Himalaya Email CLI

Himalaya is a CLI email client that lets you manage emails from the terminal using IMAP, SMTP, Notmuch, or Sendmail backends.

References

references/configuration.md (config file setup + IMAP/SMTP authentication)
references/message-composition.md (MML syntax for composing emails)

Prerequisites

Himalaya CLI installed (himalaya --version to verify)
A configuration file at ~/.config/himalaya/config.toml
IMAP/SMTP credentials configured (password stored securely)

Configuration Setup

Run the interactive wizard to set up an account:

himalaya account configure

Or create ~/.config/himalaya/config.toml manually:

[accounts.personal]
email = "you@example.com"
display-name = "Your Name"
default = true

backend.type = "imap"
backend.host = "imap.example.com"
backend.port = 993
backend.encryption.type = "tls"
backend.login = "you@example.com"
backend.auth.type = "password"
backend.auth.cmd = "pass show email/imap"

message.send.backend.type = "smtp"
message.send.backend.host = "smtp.example.com"
message.send.backend.port = 587
message.send.backend.encryption.type = "start-tls"
message.send.backend.login = "you@example.com"
message.send.backend.auth.type = "password"
message.send.backend.auth.cmd = "pass show email/smtp"

Common Operations

List Folders

himalaya folder list

List Emails

himalaya envelope list
himalaya envelope list --folder "Sent"
himalaya envelope list --page 1 --page-size 20

Search Emails

himalaya envelope list from john@example.com subject meeting

Read an Email

himalaya message read 42
himalaya message export 42 --full

Reply/Forward

himalaya message reply 42
himalaya message reply 42 --all
himalaya message forward 42

Write a New Email

himalaya message write
himalaya message write -H "To:recipient@example.com" -H "Subject:Test" "Message body here"

Move/Copy/Delete

himalaya message move 42 "Archive"
himalaya message copy 42 "Important"
himalaya message delete 42

Flags

himalaya flag add 42 --flag seen
himalaya flag remove 42 --flag seen

Multiple Accounts

himalaya account list
himalaya --account work envelope list

Attachments

himalaya attachment download 42
himalaya attachment download 42 --dir ~/Downloads

Output Formats

himalaya envelope list --output json
himalaya envelope list --output plain

Tips

Use himalaya --help or himalaya <command> --help for detailed usage.
Message IDs are relative to the current folder; re-list after folder changes.
For composing rich emails with attachments, use MML syntax (see references/message-composition.md).
Store passwords securely using pass, system keyring, or a command that outputs the password.