Boxgent is a self-hosted web UI for managing IMAP email filter rules. Rules are defined in a browser and executed by a built-in Python IMAP engine that runs on new mail (IMAP IDLE) or on a schedule — no external filter daemon, no Lua scripting, no mail server changes required. Optionally, an AI of your choice (any OpenAI-compatible server, e.g. a local Ollama) can sort, categorize, summarize and draft replies — only for the accounts you allow it to read.

Built by gorgeIT · AGPL-3.0

Alpha. Until the first release candidate of 1.0 (v1.0_rc1), Boxgent is alpha software. The REST API, MCP, rule exports and settings backups are only guaranteed to work within one version and its bug-fix releases (v0.3.0, v0.3.1, … — not from v0.3 to v0.4). The database is always upgraded to a newer version automatically, but never back: back up your database yourself before every upgrade. Every incompatible change is listed under Breaking changes in the changelog. See Installation → Upgrading.

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Why Boxgent

Most self-hosted email filtering tools require either deep server access (Sieve), a full mail stack (Roundcube, Mail-in-a-Box), or hand-written config files (imapfilter, fdm). Boxgent connects to any existing IMAP server as a client and gives you a point-and-click rule editor with live match previews and per-rule execution statistics.

Comparison with similar tools

	Boxgent	imapfilter	Roundcube + Sieve	Thunderbird rules	fdm / getmail
Web UI	✅	❌ Lua config	✅ plugin	❌ desktop app	❌ config file
No server changes needed	✅	✅	❌ needs ManageSieve	✅	✅
No mail server required	✅	✅	❌ part of Roundcube	✅	✅
Multi-account	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Multi-user with roles	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Live match preview (dry run)	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
IMAP IDLE (push triggers)	✅	❌	server-side	❌	❌
Per-rule match statistics	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
AI conditions, categories, digests, reply drafts	✅ optional	❌	❌	❌	❌
REST API and MCP (AI assistants)	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
SSO / OIDC / proxy auth	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Single container deploy	✅	—	❌	—	—
PostgreSQL / MySQL support	✅ optional	—	server DB	—	—

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Features

Rules

• Point-and-click rule editor — conditions on from, to, subject, headers, spam score, message age and account (contains, not contains, regex); conditions are combined with AND, with drag-and-drop AND / OR / NOT cards for anything more
• Actions — move or copy (also into another of your accounts), delete, mark read/unread, star/unstar, add tags (IMAP keywords, Thunderbird labels); several actions per rule; Stop and End to end processing for a mail
• Triggers — on new mail, on a schedule (every run, hourly, daily, weekly), in a date range or in an active time window on chosen weekdays, in your time zone
• Live match preview — dry-run a rule and see which messages it would touch before committing
• Duplicate, compress, import and export — merge neighbouring rules with the same actions into one; JSON export/import and a Sieve export

AI (optional, per account, off by default)

• AI conditions — AI filter (your yes/no question) and Mail is important (your own definition), with a confidence threshold
• AI categorize / AI yes/no — one AI question per mail, each answer runs its own actions
• AI digest — collects matching mail and writes one summary mail per day or week into a folder; never sent
• AI draft reply — writes a threaded reply into the Drafts folder; never sent
• Rules from the AI — describe a rule in your own words, or let the AI suggest rules from your inbox's senders and subjects; you review before saving
• Reads the new text of a mail (no quoted replies or signature) and PDF, Word and Excel attachments; works with any OpenAI-compatible server or SystemOne

Running and results

• IMAP IDLE — new mail triggers filter runs immediately; polling fallback for servers that don't support IDLE
• Per-rule match statistics with configurable time window, including how often each AI branch was taken
• Smart account setup — IMAP settings autodiscovered from an email address (autoconfig XML, DNS SRV records, provider heuristics)

Users and operation

• Multi-user with roles — admin, manager, and user roles; managers can view and edit team members' rules via the Team tab
• Authentication — local accounts (bcrypt), login with the mail account (per mail domain), reverse-proxy header trust (Authentik, Authelia), OpenID Connect / OAuth 2.0, SSO-only mode
• REST API and MCP — per-user API keys (read-only or without mail access); AI assistants such as Claude can list, preview and edit rules over MCP
• English and German interface, light and dark theme
• Settings backup and restore on the Admin page
• Multi-DB — SQLite by default; connect to PostgreSQL or MySQL via DATABASE_URL; automatic one-time data migration from SQLite on first boot
• Container deploy — Docker / Podman Compose, or a Docker Swarm stack with PostgreSQL (docker-stack.yml)

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Quick start

# 1. Generate an encryption key
mkdir -p secrets
python3 -c "import base64, os; print(base64.urlsafe_b64encode(os.urandom(32)).decode())" \
  > secrets/encryption_key
chmod 600 secrets/encryption_key

# 2. Start
podman-compose up -d          # or: docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8080, log in as admin / boxgent, and change the password when prompted.

See docs/installation.md for full installation instructions.

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Documentation

Installation	Container setup, volumes, first boot, upgrading
Configuration	All environment variables: database, authentication, API, AI
Usage	Accounts, rules, conditions, actions, AI, teams, REST API and MCP
Architecture	How the code is laid out: rules, conditions, actions, mailboxes
Brand	Logo, wordmark, colours, font and how to use them
Changelog	Every release, its breaking changes and upgrade notes

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Development

Requires Python 3.14+ and uv:

uv sync
uv run pytest -v

Install the pre-commit hook once per clone. It runs the secret scan (gitleaks, on the staged changes) and the dependency audit (pip-audit, on uv.lock) of CI before every commit; git commit --no-verify skips it:

ln -sf ../../scripts/git-hooks/pre-commit .git/hooks/pre-commit

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License

AGPL-3.0 — © 2026 Michael Klamminger - gorgeIT (https://gorgeit.com)