Add customer support email agent using Commune

[yishangupenn]

Copied from upstream: openai/openai-cookbook#2481
Original author: @shanjairaj7
Originally opened: 2026-03-03

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What this notebook covers

This notebook shows how to build a customer support email agent using the OpenAI Python SDK with GPT-4o function calling and Commune — a programmable email and SMS API built for AI agents.

The notebook lives in examples/agents_sdk/ because it demonstrates a complete, production-oriented agentic workflow: multiple tools, multi-turn reasoning, error handling, and a polling loop suitable for deployment.

Use case

A SaaS company points a Commune inbox at their support address. The agent reads new tickets, classifies them (billing / technical / feature-request), drafts empathetic replies, sends them via the Commune API, and SMS-escalates P0 issues to an on-call phone number — all without human intervention.

What readers learn

1. Function-calling schema — how to define Commune's read/search/send/SMS operations in OpenAI's {"type": "function", ...} format
2. Correct tool_calls loop — proper handling of finish_reason == "tool_calls", executing each tool_call, and returning {"role": "tool", ...} messages
3. Multi-step triage — agent chains read_inbox → get_email → send_email across multiple turns autonomously
4. Production patterns — exponential-backoff polling loop and a webhook handler snippet for Flask

Why it's valuable

Support inbox automation is one of the highest-ROI use cases for function-calling agents but is underrepresented in the cookbook relative to its real-world prevalence. This recipe gives developers a complete, working starting point that handles the email infrastructure (via Commune) so the focus stays on the agent logic.

Technical details

• Uses openai Python SDK directly — no LangChain, no framework
• Uses commune-mail Python package (pip install commune-mail)
• Model: gpt-4o (also compatible with gpt-4o-mini for cost-sensitive deployments)
• All tool calls hit the real Commune API — no mock data
• Includes SMS escalation via commune_client.sms.send()