Paw Mail Usage

Paw Mail CLI

The CLI is distributed as pre-built binaries via the paw-mail-cli repository. It must be installed before use.

Installation

# Nix (recommended)
nix profile install 'github:pawpair/paw-mail-cli?dir=nix#paw-mail'

# Homebrew (macOS / Linux)
brew tap pawpair/paw-mail-cli && brew install paw-mail

# Arch Linux (AUR)
yay -S paw-mail-bin

# Debian / Ubuntu — download .deb from latest release
# https://github.com/pawpair/paw-mail-cli/releases/latest
sudo dpkg -i paw-mail_*_amd64.deb

Binaries

Binary	Description
paw-mail	Unified CLI + TUI (recommended)
paw-mail-tui	Terminal user interface only

All examples below use paw-mail. The TUI can be launched with paw-mail-tui or paw-mail tui.

Global Flags

These flags go before the subcommand:

Flag	Env Var	Description
--server <url>	MAIL_SERVER	gRPC backend address
--format <table|json>	—	Output format (default: table)
--auth-backend <auto|keyring|file>	MAIL_AUTH_BACKEND	Token storage backend
-v, --verbose	—	Enable debug logging

Subcommands

Config

paw-mail config refresh  # Fetch remote config and cache locally
paw-mail config show     # Show current config values

Config is cached locally at ~/.local/pawpair/config.json (or ~/.pawpair/config.json). First run bootstraps automatically from the remote config service.

Auth

paw-mail auth login      # OAuth device flow login
paw-mail auth status     # Show auth state + backend
paw-mail auth logout     # Clear stored tokens

Accounts

paw-mail accounts list
paw-mail accounts get --provider <google|microsoft>
paw-mail accounts add --email <e> --provider <google|microsoft>  # Opens browser for OAuth
paw-mail accounts delete --provider <google|microsoft>
paw-mail accounts activate --id <uuid>
paw-mail accounts deactivate --id <uuid>
paw-mail accounts oauth-clients            # List user OAuth clients
paw-mail accounts oauth-clients --system   # List system OAuth clients

Emails

paw-mail emails folders --provider <p> --email <e>
paw-mail emails list --provider <p> --email <e> --folder INBOX [--limit 50]
paw-mail emails fetch --provider <p> --email <e> --folder INBOX --uid <n>
paw-mail emails body --provider <p> --email <e> --folder INBOX --uid <n>
paw-mail emails search --provider <p> --email <e> --folder INBOX --query <q>
paw-mail emails read --provider <p> --email <e> --folder INBOX --uid <n>
paw-mail emails unread --provider <p> --email <e> --folder INBOX --uid <n>
paw-mail emails flag --provider <p> --email <e> --folder INBOX --uid <n> [--unflag]
paw-mail emails move --provider <p> --email <e> --folder INBOX --uid <n> --destination Trash
paw-mail emails delete --provider <p> --email <e> --folder INBOX --uid <n>

Sync

paw-mail sync status --account-id <id>
paw-mail sync trigger --account-id <id>
paw-mail sync history --account-id <id>

Threads

paw-mail threads list --account-id <id>
paw-mail threads get --thread-id <id> --account-id <id>

Auth Backends

# Auto-detect (default) — tries keyring, falls back to file
paw-mail auth status

# Force file-based storage
paw-mail --auth-backend file auth status

# Force keyring (errors if unavailable)
paw-mail --auth-backend keyring auth status

# Verbose to see backend selection
paw-mail -v auth status

Common Issues

• command not found: paw-mail — The CLI is not installed. See Installation above.
• Keyring write failed: locked collection — GNOME Keyring is locked. Use --auth-backend file or unlock your keyring.
• Could not open browser — Headless/SSH session. Copy the printed URL manually.