Sarv Inbox

A source-available, privacy-first email client with AI-powered features — semantic search, smart labeling, and a conversation view that turns long threads into a readable chat. Your mail is stored on your device, encrypted, and Sarv runs no server that keeps a copy; the privacy policy lists everything the app sends and where.

_{Sample data — the screenshot is generated by scripts/generate-screenshot.mjs, never captured from a real mailbox.}

Free to use and modify, including commercially, for yourself or your organisation. Selling it, hosting it for others, bundling it into your own product, or removing the Sarv branding needs our written permission — see License.

Features

• IMAP sync — connect any IMAP/SMTP account, with OAuth for Gmail and Sarv.
• Local-first storage — all mail lives in a local SQLite database.
• Thread & conversation view — automatic threading plus an AI-extracted, chat-style reading mode for deep Outlook/Gmail quote chains.
• Fast search — full-text (SQLite FTS5) and AI-powered semantic search.
• Smart categorization — AI labels (Important, Needs Response, Meetings, Invoices, …) with a customizable, section-based inbox.
• Privacy-first — mail is stored encrypted on your device, message text reaches an AI provider only once you connect one, and TLS verification is on by default.
• Cross-platform — macOS, Windows and Linux (Electron).

Getting started

Prerequisites

• Node.js ≥ 22 — the repo pins a version in .nvmrc (nvm use). better-sqlite3 ships prebuilds for 22 and 24.
• pnpm ≥ 8 — easiest via Corepack (bundled with Node).

Quick start (fresh clone)

git clone https://github.com/Sarv/Inbox.git
cd Inbox

# Use the pinned toolchain
nvm use                                              # reads .nvmrc
corepack enable && corepack prepare pnpm@8.15.0 --activate

# Install (postinstall rebuilds native deps for Electron's ABI)
pnpm install

# Configure OAuth client IDs / LLM endpoints (all optional)
cp .env.example .env        # then edit — see OAUTH_SETUP.md / SARV_OAUTH_SETUP.md

# Run the desktop app
pnpm dev:desktop

pnpm dev:desktop builds core + storage-node, then launches Vite + Electron.

Don't run pnpm build to start the app — that runs electron-builder to package a distributable and needs the signing assets under apps/desktop/build/. For day-to-day work use pnpm dev:desktop.

Configuration

Secrets are never baked into source — supply them via environment variables (loaded from a gitignored .env in dev). See .env.example for the full list, and:

• OAUTH_SETUP.md — Gmail / Google Workspace OAuth
• SARV_OAUTH_SETUP.md — Sarv OAuth (mailbox + LLM)

Providers you don't configure are simply hidden in the UI.

Development

pnpm dev:core       # watch-build the core package
pnpm type-check     # TypeScript across all packages
pnpm lint           # ESLint
pnpm test           # tests
pnpm format         # Prettier

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full workflow, conventions, and commit format.

After changing packages/core, restart pnpm dev:desktop — the Electron main process loads the built core and won't pick up new exports until it re-launches.

Architecture

pnpm + Turborepo monorepo.

packages/
  core/            Platform-agnostic business logic (IMAP/SMTP, AI, OAuth, utils)
  storage-node/    Desktop SQLite (better-sqlite3)
  storage-mobile/  The same storage contract on op-sqlite, for a future mobile app
  ui-shared/       Shared React hooks and logic
  ui-primitives/   Platform-specific UI wrappers
apps/
  desktop/         Electron + React + Vite

Stack: TypeScript · Electron · React · Vite · Tailwind · Zustand · SQLite (FTS5 + vector search) · OpenAI-compatible LLM/embeddings.

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for a deeper tour of the processes, data flow, and core subsystems.

The mail-security rules — SPF/DKIM/DMARC reading, display-name impersonation, the header-stage spam score, deceptive links and the security levels — are maintained as a separate open-source library, @sarv-in/mailguard. See docs/mailguard.md for what stayed behind and how to switch the dependency between the local checkout and the registry.

Extensions

Sarv Inbox loads extensions from a folder: a manifest, a bundled entry point, and a list of permissions the user sees before installing. They are published to their own repository, Sarv/SarvInbox-extensions, and installed from Settings → Extensions → Browse: the app reads that registry over HTTPS, shows you exactly what an extension can do, and refuses the download unless it hashes to the SHA-256 the registry pinned. Three are published today — one-time passcodes, VIP scoring, and thread summarization — and the build decides which of them a new profile starts with in apps/desktop/extensions.config.json.

The optional ClamAV Scan extension is maintained here in extensions/clamav-scan, with its desktop setup and SDK integration. Install that folder through Extensions → Install from folder. Its authenticated scan server and Docker configuration live in the separate Inbox-av-server repository. See ClamAV setup.

Write your own against @sarvinbox/extension-sdk. docs/EXTENSIONS.md covers the host side — the manifest, the permission model, the workflow contract, the SDK, and how an install is verified — and the extensions repository's README covers scaffolding, publishing a release, and running a registry of your own.

Design principles

1. Privacy first — mail is stored on the device; optional AI processing and remote antivirus scans require explicit user authorization.
2. AI suggests, doesn't act silently — deterministic, explainable behavior.
3. Fail safe — the email client works even if AI is unavailable.
4. Reuse over duplication — shared logic lives in packages/core.

Debug logging

In dev only, the desktop main-process console is also written to a rolling app.log (20 MB cap, oldest-half dropped on overflow) in the app's userData directory. The dev build uses its own directory, Sarv Inbox Dev, so it never mixes with an installed release:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Sarv Inbox Dev/app.log
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Sarv Inbox Dev\app.log
• Linux: ~/.config/Sarv Inbox Dev/app.log

tail -f "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Sarv Inbox Dev/app.log"   # macOS
pnpm clean:logs     # clear logs only, on every platform (leaves DB/credentials)

It's covered by *.log in .gitignore, so it's never committed.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md and our Code of Conduct. Notable changes are recorded in CHANGELOG.md.

Maintainers: docs/RELEASING.md covers cutting a release and docs/GITHUB-SETUP.md the repository's access rules.

Security

Found a vulnerability? Do not open a public issue — see SECURITY.md for private disclosure.

License

Sarv Community License, Version 1.0 © 2026 Sarv Webs Private Limited and Sarv Inbox contributors.

This is a source-available (fair-code) licence, not an OSI-approved open-source licence — we do not call it open source, because it is not.

Always allowed, no permission needed

• Use it for anything, including your own commercial work, at any scale
• Self-host it for your organisation, with no user limit and no fee
• Read, modify and study the source
• Redistribute it free of charge, with the Sarv branding intact, publishing the source of any changes you made

Needs our written consent

• Selling it, or charging any fee for it or a modified version
• Offering it to third parties as a hosted, managed or white-label service
• Bundling or embedding it in a product or service you supply to others
• Rebranding it, or removing/altering the Sarv name, logos and notices

Questions answered in docs/LICENSING-FAQ.md. Commercial, OEM, hosting and white-label licences: licensing@sarv.com — we grant them, and they can include the branding rights the community licence withholds.

Trademarks

The Sarv name and the Sarv / Sarv Inbox logos are trademarks of Sarv Webs Private Limited and are not licensed with the code. The licence requires you to keep them on copies you pass on; it does not let you use them to name or promote anything of your own, or to present a modified build as official. See TRADEMARKS.md.

Third-party components

Dependencies keep their own licences (mostly MIT and Apache-2.0; ical.js is MPL-2.0) — see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.