appif 0.3.1

Messaging connectors giving AI agents authenticated, normalized access to email and chat platforms

appif -- Application Interfaces

A Python library that gives AI agents authenticated, normalized access to external platforms -- email, chat, and work tracking systems.

Purpose

Agents need information that lives behind logins: email threads, Slack messages, Jira tickets. This library provides connectors and adapters that authenticate as you and return clean, structured domain objects suitable for agent reasoning -- platform-specific APIs are fully encapsulated behind shared protocols.

Two domains are supported:

• Messaging -- Gmail, Outlook, Slack. Unified MessageEvent objects via the Connector protocol.
• Work Tracking -- Jira. Unified WorkItem objects via the WorkTracker protocol. Multi-instance support with YAML config.

For the complete usage guide -- the unified model, per-connector mapping tables, code examples, and environment variable reference -- see docs/usage.md.

Quick Start

Messaging (Gmail, Outlook, Slack)

pip install appif

from appif.adapters.gmail import GmailConnector
from appif.domain.messaging.models import MessageEvent, MessageContent

class MyListener:
    def on_message(self, event: MessageEvent) -> None:
        print(f"[{event.connector}] {event.author.display_name}: {event.content.text}")

connector = GmailConnector()
connector.connect()
connector.register_listener(MyListener())

All three messaging connectors (Gmail, Outlook, Slack) follow this same pattern. The full model, per-connector setup, and examples are in docs/usage.md.

Work Tracking (Jira)

from appif.domain.work_tracking.service import WorkTrackingService
from appif.domain.work_tracking.models import CreateItemRequest, SearchCriteria

service = WorkTrackingService()  # Loads from ~/.config/appif/jira/config.yaml

# Create a ticket
item = service.create_item(CreateItemRequest(
    project="MYPROJECT",
    title="Fix login bug",
    item_type="Bug",
    description="Users cannot log in after password reset",
))
print(f"Created: {item.key}")

# Search
results = service.search(SearchCriteria(project="MYPROJECT", status="To Do"))
for item in results.items:
    print(f"  {item.key}: {item.title}")

See docs/design/work_tracking/setup.md for configuration.

Supported Platforms

Messaging Connectors

Service	Connector	Inbound Method	Status
Gmail	Google API (OAuth 2.0)	history.list polling	Active
Outlook / Microsoft 365	Microsoft Graph API	Delta-query polling	Active
Slack	Slack API (Bolt + Socket Mode)	Real-time Socket Mode	Active

Work Tracking Adapters

Service	Library	Auth Method	Status
Jira Cloud	atlassian-python-api	API token (YAML config)	Active

CLI

The Slack adapter includes a command-line interface:

# Install makes the CLI available
pip install appif

# List channels, send messages, monitor in real-time
appif-slack channels
appif-slack send --channel general "Hello from CLI"
appif-slack monitor --channel general

Installation

For development

uv venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

As a library dependency

pip install appif

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13.x
• uv (for development)

Configuration

Messaging (environment variables)

Credentials are stored in ~/.env and loaded at runtime:

cp .env.example ~/.env

Variable	Service	Required
APPIF_GMAIL_CLIENT_ID	Gmail	Yes -- Google Cloud OAuth client ID
APPIF_GMAIL_CLIENT_SECRET	Gmail	Yes -- Google Cloud OAuth client secret
APPIF_GMAIL_ACCOUNT	Gmail	Yes -- Account email address
APPIF_OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID	Outlook	Yes -- Azure AD app (client) ID
APPIF_OUTLOOK_TENANT_ID	Outlook	Optional -- Azure AD tenant (default: common)
APPIF_SLACK_BOT_OAUTH_TOKEN	Slack	Yes -- Bot user OAuth token (xoxb-...)
APPIF_SLACK_BOT_APP_LEVEL_TOKEN	Slack	Yes -- App-level token for Socket Mode (xapp-...)

See .env.example for the full template with all optional variables.

Work Tracking (YAML config)

Jira uses a YAML config file at ~/.config/appif/jira/config.yaml:

instances:
  personal:
    jira:
      url: https://your-domain.atlassian.net
      username: [e-mail]
      api_token: your-api-token

default: personal

Override the config path with APPIF_JIRA_CONFIG env var. Multiple instances supported.

