Surface CLI#

Surface is a local-first mail CLI for Gmail, Outlook, and generic IMAP/SMTP. It is especially useful for Outlook school or work accounts that only work through the web UI, and for mail providers such as GMX that expose standard IMAP and SMTP settings. Surface prints machine-readable JSON to stdout and stores local state in ~/.surface-cli.

Use This Skill When#

• the user wants to read or triage email from Gmail, Outlook, or an IMAP mailbox
• the user needs a provider-neutral CLI for search, unread fetch, read, attachments, or actions
• you need stable thread_ref / message_ref values for follow-up commands or thread watching

Prerequisites#

1. Surface CLI installed ( surface --help should work)
2. At least one configured account
3. Valid auth for the target account

Check setup:

bash

surface account list
surface auth status
surface auth check --remembered-only --due-only

If the user asks to install the Surface skill for another agent on the same machine, use:

bash

surface skill install codex
surface skill install claude-code
surface skill install all

Account Setup#

Add an account:

bash

surface account add personal_2 --provider gmail --email you@example.com
surface account add uni --provider outlook --email you@example.com
surface account add gmx --provider imap --email you@gmx.com

For reliable summary.needs_action, Surface should know who the account owner is. Gmail auth can verify the mailbox email automatically; Outlook may need explicit human identifiers:

bash

surface account identity set uni --email you@example.com --name "Your Name" --name-alias "FirstName"
surface account identity show uni

Log in:

bash

surface auth login personal_2
surface auth login uni
surface auth login gmx \
  --username you@gmx.com \
  --password "$SURFACE_GMX_PASSWORD"

Use surface auth login <account> --remember-me when local automation should keep checking that account for stale auth. This records remembered-auth account names and check cadence in remembered-auth.json under the Surface state root; local login also updates the project .env marker for compatibility. Raw provider tokens, Outlook profile cookies, and IMAP passwords remain in Surface auth storage. Surface only auto-loads compatibility remembered-auth metadata and SURFACE_CACHE_DIR from project .env; write-safety and summarizer settings still come from the process environment or config.toml. Use surface auth check --remembered-only --due-only from scheduled or watcher workflows.

For remote auth, use surface auth login <account> --remote-host <host> --remember-me so the remembered-auth marker is written to the remote Surface state root after auth succeeds. No remote project directory is required.

For GMX and similar providers, make sure IMAP/POP3 access is enabled in the provider web settings before logging in. Generic IMAP login does not need a Google Cloud project, OAuth client JSON, Microsoft Graph app registration, or a browser session. Surface can infer server settings for supported domains such as gmx.com and gmx.net; custom IMAP providers still require the explicit --imap-* and --smtp-* flags. Generic IMAP does not run browser 2FA or OAuth consent. If the provider rejects the normal mailbox password after 2FA is enabled, use an app-specific password when one is available. --password <password> is supported and treats the flag value as the password directly, but prefer --password-env, --password-file, or --password-command because direct CLI passwords can leak through shell history, process listings, terminal logs, or agent transcripts. Do not ask the user to paste mailbox passwords into chat or store them in the repo.

Local policy lives in:

text

~/.surface-cli/config.toml

Important local knobs:

• summarizer_backend
• summarizer_model
• writes_enabled
• send_mode
• test_recipients
• test_account_allowlist

Summarization is opt-in and controlled by the user's local config. Do not change summarizer_backend, summarizer_model, or related environment variables unless the user explicitly asks. If an external summarizer backend is enabled, email thread content may be sent to the configured model provider; confirm the user accepts that privacy tradeoff before enabling or changing summarization.

Common Operations#

List Accounts#

bash

surface account list
surface auth status
surface auth status personal_2

Fetch Unread Threads#

bash

surface mail fetch-unread --account uni --limit 10
surface mail fetch-unread --account personal_2 --limit 20
surface mail fetch-unread --account uni --session sess_01... --limit 10

Search Mail#

bash

surface mail search --account uni --text "invoice" --limit 10
surface mail search --account uni --from registrar@school.edu --subject "waitlist" --limit 10
surface mail search --account uni --session sess_01... --from registrar@school.edu --limit 10
surface mail search --account personal_2 --mailbox inbox --label unread --text "sale" --limit 10
surface mail search --account personal_2 --text "has:attachment newer_than:30d" --limit 5
surface mail search --account gmx --mailbox inbox --limit 10

