<p align="center"><img src="assets/logo.svg" alt="Postvak" width="382"></p>
<p align="center">
<a href="https://github.com/postvak-app/postvak/actions/workflows/ci.yml"><img src="https://github.com/postvak-app/postvak/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg" alt="CI"></a>
<a href="https://postvak.pataar.nl/"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/docs-postvak.pataar.nl-orange" alt="Docs"></a>
<a href="LICENSE-MIT"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT%20OR%20Apache--2.0-blue" alt="License: MIT OR Apache-2.0"></a>
</p>
# Postvak
Rules for your IMAP inbox. Test them with a dry run and undo any delete. Postvak syncs your mail into a local store and runs your rules: move mail into folders, mark it read, or delete transient mail such as sign-in codes and magic links once you no longer need it. Without rules, it leaves your mail alone.
It runs headless as a background service, at login or on a server. On top come a keyboard-driven mail window for reading (`postvak gui`), a full command line, and an MCP server for agents (see [Agents over MCP](https://postvak.pataar.nl/mcp.html)). Postvak reads and sorts mail; it does not send it. It runs on macOS and Linux.
## Quickstart
Install Postvak, add an account and write your first rule: see the [Quickstart](https://postvak.pataar.nl/quickstart.html).
## Why rules, not an AI that sorts your mail?
Many AI mail clients hand every message to a model and let it decide what happens. Postvak sorts with rules you can read, and lets AI help you write them.
- **Predictable.** The same mail gets the same outcome, every time. A model can file a message differently tomorrow, or delete one it misread.
- **Reviewable.** A rule is a few lines of TOML. `rules test` shows what it would do before it does it, and `postvak log` says which rule did what.
- **Safe from the sender.** Mail is written by strangers. A rule matches patterns, so instructions hidden in a message cannot change what it does.
- **Private.** Your mail is never sent to a model to be sorted. Rules run on your own machine or server, and agents see only what you grant: by default headers, no bodies.
- **Free and fast.** No tokens per message and no API key. Rules run on every sync, without a round trip to a model, across years of mail.
- **AI where it helps.** An agent over MCP reads your inbox, proposes a rule and shows its dry run. You approve it once, and from then on the rule does the work without the model.
## Why not server-side filters?
- Works with any IMAP server, without Sieve or a webmail settings page.
- Rules go further than most filters: regex on any header or the body, age, size, read and flagged state, aliases and tags, combined with `any` and `none`; actions move, archive, tag, flag, mark read, delete or silence notifications. See [Rules](https://postvak.pataar.nl/rules.html).
- Rules run on every sync, not once on delivery, so they can act later: an hour after you read a sign-in code, or once a newsletter is a week old.
- `rules test` shows what every rule would do before it does it, and deleted mail can be restored.
- Passwords stay in the macOS Keychain or the Secret Service, or come from a command such as `pass`.
Postvak is licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option. The mail window's HTML view includes Stylo, the CSS engine from Servo and Firefox, which is under MPL-2.0. The mail window is made with [Slint](https://slint.dev/) under its royalty-free licence; Help ▸ About Postvak shows its attribution.
## More
- [Documentation](https://postvak.pataar.nl/): install, accounts, rules, agent guide and CLI reference
- [Contributing](CONTRIBUTING.md) and [Code of Conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)
- [Security policy](SECURITY.md): how to report a vulnerability
- [Changelog](CHANGELOG.md)