A fast, Gmail-style mail client for Windows (with new macOS and Linux builds), plus a command-line tool (qmail) that AI agents and scripts can use to read, search and send mail across all your mailboxes.
- Works with any IMAP/SMTP mailbox, Microsoft 365 / Outlook, and Gmail.
- All mailboxes in one inbox, with unread counts on the taskbar.
- Everything is stored on your PC. Qmail has no server and sends nothing anywhere except to your own mail providers.
Reading, searching, sending, filing, attachments, contacts and sorting rules are all available from the terminal. Installing Qmail puts qmail on your PATH; it works on the same local mail store as the app, across every mailbox at once, with no API keys and no cost per call.
qmail list --unread --json # what is new, in every mailbox
qmail search "from:stripe has:attachment newer_than:30d" --json
qmail read 1234 --json # text, html, attachments
qmail send --from you@example.com --reply-to 1234 --body "Thanks!"
qmail senders -n 50 # who fills the inbox
qmail move 1234 1235 --to Money/Receipts --create # also: archive, trash, mark
qmail rules add --from stripe.com --move Money/Receipts --read
qmail download 1234 -o ./invoices # save attachments
- Agent friendly : every command takes
--json, errors exit non-zero with{"error": "..."}, ids can be piped in on standard input, andqmail --helpdocuments everything. - Whole mailbox, not a sample : search runs on a local full-text index, so an agent can go through tens of thousands of messages in seconds.
- Ready-made prompts :Things to ask an agent has copy-able requests for sorting an inbox, setting up rules, a morning briefing, unsubscribing and more. The full reference is underCommand line .
| Reading pane beside the list | Search as you type |
|---|
The mail in these screenshots is made up. You can open the same demo yourself with npm run demo (see Build from source).
I was frustrated with Outlook, and I never liked how Thunderbird looks. It felt clunky, and it had no good way to see all my mailboxes in one place.
Neither one gave me a free, easy command-line tool either. That is the part I wanted most: now an AI agent can search my mail, clean it up, or do whatever else I ask across every mailbox, for free, on my own machine.
So Qmail is two things that share one local mail store: an app that works the way Gmail does, and a CLI built for agents.
Qmail is developed and tested on Windows. macOS and Linux builds are produced automatically and are new and untested; please report problems.
- Download
Qmail-Setup-x.y.z.exefrom theReleases page (or build it yourself, see below). - Run it. It installs for your Windows user only, with no administrator prompt, and adds Start menu and desktop shortcuts.
- Windows may show a "Windows protected your PC" notice because the installer is not code-signed. Choose More info → Run anyway .
The first time the app starts it also makes the qmail command available in any new terminal window (the earlier name, quickmail, still works). Nothing else (Node.js, etc.) needs to be installed.
Download Qmail-x.y.z-mac-arm64.dmg from the Releases page, open it, and drag Qmail to Applications.
2.
The app is not signed with an Apple developer certificate, so macOS refuses to open it at first. Run this once in Terminal, then open the app normally:
xattr -cr /Applications/Qmail.app
Passwords are kept in the macOS Keychain. The qmail command is placed in~/.local/bin the first time the app starts; add that folder to yourPATH if it is not there already.
Automatic updates do not work on macOS (Apple only allows them for signed apps); download the new .dmg to update. Intel Macs are not built yet.
- Debian / Ubuntu : download
Qmail-x.y.z-linux-amd64.deband install it withsudo apt install ./Qmail-*.deb. Theqmailcommand is placed in~/.local/binon first start. - Any distribution : download
Qmail-x.y.z-linux-x86_64.AppImage, make it executable (chmod +x), and run it. The AppImage updates itself; it does not provide theqmailcommand.
Passwords are kept in the desktop keyring (GNOME Keyring, KWallet or another Secret Service provider), which must be running.
On Windows and the Linux AppImage, updates are automatic. Qmail checks this project's GitHub releases when it starts and every half hour, downloads a new version in the background, and shows a small green download icon in the top bar. Click it to restart into the new version, or just close the app and it updates then. (Version 0.1.0 predates this; install 0.2.0 or later once by hand.)
To remove Qmail, use Settings → Apps → Installed apps. Your mail store is left in place; delete the .quickmail folder in your user folder to remove that too.
On first start, Qmail offers to bring over your Thunderbird accounts and contacts. You can also copy the passwords Thunderbird has saved (they go into Windows Credential Manager). Thunderbird itself is not changed.
- Click + next toMailboxes in the sidebar.
- Enter your email address, your name, and your password.