List Sent Messages#

bash

surface mail sent --account uni
surface mail sent --account uni --recipient person@example.com --limit 10
surface mail sent --account uni --thread thr_01... --limit 10
surface mail sent --account uni --session sess_01... --recipient person@example.com --limit 10
surface mail sent --account personal_2 --limit 10

sent is message-first. Its default limit is the last 10 sent messages, not threads. Each returned message includes message_ref and thread_ref; use surface mail thread get <thread_ref> --refresh when you need the full conversation around a sent message.

Use --thread <thread_ref> when you already know the conversation and need only the user's sent messages in that thread for style or consistency. --thread may be combined with --recipient.

Watching Threads And Topics#

Surface is the polling primitive, not the scheduler or delivery transport. If the user asks to watch mail, use the surrounding automation system to rerun Surface commands and surface updates to the user-requested destination.

• For a specific thread watch, persist the account, thread_ref, and the newest known message/timestamp. On each check, rerun surface mail thread get <thread_ref> --refresh and notify only when the newest message state changes.
• For a topic watch, establish a baseline with search, then use periodic fetch-unread checks to catch new inbox arrivals and targeted search checks when the topic has clear --from, --subject, --mailbox, --label, or --text filters.
• Do not assume a delivery target. Return updates through the current agent conversation or the explicit destination the user asked for.
• Reasonable starting cadences are: 5-10 minutes for one active thread, 30-60 minutes for a narrow topic watch, and 2-4 hours for inbox digests. Avoid sub-5-minute polling unless the user explicitly asks for it.
• For Outlook-heavy polling, keep concurrency modest and prefer one warm session per parallel worker if several live checks will run close together.

Warm Sessions#

bash

surface session start --account uni
surface session list
surface session stop sess_01...

Parallel Read Guidance#

Read-only commands may be run in parallel. Live probes passed for:

• two Gmail searches on the same account
• two cold Outlook searches on the same account
• Gmail and Outlook searches at the same time
• two separate Outlook warm sessions searched at the same time
• two searches sharing one Outlook warm session

For Outlook, keep concurrency modest because each cold command or warm session uses browser resources. If planning multiple concurrent Outlook operations, prefer one warm session per parallel worker. Reusing the same --session concurrently works in the tested case but can be slower due to contention.

Read One Thread#

bash

surface mail thread get thr_01...
surface mail thread get thr_01... --refresh
surface mail thread get thr_01... --refresh --session sess_01...

Read One Message#

bash

surface mail read msg_01...
surface mail read msg_01... --refresh
surface mail read msg_01... --refresh --session sess_01...
surface mail read msg_01... --mark-read

Attachments#

bash

surface attachment list msg_01...
surface attachment download msg_01... att_01...

Compose And Send#

bash

surface mail send --account personal_2 --to recipient@example.com --subject "Hello" --body "Test"
surface mail send --account personal_2 --to recipient@example.com --subject "Hello" --body "Test" --attach ./briefing.txt
surface mail send --account personal_2 --to recipient@example.com --subject "Hello" --body "Test" --draft
surface mail reply msg_01... --body "Thanks"
surface mail reply msg_01... --body "Thanks" --draft
surface mail reply-all msg_01... --body "Thanks everyone"
surface mail forward msg_01... --to recipient@example.com --body "FYI"

Mailbox Actions#

bash

surface mail archive msg_01...                  # IMAP requires an Archive/All Mail mailbox
surface mail mark-read msg_01...
surface mail mark-unread msg_01...
surface mail rsvp msg_01... --response accept   # Gmail/Outlook only; IMAP returns unsupported

