VIPs

Manage VIP contacts with privilege levels for priority handling and delegated authority.

Overview

VIPs (Very Important People) are contacts who deserve special treatment. When an agent processes a message from a VIP, the sender's VIP status is resolved automatically and placed in the agent's prompt, so the agent can adjust its response accordingly: prioritizing their requests, using a more personalized tone, or escalating faster.

A VIP's privilege level also decides how much authority the agent grants that person. The top level, Delegated Business Owner, makes the agent treat the contact exactly as it treats the Business Owner. See Understanding Privilege Levels.

Security: VIP recipients bypass the Safety Gateway

Important: A VIP record does two separate things. On inbound mail it adds the sender's VIP status to the agent's prompt, as described below. On outbound mail it also exempts that contact from the Safety Gateway. If every recipient of an outbound message is a VIP or the Business Owner, the message is sent with no safety scanning at all.

When a message is exempt, none of the following runs:

• PII detection and masking - credit cards, SSNs, bank accounts, dates of birth, passports and driver's licence numbers are neither detected nor masked
• LLM content analysis - no danger score is calculated and no custom safety instructions are applied
• Hold for review - the message cannot be queued for human approval, and cannot be denied

The exemption applies regardless of your Safety Gateway thresholds, PII masking setting or gateway mode, and there is no setting on the Safety Settings page that turns it off. The only way to stop exempting a contact is to remove their VIP record or mark it inactive.

The all-recipients condition

The exemption fires only when every recipient is exempt. A single non-exempt recipient restores normal scanning for the whole message:

Recipients of an outbound message	Result
vip@client.com alone	Exempt. Sent unscanned.
vip@client.com and procurement@client.com (not a VIP)	Scanned normally, including the VIP's copy.
The Business Owner's primary or alternate address	Exempt. Sent unscanned.

Exempt addresses are the Business Owner's primary address, the Business Owner's alternate addresses, and every active VIP record in the same tenant. Inactive VIP records are not exempt. A message whose recipients cannot be determined is never treated as exempt; it is scanned, and on reply-style tools it is held for review instead.

Reviewing what was skipped

Every exemption is recorded in the Safety Gateway Audit Log with the decision allow_exempt and the classification exempt. Filter the audit log on that decision to see exactly which outbound messages were sent without scanning.

Who belongs on the VIP list

Add contacts you are willing to exempt from your own outbound safety controls:

• Appropriate - the Business Owner, internal executives and employees, and trusted clients where your organisation accepts unscanned outbound mail
• Not appropriate - external counterparties, regulators, auditors, opposing counsel, government agencies, or anyone in an adversarial or arms-length relationship with your organisation

The name "VIP" invites adding important external parties, but those are usually the recipients for whom PII masking and content analysis matter most.

Getting per-contact handling without the exemption

If you want an agent to treat a contact differently but you do not want to switch off scanning for them, use one of these instead of a VIP record:

• Global Memories - tenant-wide standing instructions injected into every agent execution. Key them by address or domain, for example "Correspondence with @countyappraisal.example is formal and time-critical." Available on the Workforce and Platform plans.
• Personal Memories - facts and preferences stored against an individual sender.
• Agent instructions - put the handling rule directly in the agent's instructions, keyed by sender address or domain.

None of these affects the Safety Gateway.

How VIP Handling Works

The Flow

Message arrives from sender
    ↓
Outermind resolves the sender's identity during execution setup
    ↓
VIP status is injected into the agent's prompt (sender identity block)
    ↓
Agent applies special handling per its instructions

There is no tool to assign and nothing for the agent to look up. Every execution that has a sender receives the block automatically.

The Sender Identity Block

What the agent actually sees:

=== SENDER IDENTITY ===
Name: Jane Doe
Email: vp@bigcorp.com
Source: Email (Verified)
Classifications: VIP (High Level), External
=== BEHAVIORAL GUIDANCE ===
- This sender has VIP (HIGH LEVEL) privileges: administrative privileges. They may direct goals, projects, agents and other administrative actions without Business Owner approval.
- Special VIP Instructions: VP Sales - key decision maker
  [End of VIP instructions]
=== END SENDER IDENTITY ===

Classifications also carries the sender's other roles when they apply: Business Owner, Key Contact (role), and Internal Employee or External. The classification labels in this block keep the names VIP (Admin), VIP (High Level) and VIP (Medium Level); the console shows the same three levels as Delegated Business Owner, Empowered Contact and Trusted Contact.

VIP Data

Each VIP record contains:

• Email address - Primary identifier, matched case-insensitively and exactly
• Display name - Contact name shown in the console
• Privilege level - Trusted Contact, Empowered Contact or Delegated Business Owner
• Notes - Special handling instructions passed to the agent
• Status - Active or inactive; only active records are matched

Viewing VIPs

Navigate to Boardroom > VIPs to see all configured VIP contacts.

