Apple Mail Skill
This skill provides commands to interact with Apple Mail on macOS via AppleScript.
Available Scripts
All scripts are in the ../../scripts/ directory (relative to this file). Execute them via bash from the plugin root.
Account & Mailbox Management
Script Purpose Arguments
list-accounts.sh List all email accounts none
list-mailboxes.sh List mailboxes/folders [account] (optional)
get-unread-count.sh Get unread email count [account] [mailbox] (optional)
Reading Emails
Script Purpose Arguments
get-emails.sh Get recent emails [account] [mailbox] [limit] [include_content] [unread_only]
get-email-by-id.sh Get specific email by ID
Scripts use delimiters for structured output:
<<>> separates fields within a record ||| separates multiple records ERROR: prefix indicates an error message Email Record Format id<<>>subject<<>>sender<<>>to<<>>cc<<>>bcc<<>>dateSent<<>>isRead<<>>content|||
Usage Examples List accounts ./scripts/list-accounts.sh
Get recent emails from INBOX ./scripts/get-emails.sh "" "INBOX" 10 false false
Get recent unread emails with content ./scripts/get-emails.sh "" "INBOX" 10 true true
Get specific email by ID ./scripts/get-email-by-id.sh 12345 "iCloud" "INBOX" true
Search emails ./scripts/search-emails.sh "meeting notes" "" "" 20
Send an email ./scripts/send-email.sh "recipient@example.com" "Subject" "Body text"
Send with CC and BCC ./scripts/send-email.sh "to@example.com" "Subject" "Body" "cc@example.com" "bcc@example.com"
Create a draft ./scripts/create-draft.sh "Draft Subject" "Draft body" "recipient@example.com"
Reply to an email ./scripts/create-reply-draft.sh 12345 "Thanks for your message!" false "iCloud" "INBOX"
Send the front-most draft ./scripts/send-draft.sh
Archive an email ./scripts/archive-email.sh 12345 "iCloud" "INBOX"
Mark as read/unread ./scripts/mark-read.sh 12345 "iCloud" "INBOX" ./scripts/mark-unread.sh 12345 "iCloud" "INBOX"
Parsing Output
When receiving email records, parse them like this:
Split by ||| to get individual records Split each record by <<>> to get fields Fields are: id, subject, sender, to, cc, bcc, dateSent, isRead, content
Example parsing in bash:
IFS='|||' read -ra emails <<< "$output" for email in "${emails[@]}"; do IFS='<<>>' read -ra fields <<< "$email" id="${fields[0]}" subject="${fields[1]}" sender="${fields[2]}" # ... etc done
Notes Scripts require macOS with Apple Mail configured Apple Mail must have at least one account set up First run may trigger macOS permission prompts for automation Empty optional arguments should be passed as empty strings "" For scripts that need arrays (multiple recipients), pass comma-separated values Reference
For advanced AppleScript patterns and customization, see ./reference/applescript-patterns.md.