get_messages
Read-onlyIdempotent
Fetch full content of email messages by ID or from Mail.app selection, including bodies and attachment metadata.
Instructions
Get full details of one or more messages, with bodies.
Returns a list of message dicts (possibly of length 0 or 1). Pair with
search_messages (metadata-only) and get_thread (thread member
ids) to fetch bodies for specific messages.
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| account | No | Mail.app account name. Together with ``mailbox``, activates the IMAP fast path for explicit ids: one round-trip lookup instead of an account×mailbox AppleScript scan (issue #72). Ignored for the ``"SELECTED"`` sentinel (selection is global). | |
| mailbox | No | Folder to look in for the IMAP fast path (e.g. "INBOX"). | |
| message_ids | Yes | List of message ids to fetch. May include the literal token ``"SELECTED"``, which the server resolves at call time to Mail.app's current UI selection (zero-or-more messages). Mixed lists like ``["SELECTED", "12345"]`` are valid. Empty list is a no-op (returns empty result, no error). Missing ids drop out silently (partial-results convention) — the response contains whatever was found. | |
| headers_only | No | Skip body fetch on the IMAP path for explicit ids (default: False). Silently ignored on the AppleScript fallback. | |
| include_content | No | Include message bodies (default: True). | |
| include_attachments | No | Include per-attachment metadata (name, mime_type, size, downloaded) on each message (default: True). Bounded cost — id-list cardinality is typically 1-10. Free on the IMAP fast path; cheap-enough on the AppleScript fallback for typical id counts. |
Output Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
No arguments | |||