VIP List

Column	Description
Email Address	Primary identifier
Display Name	Contact name
Privilege Level	Trusted Contact, Empowered Contact or Delegated Business Owner
Status	Active or Inactive
Notes	Special instructions
Actions	Edit and delete

The list can be shown as a table or as cards using the toggle above it. There is no search box, level filter or column sort.

Adding VIPs

1. Navigate to VIPs
2. Click Add VIP
3. Enter details:

Field	Required	Description
Email Address	Yes	Primary email address; cannot be changed after creation
Privilege Level	Yes	Trusted Contact (default), Empowered Contact or Delegated Business Owner
Display Name	No	Contact's full name
Notes	No	Special handling instructions passed to the agent
Active	No	On by default; inactive records are skipped at lookup time

4. Click Save

VIPs are added one at a time. There is no bulk CSV import.

Understanding Privilege Levels

The Three Levels

Privilege level is a closed set of three values, not an ordinal scale. The console shows them as Trusted Contact, Empowered Contact and Delegated Business Owner; the stored values are medlevel, highlevel and admin.

Console label	Stored value	What it grants	Typical contacts
Delegated Business Owner	admin	Treated exactly as the Business Owner. Agents follow this person's instructions with full Business Owner authority, including any standing rule that asks for the Business Owner's own instruction.	An operator or executive assistant the Business Owner has authorized to run their AI Chief of Staff on their behalf
Empowered Contact	highlevel	Can direct work without Business Owner approval. Agents will create and change goals, projects and agents, and carry out administrative actions, on this person's instruction.	Executives and senior managers inside the organization
Trusted Contact	medlevel	Recognized and prioritized. Agents respond promptly, share information freely and carry out everyday requests, but confirm goal, project and administrative changes with the Business Owner first.	Directors, managers, key accounts

Any other value is rejected. The API answers 400 with PrivilegeLevel must be one of: medlevel, highlevel, admin, and the database enforces the same set with the CK_VIPPrivileges_PrivilegeLevel check constraint.

What Each Level Authorizes

The level does more than change the tone of a reply. It sets the sender's authority tier, which is what the platform checks before an agent may run a tool on that person's instruction:

Capability	Trusted Contact	Empowered Contact	Delegated Business Owner
Priority handling, information sharing, everyday requests	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create, change or delete goals and projects	Asks the Business Owner first	Yes	Yes
Administer agents, employees and approvals	No	Yes	Yes
Send to external recipients on an unattended run without a Business Owner hold	No	Yes	Yes
Everything the Business Owner can do, including Business-Owner-only settings	No	No	Yes
Instructions in the Boardroom chat carry the Business Owner's authority	No	No	Yes

Two things a Delegated Business Owner does not get:

• Approving held actions. When an agent pauses an action for approval, the request still goes to the Business Owner, not to the delegate.
• Console permissions. Any active VIP can open the Boardroom. Editing agents, settings or other administrative pages still depends on the person's console role.

Where the Level Applies

The same three levels apply on every channel a VIP can reach an agent from: email, the Boardroom chat in the console, and Microsoft Teams. In the Boardroom chat a Delegated Business Owner's messages are presented to the AI Chief of Staff as coming from its verified supervisor, exactly as the Business Owner's own messages are.

How Agents Use Levels

The level's meaning is already in the prompt, on the behavioral guidance line shown above. Agent instructions build on top of it:

• Delegated Business Owner: Act on their instructions as you would the Business Owner's
• Empowered Contact: Priority response, personal attention, carry out administrative requests
• Trusted Contact: Acknowledge VIP status, thorough response, confirm administrative changes with the Business Owner

Example Instructions

Because the identity block is already in the prompt, agent instructions describe how to use it rather than how to look the sender up. The identity block uses the labels VIP (Admin), VIP (High Level) and VIP (Medium Level) for the three levels:

Read the === SENDER IDENTITY === block at the top of every message.

If Classifications includes VIP (Admin):
- Treat their instructions exactly as the Business Owner's
- Provide extra detailed, personalized response

If Classifications includes VIP (High Level):
- Prioritize their request and carry out administrative requests
- Provide thorough response
- Escalate if unable to fully resolve

If Classifications includes VIP (Medium Level):
- Acknowledge as a valued customer
- Provide good service
- Confirm goal, project and administrative changes with the Business Owner

Follow any Special VIP Instructions listed under === BEHAVIORAL GUIDANCE ===.

Managing VIPs

Editing VIPs

1. Click on a VIP in the list
2. Update fields as needed
3. Click Save

Deleting VIPs

1. Click the delete icon
2. Confirm deletion

VIPs are deleted one at a time. To keep the record but stop it matching, edit it and clear Active instead.