- Check the two server fields. Qmail guesses them from your address; your mail provider's help pages list the right values ("IMAP server" and "SMTP server"). Ports 993 and 465 are assumed; add a different one after a colon, for example
smtp.example.com:587. - Click Add mailbox . The mailbox is only kept if the sign-in works.
Some providers (Yahoo, iCloud, and Gmail if you do not use Google sign-in) do not accept your normal password in mail apps. Create an "app password" in that provider's account security settings and use that instead.
Click +, enter the address, tick Microsoft 365 / Outlook account, and click Add mailbox. A Microsoft sign-in window opens; no password is typed into Qmail.
Note: Qmail does not yet have its own Microsoft app registration. By default it signs in using the public client ID that Mozilla Thunderbird publishes for the same purpose, so Microsoft's consent screen names Thunderbird. To use your own registration instead, create one in the Azure portal (public client, redirect URI https://localhost, delegated permissions IMAP.AccessAsUser.All, SMTP.Send, offline_access) and set the QUICKMAIL_MS_CLIENT_ID environment variable to its application ID.
Google requires every mail app to identify itself, and does not offer a shared identity for open-source apps. So you create your own free one, once. It takes about five minutes and can be reused for any number of Gmail accounts.
Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/ and sign in with a Google account.
2.
Create a project (top bar → project picker → New project ). Any name works, for exampleQmail .
3.
Turn on the Gmail API: open https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/library/gmail.googleapis.com , make sure your project is selected, and clickEnable .
4.
Set up the sign-in screen: open https://console.cloud.google.com/auth/overview and clickGet started .
- App name :
Qmail - User support email : pick your address from the dropdown
- Audience :External
- Contact information : your email address
Under Audience , clickPublish app . (If you leave it in "Testing", Google signs you out every 7 days.) 6. Open Clients (https://console.cloud.google.com/auth/clients ) →Create client → application typeDesktop app →Create . Copy theClient ID andClient secret . 7. Open a terminal and save them in Qmail:
qmail accounts google-client <client-id> <client-secret>
They are stored in your system's credential store (Windows Credential Manager, macOS Keychain or the Linux keyring).
Sharing one setup. You only do the Google Cloud steps once. The same client ID and secret work:
- for every Gmail account you add on that PC;
- on your other computers: run the
qmail accounts google-clientcommand there with the same two values; - for other people (family, a small team): give them the two values and they run the same command, then add their own Gmail account. They sign in to their own mailbox; the client does not give them any access to yours, and it does not give you access to theirs.
Google allows up to 100 different Google accounts to sign in through an unverified app like this. Beyond that, the app has to go through Google's verification. Only share the values with people you trust, since anyone holding them can present their own app to Google under your app's name.
- In Qmail, click + next toMailboxes .
- Enter the Gmail address and tick Gmail / Google account .
- Click Add mailbox . Your browser opens on Google's sign-in page.
- Google shows "Google hasn't verified this app", because the app identity is your own and has not been reviewed by Google. Click Advanced → Go to Qmail , thenContinue .
- When the browser says you are signed in, go back to Qmail.
From a terminal the same thing is:
qmail accounts add you@gmail.com --google
qmail accounts login you@gmail.com
If you would rather skip the setup above: turn on 2-Step Verification for the Google account, create an app password (Google Account → Security → App passwords), then add the mailbox as a normal IMAP mailbox with that app password. Leave the Gmail box unticked.
Gmail presents "All Mail" and each of your labels as a folder, so one message can exist in several of them. Qmail shows such a message once in lists and search results, downloads it once, and stores it once. Your labels appear as folders in the sidebar.
- Reading pane : the button at the far right of the list toolbar puts the message beside the list. Drag the divider to resize.
- New window : hover a conversation and click the pop-out icon, middle-click it, or press
w. - Search : type in the search box for instant suggestions; press Enter for all results. Operators:
from:`` to:``subject:`` in:``is:unread`` is:starred``has:attachment`` from:me``newer_than:7d`` older_than:1y. - Attachments : PDFs, pictures and text open in a viewer inside Qmail. Documents open in the program Windows uses for them. Files that can run code (
.exe, scripts, shortcuts,.html…) are never opened directly. - Calendar invitations : a message that carries an invitation shows the event (date, title, organizer) above the message withYes / Maybe / No buttons. Your answer is mailed to the organizer as a standard calendar reply. Qmail has no calendar of its own, so the event is not saved anywhere and conflicts are not checked.
- Unread count : shown on the taskbar button; the button flashes when new mail arrives.
