Appendix A: Example — Reply in a Thread

This example shows a reply message. Note how the content levels diverge as processing increases.

{
  "messageId": "reply789@mail.example.com",
  "threadId": "root456@mail.example.com",
  "metadata": {
    "from": { "name": "Bob", "email": "bob@example.com" },
    "to": [{ "name": "Alice", "email": "alice@example.com" }],
    "cc": [],
    "bcc": [],
    "subject": "Re: Project update",
    "date": "2026-06-29T14:32:00Z",
    "timestamp": 1782743520
  },
  "content": {
    "rawFull": "From: Bob <bob@example.com>\r\nTo: Alice <alice@example.com>\r\nSubject: Re: Project update\r\nDate: Sun, 29 Jun 2026 14:32:00 +0000\r\nMessage-ID: <reply789@mail.example.com>\r\nIn-Reply-To: <root456@mail.example.com>\r\nReferences: <root456@mail.example.com>\r\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\r\n\r\nThanks Alice, looks good to me. Let's go ahead.\r\n\r\nOn Sun, 29 Jun 2026 at 09:00, Alice <alice@example.com> wrote:\r\n> Hi Bob, just wanted to share the latest project update.\r\n> Everything is on track for the Thursday deadline.\r\n>\r\n> -- \r\n> Alice Smith | Product Lead",
    "raw": "Thanks Alice, looks good to me. Let's go ahead.\r\n\r\nOn Sun, 29 Jun 2026 at 09:00, Alice <alice@example.com> wrote:\r\n> Hi Bob, just wanted to share the latest project update.\r\n> Everything is on track for the Thursday deadline.\r\n>\r\n> -- \r\n> Alice Smith | Product Lead",
    "html": null,
    "text": "Thanks Alice, looks good to me. Let's go ahead.\n\nOn Sun, 29 Jun 2026 at 09:00, Alice <alice@example.com> wrote:\n> Hi Bob, just wanted to share the latest project update.\n> Everything is on track for the Thursday deadline.\n>\n> --\n> Alice Smith | Product Lead",
    "clean": "Thanks Alice, looks good to me. Let's go ahead.",
    "forAI": "Thanks Alice, looks good to me. Let's go ahead."
  },
  "thread": {
    "position": 1,
    "inReplyTo": "root456@mail.example.com",
    "references": ["root456@mail.example.com"]
  },
  "attachments": [],
  "processing": {
    "processedAt": "2026-06-29T14:32:01Z",
    "specVersion": "1.0"
  }
}

rawFull contains the complete RFC 5322 message exactly as received. raw is the body only, with headers removed but quoted history still present. text is the same decoded to clean line endings. clean and forAI strip the quoted chain and signature, leaving only Bob’s actual reply.

thread.position is 1 here because this example represents the message as it appears after thread reconciliation (this is the second of two messages, following the root shown in references). A single, isolated parse() of this message with no knowledge of the rest of the thread would instead produce thread.position: null per §4.4.

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