diillson/chatcli/email

Email

Operate the user's email through their own installed mail tooling — the hermes way: a skill (this knowledge) + the terminal (@coder exec) + a native CLI. ChatCLI does not bundle an SMTP/IMAP client; you detect what exists and drive it. Never hardcode credentials or paste passwords into commands.

Step 0 — Identify the OS first (this is a multi-OS CLI)

Detection and tooling differ by platform. ChatCLI runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux — never assume a Unix shell. Pick the detection probe for the host:

• macOS / Linux (@coder exec runs sh):

`` command -v himalaya msmtp mutt neomutt mail 2>/dev/null; uname -s ``

• Windows (@coder exec runs PowerShell):

`` Get-Command himalaya, mutt -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Name ``

Step 1 — Choose the tool

Preference order:

1. `himalaya` — modern, scriptable, JSON output, cross-platform (Windows/macOS/Linux

via cargo install himalaya). Best for both read and send. Prefer it everywhere.

1. `msmtp` (+ a heredoc) — reliable send-only (Unix).
2. `mutt` / `neomutt` — send and read (Unix).
3. macOS with none of the above → AppleScript Mail.app via osascript.
4. Windows with none of the above → Outlook via PowerShell COM (New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application).
5. None found → tell the user what to install (cargo install himalaya, brew install himalaya,

apt install himalaya) and stop. Do not invent a workaround.

Step 2 — Send

himalaya (preferred):

himalaya message send <<'EOF'
To: alice@example.com
Subject: Lunch?
From: me@example.com
 
Hey Alice — free for lunch Thursday?
EOF

(Use himalaya -a <account> to pick a configured account; himalaya account list to see them.)

msmtp (send-only, uses ~/.msmtprc):

printf 'To: alice@example.com\nSubject: Lunch?\n\nHey Alice — free Thursday?\n' | msmtp alice@example.com

macOS Mail (osascript) — no extra install:

osascript -e 'tell application "Mail"
  set m to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:"Lunch?", content:"Hey Alice — free Thursday?", visible:false}
  tell m to make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {address:"alice@example.com"}
  send m
end tell'

Windows Outlook (PowerShell COM) — no extra install when Outlook is present:

$ol = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
$mail = $ol.CreateItem(0)
$mail.To = "alice@example.com"
$mail.Subject = "Lunch?"
$mail.Body = "Hey Alice -- free Thursday?"
$mail.Send()

Step 3 — Read / search

himalaya:

himalaya envelope list            # recent inbox
himalaya envelope list --folder Sent
himalaya message read <ID>        # full message

Parse the table (or add -o json) and summarize for the user — don't dump raw output.

macOS Mail: read counts/subjects via osascript against Mail's inbox's messages.

Windows Outlook: enumerate via PowerShell COM — $ol.GetNamespace("MAPI").GetDefaultFolder(6).Items (folder 6 = Inbox); read .Subject/.SenderName.

Rules

• Confirm before sending unless the user clearly already authorized this exact send

(recipient + intent are unambiguous). Email is outward-facing and hard to unsend.

• Quote the recipient, subject, and a one-line body summary back to the user before/after sending.
• Respect i18n: write the email in the language the user is communicating in.
• If multiple accounts exist and the user didn't specify, ask which to send from.