Product help
Help & documentation
Guides for getting started (any-email beta signup), the mail client, search, tags and retention, Important / WORM Vault, rolling auto-archive, passkeys, contacts, mailing lists, drafts and templates, delete rules, auto-forward, Vault, calendar drafts, spam filtering, beta feedback, installable PWA, and account settings.
Tip. Inside the mail client, open Help in the top menu for shortcuts and deep links into these guides. Feature-rich workflows (tags, retention, Vault, calendar) are documented here so you do not have to leave the product for a separate site.
Getting started (beta)
Open in app →Create an account with any email, verify it, then connect a mailbox.
Account vs mailbox
Your InboxDays login (Keycloak) is separate from the mailboxes you sync. Sign up with any personal or work email — you do not need Google or Microsoft 365 to create an account.
After you verify your email and sign in, the client asks you to connect a mailbox. Until then you can open Settings, but there is no mail to triage.
Sign up with email
On /signup, choose Continue with email (recommended for beta). Accept the Beta Programme Terms, then complete registration on the Keycloak form (email + password).
We email a verification link from noreply@app.inboxdays.com. Check spam if it does not arrive within a few minutes.
Optional Continue with Google / Microsoft buttons only work when those identity providers are configured in Keycloak. If they fail, use email signup — you can still connect Gmail or Microsoft 365 as a mailbox later.
Connect a mailbox
In Settings → Add account, choose Gmail or Microsoft 365 (OAuth), Apple iCloud, or IMAP (Fastmail, personal domain, etc.).
On a Mac, use Import from Mac Internet Accounts… to pick the same account type you already have under System Settings → Internet Accounts (iCloud, Google, Microsoft, or other IMAP). Apple does not allow apps to read those passwords — iCloud uses an app-specific password; Google/Microsoft use OAuth.
IMAP needs your provider’s IMAP/SMTP host and an app password when the provider requires one (common for iCloud and Fastmail).
You may connect several mailboxes to one InboxDays login.
- From the empty client banner, Connect mailbox opens Settings with the add-account dialog.
- Passkeys and authenticator apps are optional under Settings → Security & MFA after your first login.
Mail client
Open in app →Unified multipane inbox across connected accounts.
Layout
The mail client shows accounts on the left, a message list in the middle, and a reading pane on the right (on smaller screens these stack as panes).
Use All mail, Important, or a single account mailbox. Folders such as Spam and Trash follow the selected mailbox.
Double-click a message to open it in a separate window. Right-click a list row or the reading pane for actions (reply, reply to all, forward, tags, spam, Vault, delete, and more).
- Keyboard: n new · r reply · a reply to all · f forward · d / ⌫ delete · / or ⌘/Ctrl+F search · j/k or ↓/↑ next/previous · Esc close reading pane
- View menu filters: All mail, To Read, Important, Spam, Scheduled for deletion, Bin
Context menu
Right-click a message for Open, Pop out, Mark read/unread, Important, Always important from this sender…, Mark as spam / Not spam, Reply, Reply to all, Forward, Forward via Vault, Tags, Auto-tag sender for retention…, Auto-forward from this sender…, Auto-delete from this sender…, and Delete….
Forward copies downloadable files (PDFs, docs) from the original message into compose. Inline images stay in the quoted body. Vault forwards send a link only and do not include files.
Auto-delete from this sender opens the delete dialog prefilled for a sender-wide scheduled rule (all future read mail from that address).
Auto-tag sender for retention creates or applies a TTL retention tag and an auto-tagging rule for that sender.
Auto-forward from this sender opens Auto-forward prefilled with that address and invoice/receipt keywords, so copies can go to your accountant.
Inbox tag filters
When Search is closed, use the Tags control above the list to filter loaded mail by one or more tags.
Choose Match all (AND) or Match any (OR), then select tags. Clear removes the filter.
This list filter is separate from Search’s optional single-tag filter and from auto-tagging rule conditions.
Sync and refresh
Click Get (or Messages → Get messages) to refresh the selected mailbox from the provider.
Use Resync (top bar on desktop, Messages menu, command palette, or the phone drawer) when InboxDays is behind another client such as Apple Mail or Airmail. That waits for a full metadata pull (IMAP/iCloud included) then reloads the list.
Background sync keeps metadata current; full bodies load when you open a message.
Search mail
Open in app →Search synced message metadata across your accounts.
Open search
Click Search in the top bar, choose Edit → Search mail, or press / or ⌘/Ctrl+F (⌘/Ctrl+K also opens search).
Type a query to search subject, sender, and snippet across synced mail metadata — not only the messages currently loaded in the list.
