LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
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No, your name is not required on an ordinary letter: the postal system delivers by address, not by sender name, but leaving your name off the return address means undeliverable mail cannot come back to you at all, and you will never learn it failed.
For an ordinary letter in the US or Canada, the required pieces are a delivery address and postage. Your name appears in two places if you choose to include it: inside the letter, as part of the signature or letterhead, and on the envelope, as part of the return address. Neither is checked by the sorting machines. The machines read the delivery address and the postage, and the carrier delivers to the address on the front. A letter with no sender name at all is still delivered, as long as the delivery address is correct and the postage is paid.
This is different from the recipient's name, which matters more. A delivery address without a recipient name can still be delivered to the address, but apartment buildings, offices, and mailrooms sort by name when several people share an address. Leaving the recipient's name off is legal, but it makes delivery slower and less certain. Leaving your own name off costs you nothing on delivery, and costs you the return path if the letter fails.
Several situations turn an optional name into a practical requirement. Registered and certified mail ask for sender identification, because the service creates a record of who sent what to whom. Legal notices, court filings, and formal demands usually need a sender name to count as proper notice; an anonymous demand letter carries little weight and may not satisfy a notice requirement at all. Business correspondence without a sender name looks evasive and is often ignored or discarded by the recipient.
Some recipients also filter unsigned mail. Government offices, law firms, and large companies may set aside mail with no identifiable sender for security screening, and some will not open it at all. If your letter needs action from a bureaucracy, a name, and ideally a return address, is part of getting it read rather than filed away.
Mailing an anonymous letter is generally legal in both the US and Canada, with important limits. A letter is not illegal just because it has no sender name. It becomes a problem when its contents break the law: threats, harassment, fraud, or extortion are crimes regardless of whether a name is attached, and anonymity adds a charge or an aggravating factor in some cases rather than shielding the sender. Postal inspectors can and do investigate threatening anonymous mail, and the lack of a return address does not make the sender untraceable: postage purchase records, printing traces, and surveillance at drop points all exist.
There is also a practical distinction between anonymous and pseudonymous mail. Signing with a pen name or a business name is common and fine for ordinary correspondence. But signing a legal document, a sworn statement, or a contract notice under a false name can undermine the document itself. Use a real name whenever the letter is meant to create a record or trigger an obligation.
Put your name and a return address on mail you care about, and use a PO box if you want privacy without losing the return path. A return address without a name still works for returns: the postal operator returns the piece to the address, not to a person, so a bare address is enough to get an undeliverable letter back. But a name on the return address helps a mailroom or a household member route the returned piece to you instead of setting it aside as unknown.
For mail you do not care about, like a one-off note to a public figure, skipping the return address entirely is a reasonable choice. Just accept the tradeoff: if the address is wrong, you will never know. Many senders split the difference by including a return address but no name, which keeps the return path while revealing as little as possible.
| Letter type | Sender name needed? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Personal note to a friend | No | Delivery runs on the address alone |
| Business letter | Expected | Unsigned business mail is often ignored |
| Certified or registered mail | Yes, in practice | The service records the sender |
| Legal notice or demand | Yes | Notice must be attributable to count |
| Anonymous tip or comment | No | Legal if contents are lawful |
LetterAgent prints your letter and places it in a double-window envelope, where your sender address shows through the upper window and acts as the return address. Include your name in that sender address if you want returns routed to you by name; the service itself does not require it. You describe the letter to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price before anything is sent, and the letter is mailed to a US or Canadian address.
Ready to mail it? Send your letter with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is printed and mailed.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
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