email-cli

Read Apple Mail.app email from the command line, straight from the local store. No OAuth, no API keys, no scripting the app — Mail keeps all envelope metadata in a SQLite database and the message bodies as .emlx files, and this reads both directly. Works with every account Mail.app is configured with (Gmail, Exchange, iCloud, IMAP), offline, and is read-only by design: it cannot send, move, or delete anything.

Same shape as things and tt: a small data layer, a rich-rendered CLI over the top.

email inbox
email search "invoice" --from stripe --since 2026-07-01
email show 39751

Install

uv tool install "git+https://github.com/IsakRein/Productivity.Email-CLI"

For development:

uv sync --extra dev
uv run pytest

The terminal needs Full Disk Access (System Settings > Privacy & Security) to read ~/Library/Mail. email doctor tells you if it doesn't have it.

Related MCP server: apple-mail-mcp

Commands

Every read takes --json; lists take --limit N (default 25). Message ids are Mail's own ROWIDs, shown in every table. --account accepts an account name, username, or id prefix.

How it works

• ~/Library/Mail/V*/MailData/Envelope Index — SQLite with messages, subjects, addresses, mailboxes, recipients, attachments. Opened read-only.

• ~/Library/Mail/V*/<account>/<Folder>.mbox/.../Messages/<id>.emlx — one file per downloaded message: a byte count, the raw RFC 822 message, then an Apple flags plist. Parsed with the stdlib email package, preferring text/plain and falling back to stripped HTML.

• ~/Library/Accounts/Accounts4.sqlite — account display names ("Google", "Exchange"). Optional; UUIDs are shown when unreadable.

email_cli/
  db.py      — Envelope Index queries, account names, dataclasses
  emlx.py    — locate + parse .emlx bodies
  cli.py     — commands + rich rendering

Limitations

• Read-only — no sending, moving, or deleting.

• Bodies exist only for messages Mail.app has downloaded locally.

• Mail.app must be (or have been) configured with the accounts.