@ghostpaw/email

A standalone email engine for Node.js, built on SQLite.

Email treats IMAP sync, SMTP send, local caching, threading, search, and transport errors as one coherent model instead of a grab bag of protocol adapters. It ships as a single prebundled blob with zero runtime dependencies, designed for three audiences at once: human developers working directly in code, LLM agents operating through a structured soul / tools / skills runtime, and agent operators who want a ready-to-use email CLI binary without writing any wiring code.

Install

npm install @ghostpaw/email        # as a library
npm install -g @ghostpaw/email     # as a global CLI
npx @ghostpaw/email --help         # one-off, no install needed

Requires Node.js 24+ (uses the built-in node:sqlite module).

Quick Start

import { Mailbox } from '@ghostpaw/email';

const mailbox = new Mailbox({
  imap: { host: 'imap.example.com', port: 993, tls: true },
  smtp: { host: 'smtp.example.com', port: 465, tls: true },
  auth: { user: 'user@example.com', pass: 'secret' },
  storage: 'mail.db',
});

await mailbox.connect();

const folders = mailbox.read.folders();
await mailbox.network.sync();
const messages = mailbox.read.messages('INBOX', { limit: 20 });

await mailbox.write.send({
  to: [{ address: 'bob@example.com' }],
  subject: 'Hello',
  text: 'Sent from @ghostpaw/email.',
});

await mailbox.disconnect();

connect() opens the SQLite database, initialises the schema, upserts the account, and authenticates the IMAP session — one call does everything.

The Model

Seven stored concepts and three derived ones:

Concept	Purpose
Account	One email identity with IMAP/SMTP connection config
Folder	One IMAP mailbox path with sync metadata and role detection
Message	A locally cached email header record with flags, labels, and envelope
Body	The decoded text/html content and raw RFC 2822 bytes of one message
Attachment	A decoded MIME part with on-demand binary fetch
SyncLog	A record of one completed sync pass per folder
Thread	A JWZ conversation tree derived from References/In-Reply-To headers

The model means each kind of mail state has its own home:

What it looks like	What it actually is
An email inbox	A Folder with role: 'inbox' and synced messages
A conversation	A Thread computed from References and In-Reply-To chains
An unread email	A Message without \Seen in its flags array
A starred email	A Message with \Flagged in its flags
A PDF attached to a message	An Attachment with metadata from BODYSTRUCTURE and data fetched on demand
"Sync found 12 new messages"	A SyncLog row recording strategy, counts, and duration

State is derived, not toggled. Thread IDs are computed from header chains at sync time, folder roles are detected from IMAP special-use attributes, and attachment metadata is extracted from BODYSTRUCTURE — all materialised during sync, never stored as manual status fields.

Two Audiences

Human developers

Use the Mailbox class with typed read, write, and network surfaces for direct-code access to every mail operation:

import { Mailbox } from '@ghostpaw/email';

const mailbox = new Mailbox(config);
await mailbox.connect();

const threads = mailbox.read.threads('INBOX', { limit: 20 });
const detail = await mailbox.read.getMessage('INBOX', uid);
await mailbox.write.reply('INBOX', uid, { text: 'Acknowledged.' });
await mailbox.write.archive('INBOX', [uid]);

See HUMAN.md for the full human-facing guide with worked examples.

LLM agents

Use the tools, skills, and soul namespaces for a structured runtime surface designed to minimise LLM cognitive load:

import { skills, soul, tools } from '@ghostpaw/email';

// 5 intent-shaped tools covering the full mailbox lifecycle
const allTools = tools.emailTools;
const readTool = tools.getEmailToolByName('mail_read');

// 8 reusable workflow skills for multi-step scenarios
const triageSkill = skills.getEmailSkillByName('triage-inbox');

// Thinking foundation for system prompts
const systemPrompt = soul.renderEmailSoulPromptFoundation();

Every tool returns a structured result with outcome, summary, entities, and nextSteps — no thrown exceptions to parse, no ambiguous prose.

See LLM.md for the full AI-facing guide covering soul, tools, and skills.

CLI (bash)

The package ships as a standalone email binary. Accounts are stored in ~/.config/email/accounts.json and every command accepts --json for machine-readable output.

