mxr is a local-first email client that synchronises Gmail and IMAP accounts with a SQLite database on your machine.
Mail can be accessed and managed through its command-line interface, terminal interface, local web app or MCP server.
The software offers fast local searching, scripting-friendly structured output and a shared daemon that keeps each interface connected to the same mail store. It also provides tools for composing, sending, archiving, snoozing and organising messages.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Synchronises Gmail and IMAP accounts with a local SQLite database.
- Provides command-line, terminal and browser-based interfaces.
- Supports sending mail through Gmail and SMTP.
- Offers Gmail-style search operators for locating messages.
- Provides lexical, hybrid and semantic search modes.
- Keeps embeddings and semantic indexes on the local machine.
- Supports real-time IMAP delivery using IDLE.
- Groups related messages into conversation threads.
- Displays HTML-heavy messages in a readable text-oriented view.
- Provides structured JSON and identifier output for scripts.
- Includes a first-party MCP server for integration with AI agents.
- Supports saved searches and deterministic mail-processing rules.
- Allows potentially destructive operations to be previewed with dry runs.
- Provides a 60-second window for undoing supported mail mutations.
- Supports snoozing messages using predefined or custom times.
- Parses calendar invitations and supports RSVP responses.
- Offers message summarisation and assisted draft generation.
- Includes analytics for response times, stale threads and storage use.
- Stores account credentials in the operating system’s keyring.
- Includes diagnostic, logging and runtime repair tools.
- Runs on Linux and macOS.
Website: github.com/planetaryescape/mxr
Support:
Developer: Planetary Escape
License: MIT License or Apache License 2.0
mxr is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Console Email Clients | |
|---|---|
| NeoMutt | Brings together many patches to extend Mutt |
| mu4e | An extension of mu that runs a full-featured email client within Emacs |
| Himalaya | CLI email client written in Rust |
| Sup | Curses threads-with tags style email client |
| Mutt | Small but very powerful text based program |
| Alpine | Alternatively Licensed Program for Internet News and Email |
| meli | Configurable and extensible e-mail client with sane defaults |
| nmail | User interface similar to alpine / pine |
| alot | Lets notmuch handle your mailindex and uses a toolkit to render its display |
| Wanderlust | Mail/news management system with IMAP4rev1 support for Emacs |
| aerc | Billed as a "pretty good email client" |
| Cone | COnsole Newsreader And Emailer |
| matcha | Powerful, feature-rich email client for your terminal |
| bower | Curses frontend for the Notmuch email system |
| Vmail | Vim interface to Gmail |
| neatmail | Non-interactive email client |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.