Email Capture

Turn emails into Inbox tasks. Three paths: the built-in IMAP folder capture on desktop, the phone share sheet for any mail provider, and the Cloud API for self-hosted deployments.

Related: Cloud API, Docker deployment

Built-in: watch a mail folder from the desktop app

Point Mindwtr Desktop at a folder in your own mailbox, move or forward mail into it from any client, and each message becomes an Inbox task. Your mail never touches a third-party server; the desktop app talks IMAP straight to your mail provider.

Setup, in Settings → Integrations → Email capture:

1. Enter your IMAP server (for example imap.gmail.com), username, and an app password. Regular account passwords usually will not work, and the password is stored in your system keyring
2. Keep the default folder Mindwtr or pick your own; it is created in your mailbox if it does not exist
3. Enable the switch and save. Saving verifies the connection and reports any problem right away
4. In your mail client or webmail, add a rule (or drag manually) that moves capture-worthy mail into that folder

While the desktop app is running it checks the folder every few minutes. The subject becomes the task title and the sender plus message body become the description. Capture is read-only: Mindwtr never modifies, moves, or deletes your mail, and it remembers what it already imported so nothing shows up twice. Archive or clean the folder whenever you like.

The mailbox is the queue: mail dropped into the folder while your computer is off simply waits there, and the next time Mindwtr opens it catches up. If you need capture with the desktop off entirely, use the self-hosted recipes below.

Provider notes:

• Gmail: enable 2-step verification, then create an app password; server imap.gmail.com
• iCloud Mail: create an app-specific password; server imap.mail.me.com
• Fastmail and standard IMAP servers: create an app password; use your provider's IMAP host
• Outlook.com and Microsoft 365: Microsoft has switched off password-based IMAP, so use the Power Automate recipe instead

Share an email from your phone

Works today on Android and iOS with any mail app that can share text (Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail, and others):

1. Open the email
2. Tap Share and pick Mindwtr
3. The capture screen opens with the shared content; save it to your Inbox

This is the fastest path when you process mail on your phone. See Mobile app for details.

Forward email to a self-hosted server

If you run the self-hosted cloud server, any automation that can send an HTTP request can create tasks through POST /v1/tasks. The endpoint accepts a plain title, or quick-add input with the same syntax as the in-app quick-add bar.

curl -X POST https://your-server.example/v1/tasks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MINDWTR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Reply to Dana about the contract", "props": {"description": "From: [email protected]"}}'

These recipes carry text only: the subject becomes the title, the sender or a snippet goes into props.description. To capture an attachment such as a PDF, use the phone share sheet instead.

Point the automation at your cloud server, not at a personal machine. The server is the always-on sync source, so capture keeps working while your workstation and phone are off; devices pick the task up on their next sync.

Outlook and Microsoft 365: Power Automate

Microsoft accounts work best through Power Automate, since Microsoft no longer allows password-based IMAP access:

1. Create a flow with the trigger When a new email arrives, filtered to a flag, category, or a dedicated folder
2. Add an HTTP action: method POST, your server's /v1/tasks URL, an Authorization: Bearer <token> header, and a JSON body that maps the email subject to title and sender or a snippet to props.description
3. Flag an email (or drop it in the folder) and it appears in your Mindwtr Inbox on the next sync

The flow runs in Microsoft's cloud, so capture works even while your computer is off. Only the fields you map leave your mailbox.

A dedicated capture address: Cloudflare Email Workers

If your domain uses Cloudflare Email Routing, you can create an address like [email protected] and route it to an Email Worker that posts straight to your server:

export default {
  async email(message, env) {
    const response = await fetch("https://your-server.example/v1/tasks", {
      method: "POST",
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${env.MINDWTR_TOKEN}`,
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        title: message.headers.get("subject") || "Captured email",
        props: { description: `From: ${message.from}` },
      }),
    });
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`Mindwtr returned ${response.status}`);
    }
  },
};

Store the token as a Worker secret (wrangler secret put MINDWTR_TOKEN), never in the script. Throwing on a failed response makes delivery fail visibly so the sending server can retry, instead of the mail vanishing. To include the message body in the description, parse the raw MIME with a library such as postal-mime; the subject-only version above needs no parsing.

Anything you forward to that address becomes an Inbox task. Keep the address private, or add a sender allowlist in the worker, since anyone who discovers it can create tasks.

Gmail and everything else: n8n, Zapier, scripts, rules

The same pattern works from any automation tool that can read your mailbox (or receive mail directly) and make an HTTP request:

• n8n / Node-RED: an IMAP or Gmail trigger node feeding an HTTP request node
• Zapier: an Email by Zapier inbound address (or Gmail trigger) feeding a Webhooks by Zapier POST step
• A script on any always-on machine: poll a mailbox folder and post each new message
• Sieve/procmail on your mail server: pipe matching mail to a small script

Keep the token secret: anyone holding it can read and write the tasks in that namespace.

Why there is no forwarding address

There is deliberately no Mindwtr-hosted forwarding address: a hosted relay would mean routing your private email through project infrastructure, which does not fit a local-first app. The built-in folder watch keeps your mail between your mail server and your own device.