Briskmail CLI
Briskmail from the command line
briskmail is a command-line tool for Briskmail on your Mac. An agent like Claude Code can use it to open a conversation or start a draft for you, and nobody gets your Google password or a token.
The usual way to give an agent your mail is an OAuth token or an app password, and from then on it can do anything the account can, deleting and forwarding included. This starts much smaller. Out of the box, an agent can open windows and fill in a draft for you to send. Reading your mail and sending it each sit behind a switch that is off until you turn it on, and a few things are never offered at all.
Opening windows needs only macOS's Automation permission. The two switches are in Settings ▸ Advanced ▸ Command-line access: Let apps read and organize my mail and Let apps send without asking.
briskmail draftbriskmail draft --to dana@example.com --subject "Thursday" --body "Can we move to 3pm?"
okHow it talks to Briskmail
Through AppleScript, the way one Mac app asks another to do something. There is no server, no port and no web address carrying your mail. The first time a program such as Terminal, Ghostty or your editor runs briskmail, macOS asks you whether it may control Briskmail. Say no and the command exits with code 2. A command whose switch is off exits 2 as well, and the message names the switch.
What each command needs
Anything not built yet carries a badge until it ships.
Works with Automation consent
BuiltNo switch. macOS asks you once whether the program running the command may control Briskmail.
Opens things in Briskmail's window: a conversation, a search, a folder, a prefilled compose or reply window. With reply --send, the separate auto-send switch and Touch ID grant apply. These commands never print mail contents.
Read and organize
Coming soonSwitch: Let apps read and organize my mail, in Settings ▸ Advanced ▸ Command-line access. Off until you turn it on.
Lists, searches and reads your mail, and does the things you can undo: label, mark read or unread, star, archive, snooze, and save a draft without opening a window.
triage list search unread labels accounts read thread attachments label unlabel mark-read mark-unread star unstar archive snooze save-draft
Send without asking
BuiltSwitch: Let apps send without asking, in Settings ▸ Advanced ▸ Command-line access. Off until you turn it on.
Lets an agent send mail while you are away. Turning it on takes Touch ID or your login password.
Never available
- Permanently delete mail
- Create or change filters or forwarding rules
- Change account or security settings
- Unsubscribe
Each of these either cannot be undone or would let someone keep reading or sending your mail after the agent is gone. There is no command for them, so no setting can switch one on.