Repository navigation
Getting Started
Preen shows four steps at the top of its settings page. This page walks through them.
Each step gets a check mark when it is done. When all four are done, the card shrinks to one line: Setup complete. Click it to see the steps again.
flowchart LR
A["1. Message<br/>Thunderbird gives Preen the message"] --> B["2. Local checks<br/>on your computer"]
B --> C["3. Ask Jev<br/>the only step that leaves your computer"]
C --> D["4. Decide<br/>your settings turn scores into tags"]
D --> E["5. Apply or preview<br/>tag it, or just log it"]
classDef sent fill:#fde8c8,stroke:#c77700,color:#1a1a1a
class C sent
Only step 3 sends anything out. It goes to the provider you chose. See Privacy and data.
Open Provider & cost. Read the short note about what is sent. To see every item and why Preen sends it, open Everything that is sent, and why. Choose how much of each message to send. Surface sends no message text. Deep also sends about 2,000 characters of it. Click I agree, allow sending if you are happy with it. Until you do, Preen sends no mail.
- Get an API key from OpenRouter or TypeSafe. Getting an API key shows how.
- Paste it in the API key box.
- Click Test connection. It sends no mail.
If your provider reports a cost for the test, Preen fills in the price and shows what sorting 100 or 1,000 emails would cost, as an estimate. See Costs and limits.
We suggest a key made just for Preen, with a credit limit at your provider. Then a leaked key can only spend that much.
Right-click a message in Thunderbird. Choose Preview with Preen (no changes).
Preen tells you what it would do. It changes nothing. Open the activity log to see the results. Each row says "Would do" and shows the tags, the scores and the reasons. A row also shows how sure Jev was, as a percent, such as "Category: Bills (82%)". That is the best category, even when Preen did not use it.
You can also select messages and use Preview selected in the toolbar pop-up.
Want a bigger test? Click Try it on the last 7 days in Getting started or in the pop-up. It uses the mailboxes you ticked in step 4. Preen first says how many messages it will send and what that may cost. Click Preview to go on, or Not now. It changes nothing.
When a preview is done, its rows have a Review this run link in the activity log. The review lists each message with what Preen would do. Click Apply for a message you like. Click Skip for one you do not. Or click Apply all. Applying uses the answers Preen already has. It sends nothing new. You can undo what you applied.
Open Automatic processing. Tick the mailboxes you want Preen to watch. If you tick none, automatic sorting stays off. A summary at the top shows if it is Off, Paused or On, which mailboxes it watches, and the settings it uses. Settings that do nothing while it is off are dimmed. Right-click still works in any folder.
Right-click sorting works with or without this step. Use Classify with Preen to sort messages by hand. It changes your messages by adding tags, flags and unread marks, as your settings say.
You can undo what Preen did. Use Undo on a row in the activity log, or Undo last run. That button is in the toolbar pop-up and in Settings under Statistics.
If you change a Preen tag on a message yourself, Preen leaves that message alone from then on. Automatic runs and Classify with Preen skip it, and Preen tells you how many it skipped. Choose Classify anyway if you want Preen to look at them again. Preview still works on them.
flowchart LR
A["Preview<br/>nothing changes"] --> B["Results in the<br/>activity log"]
B -->|"results look good"| C["Classify with Preen<br/>or automatic sorting"]
C --> D["Tags are added"]
D -->|"not happy?"| E["Undo"]
B -->|"results look wrong"| F["Change settings<br/>and preview again"]
F --> A
- Look at every setting in Settings.
- Learn how tags work in Tags and categories.
- Check Costs and limits so there are no surprises.
- Need a key? Read Getting an API key.