Workflow#

1. Start with surface account list if the target account is unclear.
2. Use surface auth status before assuming a provider is ready, or surface auth check --remembered-only --due-only for scheduled stale-auth monitoring.
3. Use surface account identity show <account> if summary.needs_action looks wrong; add --name-alias or --email-alias with surface account identity set when the mailbox address alone is not enough to identify the user in message bodies.
4. For triage, prefer fetch-unread or search and inspect the returned thread/message refs.
5. For style matching before drafting, run surface mail sent --account <account> --recipient <email> --limit 3 and use the returned sent messages as tone/context. When replying in an existing thread, prefer surface mail sent --account <account> --thread <thread_ref> --limit 3; use recipient matching as fallback if the thread has no sent examples.
6. If you expect several live Outlook reads in a row, start a warm session first and reuse its session_id.
7. For a thread watch, use surface mail thread get <thread_ref> --refresh and compare the newest message state against the stored prior observation before notifying.
8. For a topic watch, start with search to set the baseline, then use fetch-unread for new inbox arrivals plus targeted search when the watch has narrow filters.
9. Read only the messages you need with surface mail read <message_ref>.
10. For passive watching, do not mutate read state. If the user explicitly asks you to triage unread mail and write safety is enabled, marking handled messages read after reporting is acceptable unless the user asks to keep them unread.
11. Act using refs from Surface output. Do not rely on array positions from previous JSON.

Important Rules#

• Surface outputs JSON on stdout. Parse it instead of scraping terminal text.
• Use message_ref and thread_ref for follow-up commands.
• search accepts structured filters for sender, subject, mailbox, and labels in addition to raw --text.
• session start is the explicit opt-in path for warm Outlook read sessions. In v1, --session is supported on search, fetch-unread, thread get --refresh, and read.
• thread get --refresh is the thread-level live refresh path for automations that watch a specific conversation.
• read is cache-first by default. Use --refresh when you need live provider state.
• the first session-backed Outlook query still pays mailbox setup cost; the main win is faster follow-on live reads in the same mailbox session
• read does not download attachments. Use surface attachment download.
• Generic IMAP reads raw MIME directly and does not need webmail "show images" or "trust sender" UI. Remote images are not fetched; message body text, links, and MIME attachments still work.
• fetch-unread and search do not mutate mailbox state.
• passive watching should stay read-only; do not mark watched mail read unless the user explicitly asks
• if the user asks for unread triage rather than passive watching, mark-read or read --mark-read is acceptable only after reporting and only when local write safety allows it
• watcher notifications should go to the user-requested destination; do not invent a session, channel, or DM target
• --draft is the safe compose path when you do not need to send immediately.
• direct mail send accepts repeatable --attach <path> flags; result JSON exposes attachment metadata only, not local paths or file bytes

Provider Notes#

• Gmail and Outlook both support read, search, unread fetch, attachments, send with --attach, reply/reply-all/forward, archive, mark-read, mark-unread, RSVP, and --draft.
• Generic IMAP/SMTP supports read, search, unread fetch, attachments, sent lookup, send with --attach, reply/reply-all/forward, drafts, mark-read, and mark-unread. Archive works only when the account exposes an Archive or All Mail style mailbox. RSVP is not supported for generic IMAP.
• Generic IMAP does not expose a reliable cross-folder conversation ID. Replies return the created Sent or Draft refs and include in_reply_to_message_ref; use sent --recipient or sent --thread for sent-message lookup.
• Gmail RSVP requires Google Calendar API access on the authenticated account. If RSVP returns a reauth error, re-run surface auth login <account>.

Safety#

• Respect local write-safety policy from ~/.surface-cli/config.toml and any SURFACE_* env vars.
• Do not send mail unless write safety is enabled locally.
• Prefer the configured sink recipients from local config; do not invent recipients.
• For send-like tests, use --draft unless the task explicitly requires a live send.
• When testing live sends, only send to recipients already configured locally for safe testing.

Examples#

bash

surface account list
surface auth status
surface auth check --remembered-only --due-only
surface auth status gmx
surface session start --account uni
surface mail fetch-unread --account uni --limit 10
surface mail search --account gmx --mailbox inbox --limit 5
surface mail fetch-unread --account uni --session sess_01... --limit 10
surface mail search --account personal_2 --from alerts@example.com --subject 'discount' --mailbox inbox --label unread --limit 5
surface mail thread get thr_01... --refresh --session sess_01...
surface mail read msg_01... --refresh --session sess_01...
surface mail read msg_01... --mark-read
surface attachment list msg_01...
surface attachment download msg_01... att_01...
surface mail reply msg_01... --body 'Thanks' --draft
surface mail archive msg_01...