Terminal-first email for developers

Stay in your flow while staying on top of your inbox.

Chaski is an open source terminal client for reading, composing, and summarising email. It speaks the language of your IDE—command palettes, keyboard driven navigation, and an AI teammate powered by the inbox you already synched locally.

View on GitHub Read the docs

Features built for your command line workflow

Universal inbox

Connect Gmail, Outlook, or any IMAP/SMTP provider. Switch between as many accounts as you need—Chaski keeps each mailbox synced and cached locally.

Fast keyboard navigation

Navigate with familiar Vim-style keys or arrow keys. Jump between folders, open messages, and act on threads without touching the mouse.

Configurable everything

Decide how many messages render per page, customise pagination commands, and fine tune auto-refresh intervals to match your flow.

Local-first security

Credentials never leave your machine. They live encrypted in ~/.chaski alongside cache data guarded by strict file permissions.

Command palette actions

Everything is a command. Add accounts, purge cache, toggle auto-refresh, or ask for help straight from the palette—complete with tab-completion muscle memory.

Extensible architecture

React (Ink) + TypeScript keep the codebase friendly to contributions. Services, components, and utilities live where you expect them.

See Chaski in action

Real screenshots from the terminal client showcase the home dashboard, command palette, and AI assistant flow.

Home view overview displaying inbox metrics and recent activity

Home View

Monitor every inbox at once, with unread counts and quick access to folders tailored to your workflow.

Command palette showing available email actions

Command Your Email

Trigger actions from the palette—compose, refresh, paginate, and more—without leaving the keyboard.

AI assistant summarising an email thread inside the terminal

AI Assistant

Ask ChatGPT to summarise threads or craft replies using only the messages already cached locally.

Let the AI inbox assistant brief you

Chaski ships with a built-in ChatGPT assistant that knows the context of the email already synced to your terminal. Ask “Summarise this thread”, “What are the key action items?”, or “Draft a reply” without copying dense threads into the browser.

  • Powered by your OpenAI API key; no data leaves your machine beyond the prompt you send.
  • Keep or reset the conversation with palette commands such as /assistant-clear.
  • Inline history keeps you aware of request status and responses.

Bring your own key

Drop OPENAI_API_KEY in your environment and Chaski handles authentication, rate limits, and context for you.

Local context

Only the emails you already downloaded are used for summarisation, keeping private threads private.

From zero to inbox zen in minutes

1

Install & launch

Clone the repo, run npm install, then npm start to boot the CLI. Chaski runs anywhere Node 16+ is available.

2

Add your inboxes

Use the command palette (/add-account) to connect Gmail, Outlook, or custom IMAP/SMTP accounts with secure local storage.

3

Command your email

Navigate with j/k, compose with c, refresh with /refresh, and let the assistant summarise long threads.

Prefer automation? Wire Chaski into scripts or call it from your editor's built-in terminal.

Open source and ready for collaboration

Named after the Incan messengers who relayed vital news between mountain villages, Chaski is built to carry your messages swiftly and securely. The project welcomes contributors—whether you want to add protocols, refine the UI, or extend the AI assistant.

  • MIT licensed and actively maintained.
  • TypeScript-first stack with strong linting and tests.
  • Clear CONTRIBUTING.md guide and conventional commits.
Contribute on GitHub

Ready to run Chaski?

Install it locally, connect your inboxes, and keep your email in the same window as your code.

git clone https://github.com/jonlarale/chaski.git npm install npm start
Get the source