Filters
Optionally restrict results to a single tag.
Enable Include trash and spam-tagged mail for a deeper search.
Results replace the inbox list while search is active. Clear the query or close search to return to the normal list.
- Search uses the server endpoint POST /v1/mail-search against cached metadata.
- While search is open, the multi-select inbox tag filter is cleared so search owns filtering.
Contacts from signatures
Open in app →Review extracted signature contacts before saving them to an address book.
Pending contacts
When InboxDays finds contact details in a message signature, it may create a pending contact candidate.
Marking a message Important (star), or Always important from this sender…, immediately creates a candidate for that sender — and for other senders on the same thread — including phone number and postal address when they appear in the email.
Opening any message that is Important or shares a thread with Important mail also prioritizes harvesting that sender.
Candidates are skipped when the address already exists in your address book or provider contacts, was dismissed recently, or looks like a business/marketing/role mailbox (for example info@ or newsletter@). Unclear cases may be classified with AI (Important senders skip the “not a person” classifier).
Those skip decisions are cached for about one month so rejected or non-person addresses are not re-suggested forever.
Open the contacts drawer from the mail client (next to calendar pending items) to review candidates.
Edit name, email, phone, job title, company, or address before confirming.
Confirm or dismiss
Confirm writes the contact to Google or Microsoft contacts when that mailbox is connected, and remembers the address as already saved for about one month.
Dismiss drops the candidate without saving and suppresses that address for about one month.
In Settings → Contact address book routing, choose whether new contacts save to the recipient mailbox’s book or always to a specific Gmail/M365 account. IMAP-only accounts cannot be destination address books.
Delete rules
Open in app →Schedule deletes by sender and subject, or delete matching mail now.
From a message
Delete… opens a dialog with Delete now, or Schedule delete: after a number of days/weeks/months (once read), or received on or after a calendar date (bulk purge from a sender).
Choose scope: this message only, same sender and subject, or all mail from this sender. Date-based rules require sender or subject scope.
Right-click → Auto-delete from this sender… prefills a sender-wide scheduled rule (default 1 month; empty subject = every message from that address once it has been read).
Manage rules
Open Delete rules from the top bar or sidebar to list and review scheduled rules.
You can Disable a rule from that page (rules are not permanently deleted from the UI).
Scheduled-for-deletion items also appear under View → Scheduled for deletion.
Auto-forward invoices
Open in app →Forward matching mail (invoices, receipts) to your accountant and see that it happened.
Create a rule
Open Auto-forward from the top bar, sidebar, Settings, or right-click a message → Auto-forward from this sender…
Match on From contains (for example xero.com or stripe.com), Subject contains, and/or keywords such as invoice, receipt, statement. All filled filters must match; keywords match any one of the words in subject, from, or snippet.
Enter one or more accountant addresses in Forward to. Look back (default 14 days) limits how far back a new rule will send, so enabling it does not forward years of history.
- Gmail and Microsoft 365 mailboxes can auto-forward, including attachments (up to 8 files / 12MB). PDFs are included even when marked inline. IMAP accounts are skipped.
- Click Run now after saving to process recent matching mail immediately.
Know that it happened
Every attempt is written to the Activity log on the Auto-forward page (sent or failed, who it went to, and whether you were notified).
Leave Notify me on to receive a short receipt in your own mailbox after each successful forward.
The same message is not forwarded twice for the same rule.
Vault encrypted send
Open in app →Zero-knowledge secure links: ciphertext is encrypted in the browser before upload.
How to send
Click Vault in the top bar, or Messages → New Vault encrypted send, or right-click a message → Forward via Vault.
Compose as usual, then enable Vault mode. The body is encrypted in the browser; recipients open a link and unlock with the shared secret from the URL fragment (optional PIN).
InboxDays servers store opaque ciphertext only — see the Zero-knowledge disclaimer for the full trust model.
- If you lose the unlock secret or PIN, Vault content cannot be recovered by support.
- Attachments are not included in Vault links.
Important mail & WORM Vault
Open in app →Star mail in your mailbox, or lock a full MIME copy in an immutable compliance archive.
Important (star)
Use the star in the reading pane (or Mark important in the context menu) to flag mail locally. The Important mailbox in the sidebar lists starred messages still present in your connected accounts.
Always important from this sender… (context menu) creates an ingestion rule that automatically marks all current and future mail from that sender as Important — useful for contract senders or key clients.
Marking Important also queues that sender (and other senders on the same thread) as pending address-book contacts, with phone and postal address when found in the message.
Important protects messages from tag TTL auto-delete. It does not sync Gmail STARRED / Outlook flags to the provider.
