diff --git a/backend/src/intake/draftingWorker.ts b/backend/src/intake/draftingWorker.ts
index 3c2effe..6df031b 100644
--- a/backend/src/intake/draftingWorker.ts
+++ b/backend/src/intake/draftingWorker.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import { typeForExtension } from '../uploadTypes';
 import { getAnthropicClient } from './anthropicClient';
 import { draftListing } from './draftListing';
 import { applyDraft } from './applyDraft';
+import { notifyDraftReady } from './notifyDraft';
 
 /**
  * Turns queued submissions into drafts.
@@ -144,6 +145,14 @@ export async function draftQueued(limit = DEFAULT_BATCH): Promise<SweepResult> {
       }
       await draftOne(client, row.item_id, row.submitter_note, photos);
       drafted++;
+
+      // Fire and forget, and deliberately after the draft is committed. A mail
+      // failure must never mark a draft that was written correctly as failed —
+      // the queue is what the admin actually works from, and the email is a
+      // convenience on top of it.
+      void notifyDraftReady(row.item_id).catch((err) =>
+        console.error(`[drafting] notifying for item ${row.item_id}:`, err)
+      );
     } catch (err) {
       const message = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
       console.error(`[drafting] item ${row.item_id}: ${message}`);
diff --git a/backend/src/intake/notifyDraft.ts b/backend/src/intake/notifyDraft.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4de460c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/src/intake/notifyDraft.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+import { pool } from '../db';
+import { sendMail } from '../mailer';
+import { renderTemplate } from '../emailTemplates';
+import { loadStoredTemplate } from '../routes/adminEmailTemplates';
+import { getSettings } from '../adminSettings';
+import { trimTrailingSlashes } from '../utils';
+import { actionUrl } from './actionLinks';
+
+interface NotifyRow {
+  item_name: string;
+  price_cents: number;
+  ai_name: string | null;
+  ai_description: string | null;
+  submitter_note: string | null;
+  link_label: string | null;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Tells the admin an item arrived and has been drafted.
+ *
+ * Everything here is best-effort by design. The review queue is the source of
+ * truth: a ready draft is visible and actionable whether or not this ever sent,
+ * so a missing recipient, an SMTP outage, or a template that will not render
+ * must all end in a log line rather than an exception reaching the worker and
+ * marking a perfectly good draft as failed.
+ */
+export async function notifyDraftReady(itemId: number): Promise<void> {
+  const { intakeNotifyEmail } = await getSettings();
+  const to = intakeNotifyEmail?.trim();
+  if (!to) {
+    // Not an error, and deliberately not a warning either. Nobody has said
+    // where to send it, and the draft is waiting in the queue regardless.
+    return;
+  }
+
+  const { rows } = await pool.query<NotifyRow>(
+    `SELECT i.name AS item_name, i.price_cents,
+            d.ai_name, d.ai_description, d.submitter_note,
+            l.label AS link_label
+     FROM item_drafts d
+     JOIN items i ON i.id = d.item_id
+     LEFT JOIN upload_links l ON l.id = d.upload_link_id
+     WHERE d.item_id = $1`,
+    [itemId]
+  );
+  const row = rows[0];
+  if (!row) return;
+
+  const base = trimTrailingSlashes(process.env.PUBLIC_URL ?? '');
+
+  const template = renderTemplate('intakeDraft', await loadStoredTemplate('intakeDraft'), {
+    itemName: row.item_name,
+    draftName: row.ai_name ?? row.item_name,
+    // Said plainly rather than left blank. An empty description in a
+    // notification reads as a bug; "no description was drafted" reads as the
+    // fact that it is, and tells the admin what to expect on the screen.
+    draftDescription: row.ai_description ?? 'No description was drafted for this item.',
+    price: `$${(row.price_cents / 100).toFixed(2)}`,
+    submitterNote: row.submitter_note ?? 'The sender left no note.',
+    linkLabel: row.link_label ?? 'an upload link',
+    reviewUrl: `${base}/admin`,
+    // Empty rather than a broken link when there is no secret to sign with.
+    // The body renders without them; a link that could not be verified would
+    // be worse than none.
+    regenerateUrl: actionUrl(itemId, 'regenerate') ?? '',
+    discardUrl: actionUrl(itemId, 'discard') ?? ''
+  });
+
+  await sendMail(to, template.subject, template.html);
+}