What Is MailAgent
In one sentence
Section titled “In one sentence”MailAgent is a local-first personal AI workspace built around email. Mail is read, classified, summarized, and drafted the moment it lands. Matters, calendar, contacts, and files are the things you work on. A team of named, bounded agents handles the routine, and you only step in for exceptions and decisions that matter—every conclusion can be traced back to the source.
It runs on your own machine, and the email body, attachments, and search index all live in a local database. That is what “local-first” means here: your data belongs to your machine first, and Notion is only an optional mirror.
Capability map
Section titled “Capability map”MailAgent is a single desktop App with sync and AI built in—no separate Python or CLI install. Everything below is available out of the box or one toggle away.
| Domain | In one line | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Today | Everything that needs your attention today, in one page: pending approvals, today’s meetings, mail waiting on a reply, matters coming due, and what agents produced overnight. | Today |
| Processed on arrival: category, priority, summary, and a suggested action are written into the email itself; body and attachments are fully indexed for search. | Daily Workflow: Inbox | |
| Calendar | Mailbox events, matter deadlines, and agent schedules aggregate onto one view, with drag-to-reschedule. | Calendar |
| Matters | Turn something you need to move forward into an object: background and goal, action items, stakeholders, linked resources, and a progress timeline. A follow-up agent only proposes updates—you accept them one by one. | Matters |
| Contacts | Profiles are built automatically from mail and meetings and merged by email address; AI-generated profiles cite their evidence. | Contacts |
| Library (macOS) | Mount local folders and gather email and chat attachments into one file tree. Files stay where they are; what an agent can write is enforced by the server. | Library |
| AI Chat | Summon the main agent from anywhere, @-mention an email, matter, file, or another agent; choose from many model providers. | AI Chat panel |
| Team & custom agents | The main agent has a name and an avatar; custom agents wake on schedules, new mail, calendar changes, or before meetings, and every run leaves a complete record. | Team & custom agents |
| Group chat (Labs) | Several agents take turns in the same group, with sub-threads for side discussions. | Group chat |
| Reports | Daily, weekly, and monthly reports with statistics computed by code; every number and citation links back to the source. | Reports |
| Notification center | A persistent panel for pending approvals, agent results, and system alerts, with a badge on the bell icon. | Notification center |
| Connectors (MCP) | Bring external services such as Notion, Jira, or GitHub into the conversation, or hand inbox capabilities to your own agent. | Connectors |
| Feishu chat | Talk to the main agent in a Feishu direct message and approve actions with a button. | Feishu chat |
Most capabilities work out of the box or are one toggle away. Model access, Notion, and Feishu need your own key or authorization before they turn on.
Three things that set it apart
Section titled “Three things that set it apart”1. Processed on arrival, not in after-the-fact batches. Category, priority, summary, and suggested action are written the moment an email arrives. Today gathers what needs your attention so you don’t have to re-scan the inbox yourself.
2. The AI writes the prose; the code guards the numbers. Statistics, links, and email IDs in reports and profiles are deterministically generated by code; the AI is only responsible for wording and grouping. If something is wrong, it is at most a phrasing issue, never a fact—and every citation can be clicked back to the original email.
3. Local-first, with bounded writes. Mail, the index, and files live on your own machine. Every tool has an approval tier—sending mail, running commands, and changing agent configuration default to requiring your confirmation. What an agent can write to is decided by the server, not by the agent itself.
System requirements
Section titled “System requirements”| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| macOS | 12 (Monterey) or later, Apple Silicon (M-series). |
| Windows | Windows 10 / 11, x64. |
| Mailbox | A corporate Exchange / Microsoft 365 mailbox (bridged via DavMail), or a signed-in classic Outlook on Windows; macOS can also use a local Mail.app account. |
| Model access | Bring your own API key for a model provider (pick from several built-in official templates), or point at a self-hosted OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible relay. |
| Notion (optional) | Not required—sync, search, AI classification, matters, contacts, and the library all run locally. A Notion workspace is only needed if you want an additional mirror there, and one-click authorization sets it up. |
Next up
Section titled “Next up”- Not installed yet? Start from Install the Desktop App.
- Want to see daily use first? Skip to Daily Workflow: Inbox.
- Running into problems? See the Troubleshooting FAQ.
Learn more about the full project and its architecture: README · Architecture Overview ARCHITECTURE.md