openemail

The command-line client for the OpenEmail platform — in the style of the Stripe CLI and wrangler. Authenticate once; the CLI mints its own dedicated account API key, stores it in your OS keychain, and uses it for every command. It covers the entire core API: the directory plane (accounts, domains, routes, patterns, credentials), the mailbox data plane (messages, labels, threads, search, sieve, pickups), and the workflow verbs (send, watch, deliver, api, operator admin).

Install

# Homebrew (macOS / Linux)
brew install Open-Email/tap/openemail
# Homebrew 6+ gates third-party taps — if prompted, trust it once:
#   brew trust --tap open-email/tap

# Debian / Ubuntu / Fedora — download the .deb/.rpm from Releases, then:
sudo dpkg -i openemail_*.deb      # or: sudo rpm -i openemail_*.rpm

# Windows — download the .zip from Releases and put openemail.exe on your PATH.

# Go
go install github.com/Open-Email/cli/cmd/openemail@latest

# From source
git clone https://github.com/Open-Email/cli && cd cli
make build && ./bin/openemail version

Shell completions ship in the release archives (bash/zsh/fish) and are installed automatically by brew/apt/dnf. Generate them yourself with openemail completion <shell> (also supports powershell).

Quick start

# Log in — paste an account key (oek_…). The CLI mints its own per-device key,
# stores it in the OS keychain, records the profile, and discards the pasted key.
openemail login

# Non-interactive / CI:
OPENEMAIL_API_KEY=oek_… openemail login --api-key oek_…

openemail whoami         # who this key resolves to
openemail status         # health + auth probe

# Pick a default mailbox so message/label/sieve commands don't need -m each time.
openemail mailboxes use [email protected]   # accepts an address or a ULID

Command map

Every mailbox-scoped group takes -m/--mailbox <id|address> (an address is resolved via its route); set a per-profile default with openemail mailboxes use.

Group	What it does
login / logout / whoami / status	auth lifecycle and identity
ui (alias console)	full-screen console: sidebar + tables for mailboxes/domains/routes/patterns/keys/accounts with create/edit forms, confirm-gated deletes, and group-member editing; drill into a mailbox for a live message list (events WebSocket), compose-and-send, previews, flag toggles, label editing, and a trash view with restore
mailboxes	create/list/get/update/delete/restore, use (set default)
keys	account API keys: create/list/revoke
accounts	accounts (create/list are system-only), get; create --with-key also mints the account's first API key
domains	domains + traffic <domain> --range 1h|6h|24h|7d|30d
routes	address routes + members list|add|remove|replace
patterns	per-domain pattern routes
credentials	a mailbox's IMAP/SMTP credentials (app-passwords)
messages	list/get/raw/append/flag/label/move/delete/restore/trash empty/mime
labels	list/create/rename/delete/messages/expunge
threads	list, get (with reply context)
search <query>	full-text search (--group-thread for one hit per conversation)
sieve	scripts {list,get,put,delete,rename}, activate/deactivate/active, check, capabilities
pickups	POP3 pickup sources: create/list/get/update/delete/run
send	submit an outbound message (compose or raw MIME)
watch	tail a mailbox's live events over WebSocket (--until <glob> exit on match, --timeout <dur>, --exec <cmd> per-event handler, --fetch hydrate message frames)
deliver	check --to <addr> (RCPT pre-flight), inbound (inject a test message)
api	call any route directly (escape hatch), --list-routes
admin	operator-only: reindex, verify-login, pickup ingest|report (system keys)
completion / upgrade / version	shells, upgrade help, version

Run openemail <group> --help for the full flag set of any command.

Recipes

# Send mail — compose, or pipe a raw MIME message.
openemail send --from [email protected] --to [email protected] --subject Hi --text 'Hello!'
cat message.eml | openemail send --from [email protected] --to [email protected]
openemail send --from [email protected] --to [email protected] --file msg.eml --save

# Move a message between labels, mark it read, then read its raw body.
openemail messages move <id> --from INBOX --to Archive
openemail messages flag <id> --set seen
openemail messages raw <id> -o message.eml

# Import mail with IMAP APPEND (preserving INTERNALDATE).
cat old.eml | openemail messages append --label Archive --internaldate 1600000000