# Add an account once
email account add --name work \
  --imap-host imap.example.com --smtp-host smtp.example.com \
  --user you@example.com --pass secret

# Then use it
email sync                              # pull latest from server
email read                             # check inbox
email search "invoice"                 # FTS5 search
email compose send --to bob@example.com --subject "Hi" --body "Hello"

# Machine-readable output for agents and scripts
email read queue --json | jq '.entities[].title'
echo "body text" | email compose send --to bob@example.com --subject "Hi"

All commands return the same { outcome, summary, entities, nextSteps } shape as the tool layer, with consistent exit codes (0 success, 1 user error, 2 config, 3 auth, 4 network, 5 tool error).

See SKILL.md for the complete CLI reference for agent operators and Claude Code / OpenClaw users.

Tools

Five tools shaped around operator intent, not raw protocol operations:

Tool	What it does
mail_read	Read folder lists, message queues, threads, bodies, attachments, or raw EML
mail_search	FTS5 local search or IMAP SEARCH on the server
mail_compose	Send, reply, forward, save/update/send drafts
mail_organize	Flags, labels, copy, move, archive, trash, junk, folder management
mail_sync	Connect, disconnect, reconnect, sync, refresh folders, watch

Key Properties

• Zero runtime dependencies. Only node:sqlite, node:tls, node:net, node:zlib, node:crypto (built into Node 24+).
• Single prebundled blob. One ESM + one CJS entry in dist/. No subpath exports, no code splitting.
• Pure SQLite storage. FTS5 full-text search, six tables, and deterministic derived reads. Mailbox creates and manages its own DatabaseSync instance.
• Full IMAP engine. Streaming tokenizer, response parser, COMPRESS=DEFLATE, IDLE (RFC 2177), CONDSTORE/QRESYNC (RFC 7162), XOAUTH2/OAUTHBEARER.
• Full SMTP client. TLS/STARTTLS/plaintext, PLAIN/LOGIN/XOAUTH2, dot stuffing, APPEND to Sent after send.
• Fetch-on-demand bodies. Initial sync pulls headers and BODYSTRUCTURE only. Message bodies and attachment bytes are fetched when actually read.
• JWZ threading. Conversation trees computed from References/In-Reply-To headers, with depth-ordered rendering and cross-folder support.
• Intention-shaped writes. send, reply, forward, archive, trash, saveDraft, sendDraft — operations that say what happened, not generic CRUD.
• Additive AI runtime. soul for posture, tools for actions, skills for workflow guidance — all optional, all structured.
• Colocated tests. Every non-type module has a colocated .test.ts file. The documented behaviour is backed by executable coverage.

Package Surface

import {
  Mailbox,      // porcelain class — the primary entry point
  initSchema,   // schema setup (called automatically by Mailbox.connect())
  read,         // read surface factory
  write,        // write surface factory
  network,      // network surface factory
  tools,        // LLM tool definitions + registry
  skills,       // LLM workflow skills + registry
  soul,         // thinking foundation for system prompts
} from '@ghostpaw/email';

All domain and runtime types are also available at the root for TypeScript consumers:

import type {
  EmailConfig,
  AuthConfig,
  EmailReadSurface,
  EmailWriteSurface,
  EmailNetworkSurface,
  EmailToolDefinition,
  EmailToolResult,
  EmailSkill,
  EmailSoul,
  ComposeInput,
  ReplyInput,
  ForwardInput,
  Message,
  MessageDetail,
  Thread,
  Folder,
  Attachment,
  AttachmentMeta,
  SyncResult,
  WatchEvent,
} from '@ghostpaw/email';

Documentation

Document	Audience
SKILL.md	Agent operators and Claude Code users running email as a bash tool
HUMAN.md	Human developers using the Mailbox API with read / write / network
LLM.md	Agent builders wiring soul, tools, and skills into LLM systems
docs/README.md	Architecture overview: model, invariants, protocol boundaries, source layout
docs/entities/	Per-entity manuals with schema, operations, and invariants

Development

npm install
npm test            # node:test runner
npm run typecheck   # tsc --noEmit
npm run lint        # biome check
npm run build       # ESM + CJS + declarations via tsup

The repo is pinned to Node 24.14.0 via .nvmrc / .node-version / .tool-versions / mise.toml / Volta. Use whichever version manager you prefer.

Support

If this package helps your project, consider sponsoring its maintenance:

---

Anonyfox • MIT License