WORM Vault (compliance lock)
Open a message and click the shield action → Retain in WORM Vault. Choose a category (Financial, Legal, Tax, Personal, Custom) and duration (1 / 3 / 7 / 10 years, or Permanent).
InboxDays copies the full RFC822 email (headers, body, attachments) to an AWS S3 bucket with Object Lock in COMPLIANCE mode. Nobody — including admins — can change or delete that object until the retain-until date.
After archiving, a green Compliance Lock Active badge appears on the message. The message is also marked Important automatically.
- Retrieve locked copies anytime from Settings → WORM Vault & retention policies (download .eml).
- Tag TTL “retention” under Tags is a different feature (soft-delete schedules), not WORM Object Lock.
Calendar drafts
Open in app →Detect meeting details in mail and confirm or dismiss calendar drafts.
Pending drafts
When a message looks like an event invitation, InboxDays may create a pending calendar draft. Nothing is written to your calendar until you confirm.
Use the calendar drawer in the mail client to list pending drafts, open the related message, download an .ics file, or dismiss.
Edit title, time, location, and meeting URL on the reading-pane calendar banner, then confirm to Google or Outlook when connected. Conflict notices appear on the banner when another event overlaps.
Spam & phishing
Open in app →Mark spam, manage allow/block rules, and filter the Spam view.
Mark spam or not spam
Use the Spam / Not spam buttons in the reading pane toolbar, or right-click → Mark as spam / Not spam.
Marking spam logs a training event, updates InboxDays spam state, and best-effort moves the message to the provider Junk/Spam folder when the account supports it.
Marking not spam restores good mail and can create an allow rule for that sender.
Allow and block rules
Open Settings to manage Spam & phishing rules: ALLOW or BLOCK by sender email or domain.
Filtering combines provider signals, your allow/block rules, and server-side classification when available.
Use View → Spam or the Spam mailbox folder to focus junk mail in the list.
Drafts & templates
Open in app →Save unsent compose state locally and reuse named email templates.
Open the library
Open Drafts or Templates from File / Messages menus, the sidebar quick actions, or the Drafts folder under an account (opens your InboxDays draft library for that mailbox).
These are InboxDays-hosted drafts — they are not the same as Gmail or Microsoft Drafts folders.
The library lists your saved drafts and named templates.
Save while composing
In Compose, use the From dropdown to choose which connected mailbox sends the message. New messages start on your default account; you can switch to any other account before sending.
Next to To (and Cc), use Address book to pick contacts, or start typing a name/email to autocomplete from your address book. Contacts seen on the selected From mailbox are ranked first.
Use Save draft to store the current To/Cc/subject/body (and attachments metadata) for the selected From account.
Use Save as template to store a reusable subject/body stub. Insert template pastes a saved template into the open compose window.
Sending a message removes its linked saved draft automatically.
- Drafts are scoped to your account (owner) and a mail account id.
- Ops details: docs/DRAFTS-AND-TEMPLATES.md
Mailing lists
Open in app →Distribution groups, moderated discussion, and personalized CRM broadcasts.
Open the hub
Go to Mailing lists from the top destinations menu, or Lists in the sidebar quick actions (/mailing-lists).
Create a list with a name, list address, kind (distribution or discussion), and access policy (open, members only, or owner only).
Members and moderation
Add members by pasting emails or uploading a CSV in the member modal.
Discussion lists can require moderation: inbound posts wait in a queue until you approve or reject them from the hub.
Distribution lists fan out individual copies to active members after the sender is validated (not a single BCC blast).
Compose broadcasts
In Compose, use the list / contact-label broadcast selector to send personalized one-to-one messages to list members or a CRM contact label (for example Tag: Investor).
Use the {…} personalization toolbar to insert {{first_name}}, {{last_name}}, {{company}}, {{email}}, or {{name}} — with optional | default: "…" fallbacks.
Preview merge cycles through recipients and highlights resolved fields before you broadcast. Values come from the address book, then RFC822 display names.
- Real inbound MX for @inboxdays.email addresses is a follow-up; you can simulate inbound from the hub today.
- Ops details: docs/MAILING-LISTS.md
Send feedback
Open in app →Report bugs or request features during beta — with automatic diagnostics.
Open Help & feedback
Use the floating Help & feedback button on the mail client, Help → Send feedback / Bug report, or Feedback in the sidebar quick actions.
Choose Report a Bug, Request a Feature, or General Help. Set priority (including Urgent blocker) and describe the issue.
Diagnostics
Leave Include system diagnostics checked so the ticket captures the current URL, browser/OS user-agent, screen size, and recent client errors.