- Sorting rules : the gear icon in the top bar opens Settings, where you add rules such as "from stripe.com → move to Money/Receipts". See below.
A rule looks at mail as it arrives in an inbox and files it for you. Open Settings (the gear icon), choose New rule, and fill in:
- Mailbox : every mailbox, or just one.
- From / Subject / Sent to contains : any part of the text, not case sensitive. Several entries separated by commas mean "any of these". When more than one box is filled, all of them must match.
- Then : move to a folder (created if it does not exist; on Gmail this is a label), archive, delete (to Trash), mark as read, or star. Moving and archiving can also mark the mail as read.
How rules behave:
- They run each time Qmail checks for new mail, which is every minute while the app is open, and on
qmail sync. Qmail has to be running; nothing happens on the mail server while it is closed, and mail that arrived meanwhile is sorted the next time it starts. - Rules are tried from top to bottom and the first one that matches a message wins.
- Only new mail is touched. To sort what is already in the inbox, use the apply-now (circular arrow) button on a rule, or
qmail rules run. - Starred mail is never moved or deleted by a rule.
Press ? in the app for this list.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
c |
Compose |
/ |
Search |
j /k or arrow keys |
Next / previous conversation |
Enter oro |
Open |
u orEsc |
Back to the list |
x |
Select |
* thena /n |
Select all / none |
e |
Archive |
# orDelete |
Delete |
! |
Report spam |
s |
Star |
Shift+i /Shift+u |
Mark read / unread |
r /a /f |
Reply / reply all / forward |
w |
Open in a new window |
v |
Reading pane on / off |
g theni /s /t /d |
Go to Inbox / Starred / Sent / Drafts |
Ctrl+Enter |
Send while writing |
Every command accepts --json for machine-readable output. Errors exit non-zero; with --json they print {"error": "..."}. Run qmail --help or qmail <command> --help for all options.
qmail accounts # mailboxes and their state
qmail sync # fetch new mail (the app does this every minute while open)
qmail list --unread --json # inbox of every mailbox
qmail list -a you@example.com -f sent -n 10 # one mailbox, one folder
qmail search "invoice from:stripe has:attachment newer_than:14d" --json
qmail read 1234 --json # one message: text, html, attachments
qmail thread 1234 # the whole conversation
qmail send --from you@example.com --to a@b.com --subject "Hi" --body "Text" --attach ./file.pdf
qmail send --from you@example.com --reply-to 1234 --body "Thanks!" # add --reply-all
qmail send --from you@example.com --forward 1234 --to c@d.com
qmail mark 1234 1235 --read # or --unread --star --unstar
qmail archive 1234
qmail trash 1234
qmail move 1234 --to Receipts # add --create to make the folder (Gmail: the label)
qmail senders -f inbox -n 50 # who the mail is from, biggest senders first
qmail list --oldest -n 100 --json # oldest first
qmail list --oldest -n 500 --json | ... | qmail archive - # "-" reads ids from standard input
qmail attachments 1234
qmail download 1234 -o ./out # -i 0 for just the first attachment
qmail contacts ava # search contacts
qmail contacts add a@b.com Ava Chen
qmail rules # sorting rules, in the order they are tried
qmail rules add --from "stripe.com, paypal" --move Money/Receipts --read
qmail rules add -a you@example.com --subject "newsletter" --archive
qmail rules edit 3 --move Receipts # change only what you pass
qmail rules disable 3 # or enable / remove
qmail rules run --dry-run # count what the rules would sort in the inbox right now
qmail rules run --rule 3 # apply one rule to mail already in the inbox
Account setup from the terminal:
qmail accounts import-thunderbird [--passwords]
qmail accounts add <email> --imap host[:port] --smtp host[:port] [--name "Your Name"]
qmail accounts add <email> --microsoft
qmail accounts add <email> --google
qmail accounts login <email>
qmail accounts remove <email>
Notes for agents:
- Message ids are local numbers from
listandsearch. A message gets a new id when it moves to another folder. - Run
qmail syncfirst if the app is not open. sendreally sends. There is no draft or confirmation step.- For hundreds of messages, pass ids on standard input (
qmail move - --to X) in batches of about 200. trashmoves to the mailbox's Trash, which the mail provider empties on its own schedule (Gmail: 30 days).trash --permanentcannot be undone.
Any agent that can run terminal commands (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and the like) can use the CLI. Tell it once that qmail is installed and that qmail --help lists everything, then copy one of these.
Sort an overflowing inbox into folders
Use the qmail CLI to clean up my inbox for you@gmail.com.
