mxctl

Apple Mail from your terminal.

50+ commands. Triage with AI, batch-process newsletters, turn emails into Todoist tasks — all from the terminal. Every command supports --json for scripting and AI workflows. Zero external dependencies.

Table of Contents

• Key Features
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Example Output
• Command Categories
• Requirements
• Usage Tips
• Built for AI Workflows
• AI Demos
• Architecture
• Why Not X?
• Contributing

Key Features

• 50+ Commands - Everything from basic operations to advanced batch processing
• Any Account, One Interface - iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, IMAP -- whatever Mail.app has, this works with
• Gmail Mailbox Translation - Automatically maps standard names (Trash, Spam, Sent) to Gmail's [Gmail]/... paths
• Built for AI Workflows - Every command supports --json output designed for AI assistants to read and act on
• Todoist Integration - Turn any email into a task with mxctl to-todoist (project, priority, due date)
• Batch Operations with Undo - Process hundreds of emails safely with rollback support
• Zero Dependencies - Pure Python stdlib, no external packages required
• Works with Your Existing Setup - Doesn't replace Mail.app, extends it

Installation

# Requires Python 3.10+ and macOS
pip install mxctl

# Or with uv (faster)
uv tool install mxctl

Then run the setup wizard — it detects your Mail.app accounts, configures Gmail mailbox translation, and optionally connects Todoist:

Quick Start

# First time? Set up your default account
mxctl init

# See what's in your inbox
mxctl inbox

# Smart summary of unread emails (concise, one-liner per email)
mxctl summary

# Triage unread emails by urgency
mxctl triage

# Search for messages
mxctl search "project update" --sender

# Mark all unread as read (with undo support!)
mxctl batch-read -m INBOX

# Oops, undo that
mxctl undo

# Create email from template
mxctl draft --to colleague@company.com --template "weekly-update"

# Send email to Todoist as a task
mxctl to-todoist 123 --project Work

Example Output

mxctl inbox

Inbox Overview
------------------------------------------
  iCloud             3 unread   (47 total)
  Work Email         12 unread  (203 total)
  Personal Gmail     0 unread   (18 total)
------------------------------------------
  Total              15 unread

mxctl triage

Triage -- 15 Unread Messages
==========================================

[URGENT -- 2]
  #4821  Sarah Johnson       Re: Contract review deadline TODAY
  #4819  boss@company.com    Q4 budget approval needed

[PEOPLE -- 5]
  #4820  mom@gmail.com       Thanksgiving plans?
  #4818  john.smith@work.com Project kickoff Thursday?
  #4817  recruiter@corp.com  Opportunity at TechCorp
  #4815  friend@gmail.com    Weekend hiking trip
  #4814  alice@work.com      Coffee catch-up?

[NOTIFICATIONS -- 8]
  #4816  GitHub              [mxctl] PR #12 merged
  #4813  noreply@bank.com    Statement available
  ... and 6 more

mxctl summary

15 unread -- iCloud + Work Email

* Contract review deadline TODAY -- Sarah Johnson (urgent, reply needed)
* Q4 budget approval -- boss@company.com (action required)
* Thanksgiving plans -- mom@gmail.com (personal, low urgency)
* Project kickoff Thursday -- john.smith@work.com (confirm attendance)
* PR #12 merged -- GitHub notification (no action needed)
* 10 more notifications and newsletters

Command Categories

Setup

• init - First-time setup wizard (auto-detects Mail accounts, configures default account and optional Todoist token)
• ai-setup - Configure your AI assistant to use mxctl (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Ollama, and others)

Account & Mailbox Management

• inbox - Overview of all accounts with unread counts
• accounts - List all mail accounts
• mailboxes - List mailboxes in an account
• create-mailbox, delete-mailbox - Manage folders
• count - Unread message count (for scripting and status bars)
• empty-trash - Empty trash with confirmation dialog

Message Operations

• list - List messages with filters (unread, date range)
• read - Display full message
• search - Find messages by subject/sender
• mark-read, mark-unread, flag, unflag - Message actions
• move, delete - Organize messages
• junk, not-junk - Mark as spam / restore from spam (moves to INBOX)
• open - Open message in Mail.app GUI
• unsubscribe - Unsubscribe from mailing lists via List-Unsubscribe header (supports one-click RFC 8058)
• attachments, save-attachment - Handle attachments