Tickets are stored for the engineering team and an alert is emailed to support@inboxdays.com. You will see a ticket reference id on success.
- You must be signed in to submit feedback.
- Ops notes: docs/SUPPORT-FEEDBACK.md
Install the app (PWA)
Open in app →Add InboxDays to your home screen or desktop for a standalone window.
Install from the browser
On supported browsers (Chrome, Edge, Safari), use Install app / Add to Home Screen while signed in.
The installable start URL is /app, which opens the mail client. The app can run fullscreen (standalone) with the InboxDays icon.
Step-by-step install and mailto setup: open /download on the marketing site (also linked from the footer).
Default email handler (mailto:)
When InboxDays is installed as a PWA, your browser may offer to set it as the handler for email links (mailto:). In Chrome, go to Settings → Privacy and security → Site settings → Handlers, or look for the prompt when you first install.
Once registered, clicking a mailto: link on any website or in another web app opens InboxDays compose with the recipient, subject, and body pre-filled.
Desktop apps like Word use the system mail client, not the browser PWA. Join the waitlist at /download for the upcoming desktop mail handoff utility (macOS, Windows, Linux).
What works offline
A service worker caches the app shell and static assets so the chrome can load when the network is flaky.
Live mail sync, search, and send still need a network connection to the API.
- Native iOS/Android store shells use Capacitor and load the hosted site; see docs/PWA-CAPACITOR.md for developer setup.
- Push notification delivery from the server is a follow-up; the client is ready to display banners when a push arrives.
Desktop mail handoff (waitlist)
Open in app →System mailto routing and file share from Word — coming after go-live.
Available today: PWA + browser mailto
Install InboxDays from /download, then register mailto in Chrome handlers. That covers email links on websites and in browser-based apps.
See the Install the app (PWA) topic above for the full walkthrough.
Coming soon: desktop agent
A small signed utility will register as the system mailto handler on macOS, Windows, and Linux, opening InboxDays compose in your browser.
Planned approach: Swift helper on Mac; Tauri on Windows and Linux. v1 routes mailto only; v2 adds local file handoff (e.g. Word documents).
Join the waitlist on /download — we will email when early access opens for your platform.
Accounts & settings
Open in app →Connect mailboxes, signatures, accents, passkeys, stay signed in (persistent sessions), rolling auto-archive, WORM policies, contacts routing, and legal policies.
Mail accounts
Settings lets you add Gmail, Microsoft 365, Apple iCloud, or IMAP accounts, re-authenticate, suspend, reorder, and remove accounts. On Mac, Import from Mac Internet Accounts… guides the same connects for accounts already listed in System Settings.
Your InboxDays login can use any verified email; connecting a mailbox is a separate step (required before mail appears in the client).
Accent color opens a Save/Cancel modal (same pattern as Signature): preview strip, presets, custom picker, or Auto for a derived default. Accents appear as a left edge on mail from that mailbox in All mail.
HTML signatures (with hosted images) are edited in a modal per account and can be included when you compose.
Security & MFA
Under Settings → Security & MFA, choose Add passkey to register Touch ID, Face ID, Windows Hello, or a FIDO2 key with Keycloak (passwordless).
Add security key (2FA) registers WebAuthn as a second factor after password. Add authenticator app enrolls TOTP (Google Authenticator, 1Password, etc.).
Manage registered credentials opens the Keycloak Account Console to rename or remove credentials.
On the Keycloak sign-in page, browsers that support Conditional UI may offer your passkey when you focus the email field.
InboxDays requests a long-lived session from your identity provider so you stay signed in across browser restarts. If the provider does not support extended sessions, the app falls back gracefully and you may need to sign in more often.
Rolling auto-archive
Settings → Rolling auto-archive removes old mail from your Inbox on a daily schedule (about 02:00 UTC) using a live age cutoff (1 / 3 / 6 / 12 / 24 months).
Important/starred and WORM-locked messages are never archived; unread can be skipped. Use Run now to test. This is separate from WORM Vault and tag TTL retention.
Contacts & spam rules
Contact address book routing chooses where confirmed signature contacts are saved.
Spam & phishing rules lists your ALLOW/BLOCK sender and domain rules.
Harvesting skips addresses that already exist, look like marketing/role mailboxes, or were dismissed recently (about one month).
Admin portal (product owners)
Platform admins open /admin for account counts, MRR/ARR, and per-user billing tiers.
Suspend or delete a user from the tenant table. Delete can wipe connected mailboxes. Access requires the platform-super-admin role or PLATFORM_ADMIN_EMAILS / PLATFORM_ADMIN_SUBS.
Legal
In-app legal center: /settings/legal. Public policy hub: /legal.