get_attachment
Open email attachments from local mail files by specifying the message path and filename pattern. Extracts files to a temporary directory and launches them with the default application.
Instructions
Open attachments in email by providing the email path.
The tool downloads the attachment into a temp dir and open it.
The command includes the paths and the pattern of attachment files.
The prefix mu extract --target-dir /tmp --overwrite --play SHOULD NOT appear in command.
See the man page for mu extract.
MU EXTRACT(1) General Commands Manual MU EXTRACT(1)
NAME mu-extract - display and save message parts (attachments), and open them with other tools.
SYNOPSIS mu [COMMON-OPTIONS] extract [OPTIONS] [FILE]
mu [COMMON-OPTIONS] extract [OPTIONS] FILE PATTERNDESCRIPTION mu extract is the mu sub-command for extracting MIME-parts (e.g., attachments) from mail messages. The sub-command works on message files, and does not require the message to be indexed in the database.
For attachments, the file name used when saving it is the name of the
attachment in the message. If there is no such name, or when saving
non-attachment MIME-parts, a name is derived from the message-id of the
message.
If you specify a regular express pattern as the second argument, all
attachments with filenames matching that pattern will be extracted. The
regular expressions are basic PCRE, and are case-sensitive by default;
see pcre(3) for more details.
Without any options, mu extract simply outputs the list of leaf MIME-
parts in the message. Only `leaf' MIME-parts (including RFC822
attachments) are considered, multipart/* etc. are ignored.
Without a filename parameter, mu extract reads a message from standard-
input. In that case, you cannot use the second, PATTERN parameter as
this would be ambiguous; instead, use the --matches option.EXTRACT OPTIONS -a, --save-attachments Save all MIME-parts that look like attachments.
--save-all Save all non-multipart MIME-parts.
--parts parts Only consider the following numbered parts (comma-separated list). The numbers for the parts can be seen from running mu extract without any options but only the message file.
--target-dir dir Save the parts in dir rather than the current working directory.
--overwrite Overwrite existing files with the same name; by default overwriting is not allowed.
-u,--uncooked By default, mu transforms the attachment filenames a bit (such as by replacing spaces by dashes); with this option, leave that to the minimum for creating a legal filename in the target directory.
--matches pattern Attachments with filenames matching pattern will be extracted. The regular expressions are basic PCRE, and are case-sensitive by default; see pcre(3) for more details.
--play Try to `play' (open) the attachment with the default application for the particular file type. On MacOS, this uses the open program, on other platforms it uses xdg-open. You can choose a different program by setting the MU_PLAY_PROGRAM environment variable.
COMMON OPTIONS -d, --debug Makes mu generate extra debug information, useful for debugging the program itself. Debug information goes to the standard logging location; see mu(1).
-q, --quiet Causes mu not to output informational messages and progress information to standard output, but only to the log file. Error messages will still be sent to standard error. Note that mu index is much faster with --quiet, so it is recommended you use this option when using mu from scripts etc.
--log-stderr Causes mu to not output log messages to standard error, in addition to sending them to the standard logging location.
--nocolor Do not use ANSI colors. The environment variable NO_COLOR can be used as an alternative to --nocolor.
-V, --version Prints mu version and copyright information.
-h, --help Lists the various command line options.
EXAMPLES To display information about all the MIME-parts in a message file: $ mu extract msgfile
To extract MIME-part 3 and 4 from this message, overwriting existing
files with the same name:
$ mu extract --parts=3,4 --overwrite msgfile
To extract all files ending in `.jpg' (case-insensitive):
$ mu extract msgfile '.*\.jpg'
To extract an mp3-file, and play it in the default mp3-playing
application:
$ mu extract --play msgfile 'whoopsididitagain.mp3'
when reading from standard-input, you need --matches, so:
$ cat msgfile | mu extract --play --matches 'whoopsididitagain.mp3'Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| command | Yes |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| result | Yes |
Implementation Reference
- mu_mcp/mu_mcp.py:71-93 (handler)The main handler function that executes the 'get_attachment' tool. It runs the 'mu extract' command with --target-dir /tmp, --overwrite, and --play flags to download and open email attachments.
def get_attachment(command: str) -> str: r"""Open attachments in email by providing the email path. The tool downloads the attachment into a temp dir and open it. The `command` includes the paths and the pattern of attachment files. The prefix `mu extract --target-dir /tmp --overwrite --play` SHOULD NOT appear in `command`. See the man page for `mu extract`. """ import subprocess try: result = subprocess.run( ["mu", "extract", "--target-dir", "/tmp", "--overwrite", "--play"] + command.split(), capture_output=True, text=True, check=True, ) return result.stdout.strip() except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e: return f"Error: {e.stderr.strip()}" - mu_mcp/mu_mcp.py:99-99 (registration)Registration of the 'get_attachment' tool with the MCP server using the mcp.tool decorator pattern.
mcp.tool("get_attachment")(get_attachment)