Recipes

These use jq to read fob-email's JSON. Each recipe works on one account; add --account <name> to the commands to choose another.

Download every invoice from a sender#

mkdir -p invoices
fob-email emails search --from [email protected] --since 2026-09-01 --json \
  | jq -r '.[] | select(.hasAttachment) | .id' \
  | while read -r id; do
      fob-email emails download "$id" -o invoices
    done

Attachments with the same file name overwrite each other. To keep them apart, download each message into its own folder: -o "invoices/$id".

File messages into a folder#

fob-email folders create Statements          # once
fob-email emails search --subject "statement" --json \
  | jq -r '.[].id' \
  | while read -r id; do
      fob-email emails move "$id" --to Statements
    done

Every move happens straight away. Run the search on its own first and check the list.

Unread messages with attachments#

fob-email emails list --limit 200 --json \
  | fob-email emails filter --unseen --has-attachment \
  | jq -r '.[] | "\(.id)\t\(.from.addr)\t\(.subject)"'

Export the inbox to CSV#

fob-email emails list --limit 500 --json \
  | jq -r '["id","date","from","subject"], (.[] | [.id, .date, .from.addr, .subject]) | @csv' \
  > inbox.csv

Who emails you most#

fob-email emails list --limit 500 --json \
  | jq -r 'group_by(.from.addr) | map({from: .[0].from.addr, count: length}) | sort_by(-.count) | .[:10][] | "\(.count)\t\(.from)"'

Send a report with attachments#

fob-email emails send --to [email protected] \
  --subject "Invoices received, week $(date +%V)" \
  --body-file summary.txt \
  --attach invoices/INV-2291.pdf --attach invoices/INV-2304.pdf

Fast repeated searches from the local copy#

fob-email sync run --all-folders --limit 5000     # once, then again whenever you want fresh data
fob-email emails search --cached --from aws --since 2026-01-01
fob-email emails search --cached --subject receipt --folder Archive

See Local sync.