Inbox Zero

What is Inbox Zero about?

Inbox Zero provides an AI‑driven personal assistant combined with an open‑source email client. It connects to Gmail (and Outlook via Microsoft OAuth) and uses large language models to perform typical email tasks—drafting replies, categorizing messages, bulk unsubscribing, blocking cold emails, and generating activity analytics.

How to use Inbox Zero?

1. Deploy – Click the Vercel “Deploy with Vercel” button or clone the repository and run pnpm install followed by pnpm run dev (or turbo dev for the monorepo).
2. Configure environment – Copy apps/web/.env.example to apps/web/.env and fill in required secrets (AUTH_SECRET, Google/Microsoft OAuth credentials, LLM provider keys, Redis/Postgres URLs, etc.).
3. Run migrations – pnpm prisma migrate dev.
4. Start the app – pnpm run dev for development or pnpm run build && pnpm start for production.
5. Login – Use Google or Microsoft OAuth to link your mailbox.
6. Set up real‑time email push – Create a Google Pub/Sub topic, subscription, and set GOOGLE_PUBSUB_TOPIC_NAME and GOOGLE_PUBSUB_VERIFICATION_TOKEN.
7. Configure AI – Choose an LLM provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, etc.) in the Settings page or via environment variables.

Key features of Inbox Zero

• AI Personal Assistant – Executes any email action a human could, driven by a plain‑text prompt file.
• Reply Zero Tracker – Highlights emails awaiting your response and those you have replied to.
• Smart Categories – Automatically groups contacts and senders.
• Bulk Unsubscriber – One‑click removal from unwanted mailing lists.
• Cold Email Blocker – Filters out unsolicited outreach.
• Email Analytics – Daily, weekly, monthly stats on email volume and response time.
• Multi‑platform support – Works with Gmail and Outlook via OAuth.
• Self‑hostable – Dockerfile and compose files for private deployment.
• Extensible – Can call custom webhooks for bespoke automation.

Use cases of Inbox Zero

• Time‑saving email triage – Reduce manual sorting and replying.
• Automated newsletters management – Bulk unsubscribe from stale lists.
• Customer support – Auto‑draft replies based on context.
• Sales outreach monitoring – Block cold emails while preserving important leads.
• Personal productivity dashboards – Track email response metrics for performance reviews.

FAQ from the Inbox Zero community

Q: Which LLM providers are supported?
A: OpenAI, Anthropic (including Bedrock), Google Gemini, Groq, and local Ollama models. The provider is selectable in Settings.

Q: Do I need to run PostgreSQL and Redis myself?
A: Yes. You can use Upstash managed services or run local containers via docker‑compose up -d.

Q: Can I run the app entirely locally without cloud services?
A: You can host the web app locally, but Google Pub/Sub (or an equivalent push mechanism) is required for real‑time email watching. Without it, you must manually trigger /api/watch/all via cron.

Q: Is there a free tier?
A: The open‑source code is free. Premium features (e.g., unlimited AI calls) require an admin account flagged in .env (ADMINS=you@example.com).

Q: How do I add custom actions?
A: Define them in the prompt file used by the AI assistant or create webhooks and reference them in the prompt.

About

There are two parts to Inbox Zero:

1. An AI email assistant that helps you spend less time on email.
2. Open source AI email client.

If you're looking to contribute to the project, the email client is the best place to do this.

Features

• AI Personal Assistant: Manages your email for you based on a plain text prompt file. It can take any action a human assistant can take on your behalf (Draft reply, Label, Archive, Reply, Forward, Mark Spam, and even call a webhook).
• Reply Zero: Track emails that need your reply and those awaiting responses.
• Smart Categories: Categorize everyone that's ever emailed you.
• Bulk Unsubscriber: Quickly unsubscribe from emails you never read in one-click.
• Cold Email Blocker: Automatically block cold emails.
• Email Analytics: Track your email activity with daily, weekly, and monthly stats.

Learn more in our docs.

Feature Screenshots

AI Assistant	Reply Zero
Gmail client	Bulk Unsubscriber

Demo Video

Built with

• Next.js
• Tailwind CSS
• shadcn/ui
• Prisma
• Upstash
• Turborepo

Star History

Feature Requests

To request a feature open a GitHub issue, or join our Discord.

Getting Started for Developers

We offer a hosted version of Inbox Zero at https://getinboxzero.com. To self-host follow the steps below.

Setup

Here's a video on how to set up the project. It covers the same steps mentioned in this document. But goes into greater detail on setting up the external services.