AI-Ready Features

• summary - Ultra-concise summaries optimized for AI assistants
• triage - Smart categorization by urgency (flagged -> people -> notifications)
• context - Thread messages with parent/child relationships
• find-related - Discover similar messages
• process-inbox - Diagnostic inbox categorization

Batch Operations

• batch-read - Mark all unread as read
• batch-flag - Flag all from sender
• batch-move - Move messages by sender
• batch-delete - Delete messages by sender and/or age
• undo, undo --list - Rollback batch operations

Analytics & Tools

• stats - Message statistics for timeframe
• top-senders - Most frequent senders
• digest - Grouped unread summary
• show-flagged - List flagged messages
• weekly-review - Past 7 days summary
• clean-newsletters - Archive/delete newsletter subscriptions

System

• check - Trigger Mail.app to fetch new mail
• headers - Full email header analysis (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, hop count, return path)
• rules - List, enable, or disable mail rules

Compose & Templates

• draft - Create email draft (supports templates)
• templates list/create/show/delete - Manage email templates
• reply, forward - Create response drafts
• thread - Show full conversation thread for a message

Integrations

• to-todoist - Send email to Todoist as task
• export - Export messages as markdown (use --to for destination path/directory)

Requirements

• macOS 12 or later (uses AppleScript to communicate with Mail.app)
• Python 3.10+
• Mail.app with at least one configured account
• Permissions: First run will prompt for Mail.app automation permission in System Settings
• Note: Mail.app will be launched automatically if it is not already running -- this is normal macOS/AppleScript behavior

Usage Tips

Multi-Account Support

Works with any combination of iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, or custom IMAP accounts -- whatever you have configured in Mail.app.

# Commands default to your primary account (set during init)
mxctl list

# Switch accounts with -a
mxctl list -a "Work Email"
mxctl list -a "Personal"

# Commands like inbox, summary, and triage scan ALL accounts automatically
mxctl inbox

Three-tier account resolution: Commands use the first available: (1) explicit -a flag, (2) default account from config, (3) last-used account from state.

Gmail Mailbox Translation

Gmail uses non-standard mailbox names ([Gmail]/Spam instead of Junk, [Gmail]/Sent Mail instead of Sent Messages, etc.). If you tag your Gmail accounts during mxctl init, the CLI auto-translates standard names so you don't have to remember Gmail's conventions.

# These just work -- no need to type [Gmail]/... paths
mxctl list -a "Work Gmail" -m Trash     # -> [Gmail]/Trash
mxctl list -a "Work Gmail" -m Spam      # -> [Gmail]/Spam
mxctl list -a "Work Gmail" -m Sent      # -> [Gmail]/Sent Mail
mxctl list -a "Work Gmail" -m Archive   # -> [Gmail]/All Mail

# iCloud and other accounts pass through unchanged
mxctl list -a "iCloud" -m Trash         # -> Trash (no translation)

Supported translations: Trash, Spam/Junk, Sent/Sent Messages, Archive/All Mail, Drafts, Starred, Important.

Todoist Integration

Turn any email into a Todoist task without leaving the terminal. The task includes the email subject, sender, and a link back to the message.

# Set up during init, or add manually to ~/.config/mxctl/config.json
mxctl init  # step 3 prompts for your Todoist API token

# Send an email to Todoist
mxctl to-todoist 123

# With project and priority
mxctl to-todoist 123 --project "Work" --priority 3

# With a due date (natural language)
mxctl to-todoist 123 --due "next Monday"

To get your token: Todoist Settings -> Integrations -> Developer

Short Message Aliases

Listing commands assign short numbers starting from [1] -- no more copying 5-digit IDs:

mxctl list                    # Shows [1], [2], [3]...
mxctl read 1                  # Read message [1]
mxctl flag 2                  # Flag message [2]
mxctl move 3 --to Archive     # Move message [3]

Aliases update each time you run a listing command (list, inbox, search, triage, summary, etc.). Full message IDs still work if you prefer them. JSON output includes both id (real) and alias (short number).