1. Run `qmail senders -a you@gmail.com --oldest --scan 5000 -n 300 --json` to see who the oldest 5,000 messages are from,
and `qmail folders -a you@gmail.com` to see the folders I already have.
2. Propose a plan: which senders go to which folder (reuse my folders, add as few new ones as possible),
which senders are junk to delete, and that everything else is archived. Leave starred mail alone.
3. Show me the plan and the list of junk senders, and wait for my OK.
4. Then get the ids with `qmail list -a you@gmail.com --oldest -n 5000 --json` and apply the plan in batches of 200:
`qmail move - --to "Folder" --create`, `qmail archive -`, `qmail trash -` (ids on standard input).
5. Finish with `qmail sync -a you@gmail.com --no-bodies` and `qmail folders -a you@gmail.com`, and tell me the before and after counts.
Set up sorting rules from what is already there
Look at `qmail senders -n 200 --json` and `qmail folders`. Suggest sorting rules for the senders that keep filling my inbox
(receipts, newsletters, notifications), using my existing folders. Show me the list first. For the ones I approve, create them with
`qmail rules add --from "<sender>" --move "<folder>"` (add --read for mail I never need to see), check each with
`qmail rules run --rule <id> --dry-run`, and then apply them to the mail already in my inbox with `qmail rules run`.
Morning briefing
Run `qmail sync`, then `qmail list --unread --json`. Read anything that looks like it needs me with `qmail read <id> --json`.
Give me a short list: what needs a reply today, what is only for information, and what I can ignore. Do not mark anything read.
Unsubscribe candidates
Run `qmail senders --since 90d -n 200 --json`. List the senders that look like newsletters or marketing, with how many messages each sent,
biggest first. For the ones I pick, find the unsubscribe link with `qmail read <id> --json`, and trash their old mail with `qmail trash -`.
Find a document
Find the most recent invoice from Acme: `qmail search "from:acme has:attachment invoice" --json`,
then `qmail attachments <id>` and `qmail download <id> -o ./invoices`. Tell me the amount and due date.
Draft replies for me to approve
For each unread message in `qmail list --unread --json` that is a direct question to me, read the thread with `qmail thread <id>`
and write a reply. Show me every reply first. Send only the ones I approve, with
`qmail send --from <the mailbox it arrived in> --reply-to <id> --body-file reply.txt`.
Clear out old noise
Run `qmail search "older_than:2y is:read in:inbox" -n 2000 --json`. Group by sender, show me the groups, and archive the ones I agree to with `qmail archive -`.
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Mail store (SQLite database and raw messages) | .quickmail in your user folder (override with theQUICKMAIL_HOME environment variable) |
| Passwords, sign-in tokens, Google client | Windows Credential Manager (macOS Keychain, or the Linux desktop keyring), under "quickMail" (the app's earlier name) |
Nothing is uploaded anywhere. Removing a mailbox in Qmail deletes its local copy only; nothing is deleted on the mail server.
Requires Node.js 22 or newer on Windows.
npm install
npm run demo # try the app with made-up mail: no accounts needed, nothing is sent or synced
npm run dev # run the app with live reload
npm run build # build the app and the CLI
npm start # run the built app
npm link # optional: put qmail on PATH from this folder
npm run dist # build the installer into release/
npm run release # maintainers: tag the version in package.json; GitHub Actions builds and publishes all installers
Layout:
src/core: the mail engine shared by the app and the CLI (IMAP sync, SMTP send, local store, sign-in, Thunderbird import)src/cli: the command linesrc/main,src/preload,src/renderer: the Electron app (React)scripts/make-icon.cjs: regeneratesresources/icon.png(npm run icon)
Environment variables: QUICKMAIL_HOME (store location), QUICKMAIL_MS_CLIENT_ID (use your own Microsoft app registration instead of the default public one), QUICKMAIL_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID / QUICKMAIL_GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET (instead of accounts google-client).
- A mailbox shows a red "!" : its sign-in failed or expired. Use the banner at the top of the list to sign in again.
- "Google sign-in is not set up yet" : do the one-time setup underAdding a Gmail account .
- Google signs me out every week : the Google project is still in "Testing". Publish it (step 5).
qmailis not recognised : start the app once, then open a new terminal window.- Wrong server settings : remove the mailbox (
qmail accounts remove <email>) and add it again.
Qmail is free and open source. If it is useful to you, you can support its development through GitHub Sponsors (also the heart button in the app's top bar).
MIT. See LICENSE.