- Category
- Productivity
- Rank
- No. 1470Tools index
- Pricing
- Open Source
- Type
- TOOL
- Builder
- badlogic
- GitHub
- 222 stars
- Date
About
Minimal Gmail CLI — read, search, send, and triage your inbox from the terminal without the Gmail web UI.
What it does
gmcli wraps Gmail’s API in account-scoped terminal commands. After desktop OAuth setup, it searches complete threads, displays message content, changes labels, manages drafts, sends replies or new mail, downloads attachments, and emits either readable tables or JSON.
Why it's ranked here
The command set covers a surprisingly complete terminal mail workflow without hiding Gmail’s native query language. JSON output, pagination, multiple accounts, draft handling, replies, and attachment support make it useful for scripts. The substantial Google Cloud and OAuth setup keeps it from being a casual install.
What's good
Search results expose thread metadata and a continuation token. Labels accept case-insensitive names or IDs, including several threads per operation. Replies preserve conversation headers and thread association. Browserless authorization helps remote environments, while JSON output gives automation full search results, raw thread payloads, and attachment records.
Tradeoffs
Users must create a Google Cloud project, enable Gmail access, configure consent details, create desktop credentials, and authorize every account. The requested OAuth scope grants full mailbox access. Client secrets and account tokens live in local JSON files. Human-readable thread output extracts plain text, so richer content may require JSON processing.
How to use it well
It suits engineers who already work in shells and want repeatable inbox searches, batch label changes, attachment retrieval, or mail steps inside scripts. Prefer JSON for downstream processing and drafts when human confirmation matters. It does not replace a rich mail composer or remove the need for Google Cloud configuration.
Technical notes+
package.json defines an ES module package for Node.js 20 or newer, with a CLI entry, a typed library entry, and only google-auth-library plus googleapis as runtime dependencies. src/cli.ts parses commands with Node’s argument parser and switches between tabular and JSON output. src/gmail-service.ts calls Gmail v1, expands search hits into full threads, builds MIME messages, resolves label names, and caches downloaded attachments. src/account-storage.ts persists credentials and account records as unencrypted JSON under the user’s home directory. src/gmail-oauth-flow.ts requests the full mail scope and supports either a temporary localhost callback or a pasted redirect URL. tsconfig.json enables strict TypeScript and declaration output, while .github/workflows/ci.yml builds and checks on Ubuntu with Node.js 22.
Observed
- License
- MIT
- Primary language
- TypeScript
- Install surface
- Global npm package @mariozechner/gmcli
- Interfaces
- Command-line interface plus typed ES module library entry
- Runtime
- Node.js 20 or newer
- Authentication
- Google OAuth2 desktop flow with browser and manual modes
Read from README.md, package.json, src/cli.ts, src/types.ts, src/gmail-service.ts, src/account-storage.ts, src/gmail-oauth-flow.ts, biome.json, CHANGELOG.md, tsconfig.json, .husky/pre-commit, .github/workflows/ci.yml.
What it can do
Read Gmail emails
Gmail account credentials → Email content displayed in terminal
Search Gmail inbox
Search query and Gmail account access → Filtered list of matching emails
Send email messages
Recipient address, subject, and message content → Sent email confirmation
Triage inbox emails
Gmail emails and user triage actions → Organized inbox with processed emails
Access Gmail without web browser
Terminal commands and Gmail credentials → Gmail functionality in command-line interface
Tags
Tech Stack
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Editorially curated, with community endorsements as a secondary signal. Corrections welcome.