Export Messages

# Export a single message
mxctl export 123 --to ~/Documents/mail/ -a "iCloud"

# Bulk export all messages in a mailbox
mxctl export "Work" --to ~/Documents/mail/ -a "Work Email"

# Bulk export messages after a date
mxctl export "INBOX" --to ~/Documents/mail/ -a "iCloud" --after 2026-01-01

Email Templates

# Create a template
mxctl templates create "meeting-followup" \
  --subject "Re: {original_subject}" \
  --body "Thanks for the meeting today..."

# Use it
mxctl draft --to client@company.com --template "meeting-followup"

Built for AI Workflows

Every command supports --json, making your inbox data available to any AI assistant. Commands like summary, triage, and context are specifically designed to give AI a structured understanding of your inbox in seconds.

Pointing Your AI Assistant to mxctl

For an AI assistant to use mxctl effectively, it needs to know the tool is available. The fastest way is the built-in setup command:

mxctl ai-setup

It walks you through selecting your AI assistant (Claude Code, Cursor, or Windsurf), previews the snippet it will write, and asks for confirmation before touching any file. Run it once; skip it any time you don't need it.

Manual setup

Prefer to configure it yourself? Run mxctl ai-setup --print to get the raw snippet, then paste it into your assistant's context file (~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, .windsurfrules, etc.).

Local AI (Ollama, LM Studio, Aider, etc.)

Use --print to get the raw snippet for piping:

mxctl ai-setup --print | pbcopy              # clipboard
mxctl ai-setup --print >> ~/Modelfile         # Ollama
mxctl ai-setup --print > .aider.prompt.md     # Aider

For a one-off session, mxctl --help gives any AI the full command reference.

With Claude Code

Just ask in natural language:

"Run mxctl triage and tell me what's urgent"

"Summarize my unread mail and create Todoist tasks for anything that needs action"

With any AI tool

# Pipe structured data to any LLM CLI
mxctl summary --json | llm "What needs my attention?"

# Feed triage results to AI for prioritization
mxctl triage --json | llm "Draft responses for the urgent items"

For scripting and automation

# Unread count for your status bar
mxctl count

# Every command supports --json
mxctl inbox --json | jq '.[].unread'
mxctl search "invoice" --json | jq '.[].subject'

AI Demos

These demos show how an AI assistant (like Claude Code) uses mxctl to manage your inbox conversationally. You say what you want in plain English, and the AI picks the right commands, checks before acting, and reports back.

Inbox triage and drafting

The AI triages your inbox, marks newsletters as read, flags important messages for follow-up, and drafts a reply to your mom -- all from a single request.

Bulk sender cleanup

The AI finds your noisiest senders, dry-runs the deletes so you can see what would be removed, then cleans up 60 marketing emails in seconds. Everything is undoable with mxctl undo.

Newsletter unsubscribe

The AI analyzes which newsletters you actually read vs. ignore, then unsubscribes from the ones with 0% open rate while leaving the ones you engage with. One-click unsubscribe when the header supports it, browser fallback when it doesn't.

Architecture

Built with modern Python patterns:

• Zero runtime dependencies (stdlib only)
• Comprehensive test suite (678 tests)
• Modular command structure (16 focused modules)
• AppleScript bridge for Mail.app communication
• Three-tier account resolution (explicit flag -> config default -> last-used)

See ARCHITECTURE.md for detailed architecture documentation.

Why Not X?

	mxctl	mutt/neomutt	Gmail/Outlook API	Raw AppleScript
Approach	Extends Mail.app	Replaces Mail.app	Per-provider SDK	DIY scripting
Multi-account	Any account in Mail.app	Config per account	Separate auth per provider	Manual per account
macOS integration	Notifications, Rules, Continuity	None (terminal-only)	None	Partial
Structured output	--json on every command	Text only	JSON (provider-specific)	Raw text
AI-ready	Built for it (triage, summary)	No	Build it yourself	No
Batch + undo	Built-in with rollback	No undo	Build it yourself	No
Setup	pip install mxctl && mxctl init	Extensive config	OAuth flows + API keys	Write your own scripts
Dependencies	Zero (stdlib only)	Varies	SDK + auth libraries	None

In short: mutt replaces Mail.app (you lose macOS integration). Provider APIs lock you into one service. Raw AppleScript works but you're building everything from scratch. mxctl gives you 50+ structured commands on top of the Mail.app you already use.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contact

• GitHub: @Jscoats
• Issues: Report bugs or request features

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