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18.0.0
• pnpm >= 8.6.12
• Docker desktop (recommended but optional)

Make sure you have the above installed before starting.

The external services that are required are (detailed setup instructions below):

• Google OAuth
• Google PubSub

Updating .env file: secrets

Create your own .env file from the example supplied:

cp apps/web/.env.example apps/web/.env
cd apps/web
pnpm install

Set the environment variables in the newly created .env. You can see a list of required variables in: apps/web/env.ts.

The required environment variables:

• AUTH_SECRET -- can be any random string (try using openssl rand -hex 32 for a quick secure random string)

• EMAIL_ENCRYPT_SECRET -- Secret key for encrypting OAuth tokens (try using openssl rand -hex 32 for a secure key)

• EMAIL_ENCRYPT_SALT -- Salt for encrypting OAuth tokens (try using openssl rand -hex 16 for a secure salt)

• NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL -- The URL where your app is hosted (e.g., http://localhost:3000 for local development or https://yourdomain.com for production).

• INTERNAL_API_KEY -- A secret key for internal API calls (try using openssl rand -hex 32 for a secure key)

• UPSTASH_REDIS_URL -- Redis URL from Upstash. (can be empty if you are using Docker Compose)

• UPSTASH_REDIS_TOKEN -- Redis token from Upstash. (or specify your own random string if you are using Docker Compose)

When using Vercel with Fluid Compute turned off, you should set MAX_DURATION=300 or lower. See Vercel limits for different plans here.

Updating .env file with Google OAuth credentials:

• GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID -- Google OAuth client ID. More info here
• GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET -- Google OAuth client secret. More info here

Go to Google Cloud. Create a new project if necessary.

Create new credentials:

1. If the banner shows up, configure consent screen (if not, you can do this later)

   1. Click the banner, then Click Get Started.
   2. Choose a name for your app, and enter your email.
   3. In Audience, choose External
   4. Enter your contact information
   5. Agree to the User Data policy and then click Create.
   6. Return to APIs and Services using the left sidebar.

2. Create new credentials:

   1. Click the +Create Credentials button. Choose OAuth Client ID.
   2. In Application Type, Choose Web application
   3. Choose a name for your web client
   4. In Authorized JavaScript origins, add a URI and enter http://localhost:3000
   5. In Authorized redirect URIs enter:
   • http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/google
   • http://localhost:3000/api/google/linking/callback
   6. Click Create.
   7. A popup will show up with the new credentials, including the Client ID and secret.

3. Update .env file:

   1. Copy the Client ID to GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID
   2. Copy the Client secret to GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET

4. Update scopes

   1. Go to Data Access in the left sidebar (or click link above)
   2. Click Add or remove scopes
   3. Copy paste the below into the Manually add scopes box:

   https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.profile
   https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email
   https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.modify
   https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.basic
   https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts
   

   4. Click Update
   5. Click Save in the Data Access page.

5. Add yourself as a test user

   1. Go to Audience
   2. In the Test users section, click +Add users
   3. Enter your email and press Save

Updating .env file with Microsoft OAuth credentials:

• MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID -- Microsoft OAuth client ID
• MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET -- Microsoft OAuth client secret

Go to Microsoft Azure Portal. Create a new Azure Active Directory app registration:

1. Navigate to Azure Active Directory

2. Go to "App registrations" in the left sidebar or search it in the searchbar

3. Click "New registration"

   1. Choose a name for your application
   2. Under "Supported account types" select "Accounts in any organizational directory (Any Azure AD directory - Multitenant) and personal Microsoft accounts (e.g. Skype, Xbox)"
   3. Set the Redirect URI:
      • Platform: Web
      • URL: http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/microsoft
   4. Click "Register"
   5. In the "Manage" menu click "Authentication (Preview)"
   6. Add the Redirect URI: http://localhost:3000/api/outlook/linking/callback

4. Get your credentials:

   1. The "Application (client) ID" shown is your MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID
   2. To get your client secret:
      • Click "Certificates & secrets" in the left sidebar
      • Click "New client secret"
      • Add a description and choose an expiry
      • Click "Add"
      • Copy the secret Value (not the ID) - this is your MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET

5. Configure API permissions:

   1. In the "Manage" menu click "API permissions" in the left sidebar

   2. Click "Add a permission"

   3. Select "Microsoft Graph"

   4. Select "Delegated permissions"

   5. Add the following permissions:

      • openid
      • profile
      • email
      • User.Read
      • offline_access
      • Mail.ReadWrite
      • Mail.Send
      • Mail.ReadBasic
      • Mail.Read
      • Mail.Read.Shared
      • MailboxSettings.ReadWrite
      • Contacts.ReadWrite

