email-ingest

name	email-ingest
description	Sync email via mbsync (IMAP) and index via notmuch. Run before email-analyzer queries or as part of data-sync. First-time setup requires ~/.mbsyncrc and notmuch database init — see SETUP.md.

Email Ingest

Pulls mail from IMAP servers via mbsync and indexes it with notmuch.

Invocation

cd .claude/skills/email-ingest
uv run ingest.py

Or called automatically by data-sync.

What It Does

1. Runs mbsync -a to sync all configured IMAP accounts
2. Runs notmuch new to index new messages into the notmuch database
3. Reports counts of new/updated messages
4. Logs activity to logs/activity.md

Prerequisites

• mbsync (from isync) installed: brew install isync
• notmuch installed: brew install notmuch
• ~/.mbsyncrc configured (see SETUP.md)
• notmuch database initialized (notmuch setup once)
• IMAP credentials in macOS Keychain or gpg-encrypted file

First-Time Setup

See SETUP.md for complete walkthrough:

1. Install mbsync + notmuch
2. Store IMAP credentials securely
3. Configure ~/.mbsyncrc with MaxMessages 1000 (limit initial sync)
4. Run notmuch setup (interactive)
5. Run notmuch new to index

Troubleshooting

• mbsync authentication fails → check keychain password / app password
• notmuch new finds 0 messages → verify Maildir path matches in both .mbsyncrc and ~/.notmuch-config
• Initial sync takes forever → set MaxMessages 1000 in .mbsyncrc to limit history

Philosophy

Email sync is a one-shot operation: pull, index, done. No streaming, no webhooks. Run it on a schedule (daily is plenty) via data-sync.