Drafts appear right inside Gmail, as native Gmail drafts. They’re never sent for you, and they never show up in a separate Chiefy window. If you expected a draft and don’t see one, this page walks through the most common reasons — most of them are by design.

Where drafts appear

A draft from Smart Drafts or Autodraft lands in the Gmail reply compose box on the thread, exactly like a draft you’d write yourself. There’s no separate Chiefy panel holding your drafts — open the thread and the draft is in the reply area, ready to read, edit, and send.

If you’re scanning a side panel looking for finished drafts, that’s why you can’t find them. Open the thread itself.

On-demand Smart Drafts don’t appear on their own

On-demand Smart Drafts only run when you ask for them. Open the reply box and request a draft — Chiefy won’t write one until you do. If you’re waiting for a draft to show up automatically without asking, that’s Autodraft, which is a separate mode you turn on (see below).

When you do ask, Chiefy may come back with a clarifying question instead of a finished draft. If your request is ambiguous, or it needs information it can’t find in the thread or your history, it’ll ask you first rather than guess. Answer the question and it’ll continue.

Check that Autodraft is on

Autodraft is the automatic mode — it pre-drafts replies as email arrives, so a draft is waiting when you open the thread. It’s off until you turn it on.

1. Open Chiefy settings

   In Gmail, open the Chiefy side panel and choose Settings.

2. Go to Smart Drafts

   Select Smart Drafts from the settings menu.

3. Confirm Autodraft is toggled on A

   Make sure Autodraft is switched on. If it’s off, no drafts are prepared automatically.

   Chiefy · Drafts

   Drafts

   Active

   Manage how Chiefy automatically drafts replies.

   Enable drafts A

   Chiefy will create reply drafts in Gmail for emails that need a response

   How often do you like to reply?

   I reply to almost everything, even just to be polite I reply when there's something new or useful to say I reply if it feels expected, even without a clear question I only reply when there's a direct question or request

   Email signature

   This signature will be appended to all auto-drafted replies

   Visual HTML Preview

   Jordan Lee
   Bayview Cottages
   jordan@bayviewcottages.com · +1 (250) 555-0142

   Save signature Clear Use default

Check the extension

Autodraft prepares drafts in the background, but you need the Chiefy extension installed and enabled in Chrome to see and use them inside Gmail. If the extension is disabled, you won’t see the Chiefy panel or its settings at all.

Open Chrome’s extensions page and confirm Chiefy is installed and turned on, then reload Gmail. New to Chiefy? Start with Getting started first.

Autodraft only drafts for threads that need a reply

Autodraft is built to stay quiet unless a thread clearly calls for a response. It deliberately leaves these alone:

• Notifications, receipts, and newsletters — automated messages from a noreply@ address or a sender that isn’t a real person expecting an answer.
• Cold outreach and broadcasts — unsolicited sales pitches, or emails where you’re only CC’d for awareness rather than being the person who should reply.
• Threads it can’t handle confidently — when it doesn’t have enough context to write something genuinely useful, it would rather skip than put words in your mouth.

So an inbox with no new Autodrafts often just means nothing in it needed one. That’s the feature working as intended.

Gmail · Inbox

BC Draft To: Bayview Cottages Re: Booking for 4 — last weekend of August Hi — could you confirm the two double rooms and… 9:24 AM

ST Stripe Your payout is on the way A payout of €1,240.00 is on its way to your… 7:30 AM

Sensitive topics are treated carefully

Some threads are higher-stakes than most. When a reply would need fresh judgment on something contested or novel — a legal dispute, an HR or payroll matter, a financial decision, or a promise to do something you haven’t agreed to — Autodraft lowers its confidence in drafting it, so it’s more likely to skip the thread than put words in your mouth.

This isn’t a hard wall. If it’s a topic you handle as a matter of routine — a booking confirmation, a standard refund, an invoice reply you send all the time — Chiefy recognizes the pattern and will still draft it, even though money is involved. It’s the genuinely novel, judgment-heavy threads that get held back.

For those, write the reply yourself, or ask for an on-demand Smart Draft and review it carefully before sending.

Your reply-frequency setting may be filtering them out

In Smart Drafts settings there’s a How often do you like to reply? control with four choices, from I only reply when there’s a direct question or request through I reply to almost everything, even just to be polite. It controls how much of your email Autodraft drafts for.

If you’ve picked one of the more selective options and a thread is more of a courtesy reply than a direct question, Autodraft will skip it. If you want drafts for more of your email, open Chiefy → Settings → Smart Drafts and move How often do you like to reply? toward the more inclusive end.

Using a Connected Mailbox?

Autodraft runs on your sign-in mailbox — the account you log in with — not on the other mailboxes you’ve connected. A connected mailbox is read across (search and Ask Chiefy) today, but Chiefy doesn’t yet prepare automatic drafts in it. So if drafts appear for the account you signed in with but not for one you added later, that’s expected — drafting on connected mailboxes is something we’re building toward.

You can still set Smart Drafts per mailbox now — on or off, sensitivity, and signature — and those choices are saved and waiting for when drafting extends to connected mailboxes. For exactly what runs where, see What automates on each mailbox and why.

Still not seeing a draft?

If you’ve confirmed Autodraft is on, the extension is enabled, and the thread genuinely needs a reply, try opening the thread directly and reloading Gmail — the draft sits in the reply box, not a separate panel. If a thread you’d expect a draft for still has none, it most likely fell into one of the conservative skips above.