email-use

Manage your inbox with plain English. Write one prompt to handle all your emails - categorize, archive, reply, and more.

What it does

Email Use lets you write a system prompt that gets applied to every incoming email. Instead of creating complex filters or rules, you describe what you want in natural language:

For each email:
- If it's from my team (@company.com), mark as important
- If it's a newsletter or marketing, archive immediately
- If someone is asking for a meeting, draft a polite reply asking for an agenda
- If it contains an invoice, label as "Finance"

The AI handles the rest - categorizing, archiving, replying, marking as read/unread, and applying labels automatically.

Features

• Plain English rules - Write conditions like you'd explain to an assistant
• Full email actions - Reply, categorize, archive, mark read/unread, apply labels
• Iterate anytime - Refine your prompt as your needs change
• Back-test your rules - Test against past emails before deploying
• Multiple AI providers - Use Claude, GPT-4, or bring your own API keys
• Self-hostable - Run on your own infrastructure, MIT licensed

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• A Gmail account
• API key from Anthropic (Claude) or OpenAI (GPT-4)

Installation

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/pretzelai/email-use.git
cd email-use

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Set up environment variables
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your API keys and database URL

# Run database migrations
bunx drizzle-kit push

# Start the development server
bun dev

Open http://localhost:3000 to get started.

Environment Variables

DATABASE_URL=           # PostgreSQL connection string
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=       # Google OAuth client ID
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=   # Google OAuth client secret
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=      # Optional: Anthropic API key for Claude
OPENAI_API_KEY=         # Optional: OpenAI API key for GPT-4

How it works

1. Connect your Gmail - Securely authenticate with Google OAuth
2. Write your prompt - Describe how you want emails handled in plain English
3. Test it - Back-test against existing emails to verify behavior
4. Deploy - Enable the prompt to process incoming emails automatically

Emails are processed in real-time as they arrive. You can view all processed emails and the actions taken in the dashboard.

Tech Stack

• Next.js - React framework
• Drizzle ORM - Database ORM
• Better Auth - Authentication
• Tailwind CSS - Styling

License

MIT