# Tail live events (JSON lines) while another process delivers mail.
openemail watch -m [email protected]

# Block a script until the next message arrives (exit 0), then read its id.
id=$(openemail watch -m [email protected] --until 'message.new' --timeout 30s | tail -n1 | jq -r .data.id)

# Run a handler per event (frame JSON on stdin) and hydrate message frames.
openemail watch -m [email protected] --fetch --exec 'jq -r .message.subject'

# Manage Sieve filters.
openemail sieve check -f filter.sieve            # dry-run compile (exit 1 if invalid)
openemail sieve scripts put main -f filter.sieve
openemail sieve activate main

# Rotate a webhook route's URL while KEEPING its signing secret (omit the secret).
openemail routes update [email protected] --type webhook --webhook-url https://new/hook

# Hit any endpoint the CLI doesn't wrap yet.
openemail api GET /domains/example.com/traffic --query range=7d
openemail api POST /routes -d '{"address":"[email protected]","destinationType":"group"}'
openemail api --list-routes

Configuration

• Config: ~/.config/openemail/config.toml (honors XDG_CONFIG_HOME; same path on macOS). Secrets never live here — only a pointer to where the key is stored.
• Secrets: the OS keychain by default; a 0600 file under ~/.config/openemail/credentials/ as a loud fallback (a warning is printed). Force the file backend with --no-keyring / OPENEMAIL_NO_KEYRING=1.
• Profiles: --profile <name> (or OPENEMAIL_PROFILE) selects a named login; each has its own API URL, account, role, key, and default mailbox.

Precedence for every setting is flag > environment > profile > default.

Setting	Flag	Environment	Default
API URL	--api-url	OPENEMAIL_API_URL	https://api.open.email
API key	--api-key	OPENEMAIL_API_KEY	stored profile key
Profile	--profile	OPENEMAIL_PROFILE	default
No keychain	--no-keyring	OPENEMAIL_NO_KEYRING	keychain preferred

OPENEMAIL_NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER=1 silences the passive "new version available" check (which runs at most once per day, on a TTY only).

Output & exit codes

• stdout carries data (the pipeable thing); stderr carries messages, prompts, warnings, and progress. They never intermix.
• --json emits machine-readable JSON. List outputs always include nextCursor; --all drains every page. Delivery/append results are echoed as core's exact response (so duplicate:false and null coordinates are preserved).
• One-time secrets (a new key/app-password token) print once to stdout, with a "shown once" warning on stderr.
• Exit codes: 0 ok · 1 error · 2 usage · 4 authentication required.
• Color is emitted only on a TTY with NO_COLOR unset and --no-color off.

See docs/OUTPUT.md for the --json contract and docs/COOKBOOK.md for worked flows.

Principals

The CLI works with any core bearer:

• account key (oek_…, role account) — the everyday mode; manages its own tenant. login self-mints a per-device key from a pasted account key.
• system key (oek_…, role system) — operator mode; unlocks the admin group. Stored as-is (no minting).
• mailbox app password (oemp_…) — single-mailbox, limited scope. Directory and admin commands are unavailable; message/label/sieve/pickup/watch/send for its own mailbox work.

Cross-tenant lookups return 404 (not 403) by design — "not found" means "does not exist, or is not accessible with this key".

No telemetry

openemail sends no usage data, analytics, or crash reports. The only outbound call it makes on its own is the once-a-day version check against the GitHub releases API, which is TTY-only and disabled by OPENEMAIL_NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER.

Development

make build          # build ./bin/openemail
make test           # fast unit tests (httptest fakecore, no network)
make lint           # gofmt + go vet
make integration    # drives the binary against a local `wrangler dev` core
make live           # drives the binary against a DEPLOYED core (OE_HOST + OE_SYSTEM_KEY)
make snapshot       # dry-run a full goreleaser build matrix

Unit tests use an in-memory httptest fake of the core contract (no backend). The integration target expects wrangler dev running on :8787, migrated and seeded (npm run db:migrate:local && npm run db:seed:local in the core repo).

The live target (behind the live build tag) builds the binary and drives it end-to-end over HTTPS against a deployed core, provisioning throwaway tenants/domains/mailboxes and tearing them down — the CLI analogue of core's test/live suite. It skips itself when OE_HOST / OE_SYSTEM_KEY are unset. See test/live/README.md.