   6. Click "Add permissions"

   7. Click "Grant admin consent" if you're an admin

6. Update your .env file with the credentials:

   MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id_here
   MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret_here
   

Updating .env file with LLM parameters

You need to set an LLM, but you can use a local one too:

• Anthropic
• OpenAI
• AWS Bedrock Anthropic
• Google Gemini
• Groq Llama 3.3 70B
• Ollama (local)

For the LLM, you can use Anthropic, OpenAI, or Anthropic on AWS Bedrock. You can also use Ollama by setting the following enviroment variables:

OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434/api
NEXT_PUBLIC_OLLAMA_MODEL=phi3

Note: If you need to access Ollama hosted locally and the application is running on Docker setup, you can use http://host.docker.internal:11434/api as the base URL. You might also need to set OLLAMA_HOST to 0.0.0.0 in the Ollama configuration file.

You can select the model you wish to use in the app on the /settings page of the app.

If you are using local ollama, you can set it to be default:

DEFAULT_LLM_PROVIDER=ollama

If this is the case you must also set the ECONOMY_LLM_PROVIDER environment variable.

Redis and Postgres

We use Postgres for the database. For Redis, you can use Upstash Redis or set up your own Redis instance.

You can run Postgres & Redis locally using docker-compose

docker-compose up -d # -d will run the services in the background

Running the app

To run the migrations:

pnpm prisma migrate dev

To run the app locally for development (slower):

pnpm run dev

Or from the project root:

turbo dev

To build and run the app locally in production mode (faster):

pnpm run build
pnpm start

Open http://localhost:3000 to view the app in your browser.

Premium

Many features are available only to premium users. To upgrade yourself, make yourself an admin in the .env: ADMINS=hello@gmail.com Then upgrade yourself at: http://localhost:3000/admin.

Set up push notifications via Google PubSub to handle emails in real time

Follow instructions here.

1. Create a topic
2. Create a subscription
3. Grant publish rights on your topic

Set env var GOOGLE_PUBSUB_TOPIC_NAME. When creating the subscription select Push and the url should look something like: https://www.getinboxzero.com/api/google/webhook?token=TOKEN or https://abc.ngrok-free.app/api/google/webhook?token=TOKEN where the domain is your domain. Set GOOGLE_PUBSUB_VERIFICATION_TOKEN in your .env file to be the value of TOKEN.

To run in development ngrok can be helpful:

ngrok http 3000
# or with an ngrok domain to keep your endpoint stable (set `XYZ`):
ngrok http --domain=XYZ.ngrok-free.app 3000

And then update the webhook endpoint in the Google PubSub subscriptions dashboard.

To start watching emails visit: /api/watch/all

Watching for email updates

Set a cron job to run these: The Google watch is necessary. Others are optional.

  "crons": [
    {
      "path": "/api/watch/all",
      "schedule": "0 1 * * *"
    },
    {
      "path": "/api/resend/summary/all",
      "schedule": "0 16 * * 1"
    },
    {
      "path": "/api/reply-tracker/disable-unused-auto-draft",
      "schedule": "0 3 * * *"
    }
  ]

Here are some easy ways to run cron jobs. Upstash is a free, easy option. I could never get the Vercel vercel.json. Open to PRs if you find a fix for that.

Docker Build Instructions

When building the Docker image, you must specify your NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL as a build argument. This is because Next.js embeds NEXT_PUBLIC_* variables at build time, not runtime.

Building the Docker image

# For production with your custom domain
docker build \
  --build-arg NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL="https://your-domain.com" \
  -t inbox-zero \
  -f docker/Dockerfile.prod .

# For local development (default)
docker build -t inbox-zero -f docker/Dockerfile.prod .

Running the container

After building, run the container with your runtime secrets:

docker run -p 3000:3000 \
  -e DATABASE_URL="your-database-url" \
  -e AUTH_SECRET="your-auth-secret" \
  -e GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID="your-google-client-id" \
  -e GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET="your-google-client-secret" \
  # ... other runtime environment variables
  inbox-zero

Important: If you need to change NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL, you must rebuild the Docker image. It cannot be changed at runtime.

For more detailed Docker build instructions and security considerations, see docker/DOCKER_BUILD_GUIDE.md.

Contributing to the project

You can view open tasks in our GitHub Issues. Join our Discord to discuss tasks and check what's being worked on.

ARCHITECTURE.md explains the architecture of the project (LLM generated).