See docs/design/work_tracking/setup.md for the full setup guide.

Project Structure

application_interfaces/
├── src/
│   └── appif/                       # Top-level package (PyPI: appif)
│       ├── __init__.py              # Version via importlib.metadata
│       ├── domain/
│       │   ├── messaging/           # Connector protocol, canonical models, errors
│       │   └── work_tracking/       # WorkTracker protocol, models, service
│       ├── adapters/
│       │   ├── gmail/               # Gmail messaging connector
│       │   ├── outlook/             # Outlook messaging connector
│       │   ├── slack/               # Slack messaging connector
│       │   └── jira/                # Jira work tracking adapter
│       ├── cli/                     # CLI entry points (Slack)
│       └── infrastructure/          # Credential loading
├── tests/
│   ├── unit/                        # 241 unit tests
│   ├── integration/                 # Live API tests (Slack, Jira)
│   └── e2e/
├── scripts/                         # OAuth consent flows, cleanup utilities
├── docs/design/                     # Design documents per adapter
├── pyproject.toml
├── ADAPTERS.md                      # Detailed adapter documentation
├── .env.example
└── readme.md

Development

# Set up dev environment
uv venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run all unit tests (241 tests)
pytest tests/unit -v

# Run adapter-specific tests
pytest tests/unit/test_gmail_*.py -v
pytest tests/unit/test_outlook_*.py -v

# Run integration tests (requires live credentials)
pytest tests/integration/test_jira_integration.py -v
pytest tests/integration/test_slack_integration.py -v

# Clean up Jira test tickets
python scripts/jira_cleanup.py

# Lint and format
ruff check src/ tests/
ruff format src/ tests/

# Type check
mypy src/

Architecture

Messaging: Connector Protocol

All messaging connectors implement a shared Connector protocol (appif.domain.messaging.ports.Connector) -- a transport adapter that:

• Connects to an external system and manages authentication
• Emits normalized MessageEvent objects to registered listeners
• Delivers outbound messages via send(target, content)
• Supports historical backfill alongside realtime event ingestion
• Advertises capabilities so upstream logic branches on what the connector supports, not which platform it is

All connectors produce identical canonical types (MessageEvent, ConversationRef, SendReceipt). Platform-specific SDK code is fully encapsulated -- zero Slack/Outlook/Gmail types leak through the public interface.

Work Tracking: WorkTracker Protocol

The Jira adapter implements the WorkTracker protocol (appif.domain.work_tracking.ports.WorkTracker):

• CRUD operations: get, create, comment, transition, link, search
• Multi-instance support via InstanceRegistry protocol
• WorkTrackingService routes operations to the correct adapter instance
• Domain types (WorkItem, CreateItemRequest, SearchCriteria) are platform-agnostic

Internal Module Pattern

Each messaging adapter follows the same decomposition:

src/appif/adapters/<platform>/
├── __init__.py          # Public exports
├── connector.py         # Connector protocol implementation
├── _auth.py             # Authentication (protocol + implementation)
├── _normalizer.py       # Platform message -> MessageEvent
├── _message_builder.py  # MessageContent -> platform request (email adapters)
├── _poller.py           # Inbound message detection (email adapters)
└── _rate_limiter.py     # Retry + platform error -> domain error mapping

The Jira adapter uses a similar pattern with adapter.py (operations), _auth.py (YAML config + client), and _normalizer.py (API dicts to domain types).

Credential Setup

Adapter	Auth Method	Setup Guide
Gmail	OAuth 2.0 (python scripts/gmail_consent.py <account>)	docs/design/gmail/setup.md
Outlook	OAuth 2.0 (python scripts/outlook_consent.py <account>)	docs/design/outlook/setup.md
Slack	Bot + App tokens from Slack app config	docs/design/slack/setup.md
Jira	API token in YAML config	docs/design/work_tracking/setup.md

Documentation

Document	Description
ADAPTERS.md	Detailed adapter documentation (all platforms)
docs/usage.md	Unified messaging model and code examples
docs/design/gmail/	Gmail design, technical design, setup
docs/design/outlook/	Outlook design, technical design, setup
docs/design/slack/	Slack design, setup, CLI checklist
docs/design/work_tracking/	Jira requirements, design, technical design, setup

License

MIT -- see LICENSE.