: No. Every invite that lands in your Emcognito inbox is parsed in place and rendered in the message view; accepting or declining sends the RSVP under the alias the invite was addressed to. The /app/calendar page is the self-hosted second window — no third-party calendar account is required to read invites, RSVP, or see your week.
Which alias signs the RSVP when I accept an invite?: The alias the invite arrived at. A meeting sent to hello@studio.example replies as hello@studio.example, even if you signed in under cigan@gmail.com. The address you sign in with does not leak into the RSVP From line.
Can I subscribe to my Emcognito agenda from Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook?: Yes. From /app/calendar, generate a private feed URL and paste it into Apple Calendar (File → New Calendar Subscription), Google Calendar (Other calendars → + → From URL), or Outlook (Add calendar → Subscribe from web). The feed is read-only, revocable, and exposes only accepted events.
What if the LOCATION field has multiple URLs in it (Meet link plus a doc link plus a project tracker)?: The Join chip prefers known video providers (Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Whereby, and a handful more) over generic URLs and labels the chip with the provider name. Sibling URLs are kept on the per-message invite panel under an Also linked row, never crowded into the agenda chip.
Are recurring invites rendered as a series or as individual events?: The RRULE on the inbound invite is parsed (FREQ / INTERVAL / BYDAY / BYMONTHDAY / COUNT / UNTIL) and rendered as a short human sentence on the card — for example, 'Weekly on Mondays · until Sep 29'. Each occurrence is materialised on the agenda so a Monday standup shows up on every Monday it falls on, not only the series start.