Kaluta app icon: a kaluta, a small marsupial, drawn in black ink

The open-source Gmail client built for your AI agents

Kaluta is a local-first, native macOS email client. Turn email into tasks, let Claude Code or Codex work through them, and sort your inbox on a schedule.

Try it on your MacView on GitHub
Kaluta's task list next to an email, with Claude proposing a reply that waits for the user to approve or reject it

Your tasks, the email behind each one, and Claude working on it. Nothing is sent until you approve.

Try it with a demo mailbox

There is no download yet, so for now you build Kaluta from source. The demo mailbox is made-up mail that lives only on your Mac: you can explore everything without connecting an account.

Before you start

  • A Mac with Apple Silicon, on macOS 26 or later
  • Xcode 27, from the App Store
  • Homebrew
  • Optional, for real agents: Claude Code 2.1+ or Codex CLI 0.145+, logged in
  1. 1
    Get the code and the tools
    git clone https://github.com/audiojak/kaluta
cd kaluta
./scripts/bootstrap.sh

    Installs Rust and XcodeGen with Homebrew, and checks for Xcode.

  2. 2
    Build the app
    scripts/test-macos.sh build

    The first build takes a few minutes.

  3. 3
    Open it with the demo mailbox
    open build/DerivedData/Build/Products/Debug/Kaluta.app --args -KalutaDemo YES

    No agent CLI installed? Add -KalutaFakeAgents YES to the end to try the agent panel with a stand-in.

Pre-alpha: what to expect

  • The mail client, tasks, agent integration and routines are implemented and tested against a demo mailbox, a fake Gmail and fake agent CLIs.
  • The built-in Google sign-in is still in Google's testing mode, which only admits approved test accounts. To connect your own Gmail today, use your own Google OAuth client.

From inbox to done, with an agent at your side

Three things Kaluta does that other mail clients don't.

ES
Emerson Silva
Onboarding plan

Can you send the revised plan? We need a decision by the end of the month.

Claude reads it
Send Emerson the revised onboarding plan
Today
ReplyEmerson Silva · Onboarding plan
The sender is waiting for an answer.
Task label added in Gmail
01

Turn email into tasks, ready for agents

Press t on an email, or ⇧T on many. Claude suggests a title, a category, a due day and why; you accept or edit. Tasks stay on your Mac, and Gmail only sees a Task label.

02

Let an agent action the task

Ask Claude or Codex to gather what's needed, draft the reply or file the thread. Anything that would leave your Mac is a proposal you approve or reject.

03

Mail routines, on your Mac or in Claude's cloud

Sort automated mail into labels you check daily, weekly or monthly. Run a routine locally, or publish it as a Claude Code cloud routine through your own Claude login.

See the features in detail →

No backend

Mail goes from Google to your Mac and nowhere else. The project runs no servers, has no accounts and collects no telemetry.

Agents get tools, not your mailbox

An agent searches locally and reads only what it asks for. Every access is logged, and email content is treated as untrusted input.

You approve anything that leaves

Sending, forwarding and deleting are proposals you review. Archive, labels and drafts are reversible.

Bring your own AI

Works with the Claude Code and Codex CLIs you already use. Kaluta never sees your AI credentials.

How it works

Kaluta is a native Mac app: SwiftUI and AppKit over a Rust core. Your mail lives in a local database on your Mac, and the only way an agent reaches it is through the app's own mail tools.

How Kaluta worksGmail syncs to a local store inside Kaluta on your Mac. You use the mail app. Agents in your claude or codex CLI reach mail through Kaluta's mail tools, which a permission engine checks; actions that leave your Mac ask for your approval. Cloud routines run in Claude's cloud and use Claude's Gmail connector.GmailYour mailbox at GoogleClaude cloud routineRuns while your Mac sleepsYour AI providerAnthropic or OpenAIYour MacKaluta.appYouTriage and approveMail appInbox, tasks, routinesSync + outboxTalks to GmailLocal storeMail, search, tasksPermissionsChecks each callMail toolsOver MCPclaude / codex CLIYour agent, your loginHTTPS · OAuthClaude's Gmail connectorApprove?MCPYour subscriptionPublishes routines1234
1Mail syncs straight from Gmail to a store on your Mac. There is no Kaluta server in between.
2Anything that would leave your Mac — sending, forwarding, deleting — waits for your approval in the app.
3Agents run in your own claude or codex CLI, under your own AI subscription, and reach your mail only through Kaluta's tools, each call checked by the permission engine.
4Cloud routines are created through your own Claude login and sort mail with Claude's Gmail connector. Kaluta sees the result on its next sync.

We're looking for maintainers

Kaluta is MIT-licensed and built in the open. We're looking for people who want to help run it: reviewing pull requests, triaging issues, and owning parts of the app. It's a Swift (SwiftUI and AppKit) app over a Rust core, with agent integration through MCP — experience with any of these helps.

Read the contributing guideIntroduce yourself in an issue