Integrations

Microsoft Outlook Integration

August for Outlook extends your inbox into a legal workbench, allowing you to search emails, draft responses, and analyze attachments without leaving Outlook. Context flows continuously between email review, document editing, and the August platform.

What the Integration Does

August's Outlook integration transforms your inbox from a communication tool into an active part of your legal workflow:

  • Email search: Find relevant messages quickly by searching all emails from inside Outlook using the AI assistant. For example, retrieve emails from opposing counsel about a specific deadline.

  • Thread summarization: Convert long email threads into concise matter updates that highlight current status, key issues, and decisions.

  • Context-aware drafting: Write or respond to emails with access to your firm's prior reasoning, standards, and playbooks. Generate reply drafts tailored to context and send them directly from Outlook.

  • Attachment review: View attachment metadata, selectively import specific files, and analyze attachments without downloading. Inline images and calendar invites are excluded from attachment actions.

  • Playbook evaluation: Apply firm playbooks to inbound messages to ensure consistent, compliant responses.

Setup Requirements

You need an active August account with integration access and a Microsoft account with an Outlook mailbox.

How to Connect Outlook

The connection process uses OAuth 2.0 authentication. Your Microsoft credentials are never stored by August.

1

Open Integrations

Navigate to Integrations from the left navigation menu and select Microsoft Outlook from the list of available integrations.

2

Sign In with Microsoft

Click Connect to begin the OAuth 2.0 flow. This opens a secure Microsoft sign-in page. Enter your Microsoft 365 credentials to authenticate.

3

Approve Permissions

If prompted, approve the permissions request yourself. If your tenant restricts user consent, your Microsoft 365 administrator will need to approve the August app once before you can continue.

4

Authorize Access

Review the permissions August requests (email read, send, and attachment access). Click Accept to complete the authorization.

5

Confirm Connection

Once authorized, you'll return to August and see Outlook listed as connected. Sync begins automatically.

Common Use Cases

Summarize Long Email Threads

Turn multi-thread email chains into concise summaries that highlight key issues, decisions, and next steps. Use this for case updates, negotiation history, or client correspondence reviews.

Draft Contextual Replies

Generate reply drafts that incorporate your firm's prior reasoning and standards. For example, draft a response to a meeting request that references earlier email context and aligns with your negotiation playbook.

Search and Retrieve Emails

Find specific emails using natural language queries. Ask the Assistant to retrieve emails from opposing counsel about deadlines, or locate all messages related to a particular matter.

Review Attachments Without Downloading

Analyze attached documents directly from the email thread. Generate redlines, extract key terms, or flag issues without leaving Outlook.

Apply Playbooks to Inbound Messages

Automatically evaluate incoming emails against firm playbooks to ensure responses are consistent and compliant with your standards. See Playbooks Overview for more on creating and applying playbooks.

Email Attachment Handling

When you work with emails in August, theemail content view displays attachment metadata including the attachment name, ID, content type, and file size. This helps you identify which files you want to work with before importing them.

Which Attachments Are Visible

Not all email attachments appear as importable files. August filters out:

  • Inline attachments: Embedded images and other inline content are excluded from attachment actions.

  • Calendar invites: Files with extensions like .ics or content type text/calendar are excluded. These meeting invitations are not treated as importable attachments.

Only genuine file attachments that you can download and work with appear in the attachment list.

Importing Attachments

You can import attachments from an email in two ways:

  • Import all attachments: Bring all visible attachments into August for analysis or storage.

  • Import selected attachments: Choose specific attachments by attachment ID or exact filename when you only need to work with a subset of the email's files. Attachment IDs are the preferred identifier; filenames are used as a fallback when IDs are not available.

Removing Attachments from Drafts

For draft emails, you can delete attachments directly from the message. Open the draft inthe email viewer and remove any unwanted attachments before sending.

Attachment deletion is only available for draft messages. Once an email has been sent, you cannot remove attachments from thatmessage.

Troubleshooting

The connection failed or timed out

Check your network connection and ensure you're signed into the correct Microsoft 365 account. Clear your browser cache and retry. If the issue persists, verify with your IT administrator that Microsoft Graph API access is not blocked by organizational policies.

Emails aren't syncing or appearing in August

After initial connection, sync may take several minutes to index your mailbox. Refresh the page and verify Outlook shows as connected in Integrations. If sync continues to fail, disconnect and reconnect the integration, then contact support if the problem persists.

I can't send emails from August

Verify that your Microsoft 365 account includes send permissions. Some organizations restrict send access for third-party applications. Contact your administrator to confirm the August integration has full mailbox permissions.

Security and Authentication

August uses industry-standard security for all integrations:

  • Authentication method: Azure AD / Microsoft Graph API with OAuth 2.0

  • Credential storage: No passwords are stored by August. Authentication tokens are encrypted and managed securely.

  • Data access: August accesses only the mailbox content you authorize and does not retain credentials.

For details on how August protects your data across all integrations, see Security and Privacy Overview.

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