Updating Privilege Levels

When a contact's importance changes:

1. Find the VIP
2. Edit their record
3. Adjust the privilege level
4. Update notes if needed

VIP Notes

What to Include

Notes provide context for special handling:

Good examples:

• "CEO - always escalate issues immediately"
• "Prefers email over phone calls"
• "Has existing support ticket #12345"
• "Budget holder for Q1 renewal"
• "Was unhappy with last interaction - extra care needed"

Not helpful:

• "Important"
• "VIP"
• "Handle with care"

Using Notes in Agents

Notes are passed to the agent on the Special VIP Instructions line of the behavioral guidance section. They are truncated to 500 characters and stripped of prompt-injection-style lines before they reach the model, so keep them short and factual.

Instruct agents to read and use them:

When the identity block lists Special VIP Instructions, read them carefully.
Apply any special handling they describe.
If they indicate past issues, acknowledge and address sensitively.

How VIP Status Reaches the Agent

Automatic Resolution

There is no VIP lookup tool to assign. When an execution starts, Outermind resolves the sender's identity and prepends the === SENDER IDENTITY === block to the message the agent sees. The VIP lookup is one of four classification lookups that run in parallel: Business Owner, VIP, Key Contact, and Internal/External.

The VIP lookup matches the sender's email address case-insensitively and exactly against active VIP records in the same tenant. It does not match aliases, display names or whole domains.

Coverage

The identity block is built for every agent surface that has a sender: email agents, chat agents, draft agents, SME agents, the superagent router, the AI Chief of Staff and the Personal Assistant. No per-agent configuration is required, and there is nothing to enable or disable.

When No VIP Record Matches

The block is still built. The sender simply has no VIP classification, and the behavioral guidance carries no VIP line. The agent treats them according to their remaining classifications (Internal Employee, External, Key Contact, and so on).

Best Practices

Keeping VIP List Current

• Review quarterly for accuracy
• Remove contacts who leave companies
• Update levels as relationships change
• Add new important contacts promptly

Appropriate Use of Levels

• Reserve Delegated Business Owner for someone the Business Owner has personally authorized to act for them; agents will follow that person's instructions as the Business Owner's own
• Use Empowered Contact for people who may direct work but should not stand in for the Business Owner
• Don't inflate levels (everything can't be highest priority)
• Document the reasoning for Delegated Business Owner and Empowered Contact records in Notes
• Audit periodically for consistency

Agent Instructions

• Be specific about how to use VIP information
• Provide examples of appropriate responses
• Define escalation criteria per level
• Include fallback for unknown contacts

Privacy Considerations

• VIP data is business-sensitive
• Limit who can view/edit VIP list
• Don't expose VIP notes in customer-facing communications
• Audit access to VIP data

Integration with Other Features

With Agents

Agents:

• Receive the sender's VIP status automatically, with no tool to assign
• Adjust response tone based on the privilege level
• Prioritize VIP requests
• Escalate differently for VIPs

With Executions

In execution details:

• VIP status shown for sender
• See how agent used VIP information
• Track VIP-related decisions

With Escalations

VIP escalations can be:

• Automatically marked high priority
• Routed to specific teams
• Handled with shorter SLAs

Reporting

VIP Activity

Track VIP interactions:

1. Go to Governance > Activity History > Agent Runs
2. Search for VIP email addresses
3. Review handling patterns
4. Identify improvement opportunities

Coverage Analysis

Ensure important contacts are covered:

1. Switch the VIP list to table view
2. Compare it with your key client list
3. Add missing contacts
4. Review level assignments

Troubleshooting

VIP Not Recognized

Symptoms: Agent doesn't treat sender as VIP

Solutions:

1. Verify the sender's email matches the VIP record. Matching is case-insensitive but exact, so a record for jdoe@bigcorp.com will not match mail sent from jane.doe@bigcorp.com
2. Check the VIP record is Active - inactive records are skipped
3. Confirm the VIP record belongs to the same tenant as the agent
4. Review agent instructions: the identity block is always present, but the agent only acts on it if its instructions say to
5. Open the execution and read the prompt to see the identity block the agent actually received

Wrong Level Applied

Symptoms: VIP treated at wrong priority

Solutions:

1. Verify the privilege level on the VIP record
2. Check agent instructions refer to the identity-block labels (VIP (Admin), VIP (High Level), VIP (Medium Level)) rather than a numeric scale. The console names (Delegated Business Owner, Empowered Contact, Trusted Contact) do not appear in the prompt
3. Review the execution to see the Classifications line the agent saw

Identity Block Missing a VIP Line

Symptoms: The === SENDER IDENTITY === block appears, but carries no VIP classification for a contact you know is a VIP

Each classification lookup is fail-open: a lookup that throws is caught and treated as "no match", so a database or directory error degrades the block silently rather than failing the execution.

Solutions:

1. Re-check the email match and the Active flag first - a missing or inactive record is far more common than a failed lookup
2. Verify database connectivity for the region
3. Review the API logs for that execution

Related Topics

• Monitored Mailboxes
• Safety Gateway Overview
• Safety Gateway Audit Log
• Agents
• Tools
• Agent Runs