gucmail

Your GUC mailbox, in a terminal. Read, write, search, schedule and back up your mail without opening Outlook on the web. Calendar, contacts and tasks come along too. Everything works from the keyboard, and everything is scriptable.

It talks directly to the GUC Exchange server (EWS), so there's nothing to set up on the server and no third-party cloud in between. Your password stays in Windows Credential Manager, and your mail stays on your machine.

An independent project. Not affiliated with the German University in Cairo or Microsoft.

Install

You need Python 3.11 or newer.

pip install "gucmail[desktop]"
gucmail login          # asks for your GUC password, stores it in Windows Credential Manager
gucmail tui            # opens the full-screen interface

Prefer an isolated install? pipx install "gucmail[desktop]". Leave out [desktop] if you don't want Windows notifications.

Get around

Arrows move. Enter opens. Tab jumps between panes. c composes, r replies, / searches and ? shows every shortcut. Mouse and scroll wheel work too.

Ctrl+K opens the command palette. Type what you want in plain words:

It shows exactly what it understood (Schedule current draft · tomorrow at 9:00) and asks before it does anything. It never guesses at deleting.

Write

Reply, reply-all and forward. Cc and Bcc, attachments, signatures and importance. Recipients autocomplete from your contacts and recent mail. It warns you about an empty subject, a missing attachment you mentioned ("see attached…") or a typo in an address.

Drafts save themselves, and if your laptop dies mid-sentence, the draft is waiting next time. Undo Send holds a message for a few seconds before it leaves.

Send later

gucmail send --to ta@example.edu --subject "Lab 6" --body-file report.txt --at "Monday 8:30"
gucmail send --to me@example.edu --subject "Reminder" --body "Submit thesis" --in "2 hours"
gucmail scheduled list

It always shows the exact time and time zone before queuing, refuses ambiguous dates like 03/04, and never sends anything twice. It handles Cairo's daylight-saving switch. Messages go out from your PC, so it needs to be on. A Windows task can take care of that (how).

Calendar, contacts, tasks

Day, week, month and agenda views. Create events, accept or decline meetings, find a free slot, catch clashes, and import or export .ics files.

Contacts	Tasks

Contacts find duplicates and merge them, and import and export vCards. Tasks have due dates, progress and repeats.

Search

gucmail search --sender "dr. mona" --after 2026-10-01 --has-attachments
gucmail search "rubric" --all-folders
gucmail index build --include-bodies             # build a local full-text index once…
gucmail search --local --fuzzy "gradng rubrik"   # …then search it offline, typos and all

Saved searches, per-folder or whole-mailbox scope, and a search box in every view.

Notifications, even with the terminal closed

gucmail notifications profiles create primary --name "Inbox" --enabled --activate
gucmail startup enable --profile primary --apply     # a Windows task that starts at sign-in

A small background watcher checks your Inbox and shows a Windows toast for new mail. Clicking the toast opens the message. Quiet hours, rules ("only mail from @guc.edu.eg with 'exam' in the subject") and signed webhooks are optional. Details.

Backups you can read without a connection

gucmail backup create --encrypt          # full backup, password-protected
gucmail backup incremental               # just what changed since
gucmail backup browse <id>               # read it offline, even with Wi-Fi off
gucmail tui --offline                    # or browse cached mail in the interface

Backups never mark anything read and never change the server. Restores are planned first, with exact counts, and you confirm before anything is written.

Make it yours

More than 600 themes with live preview, and your own colours or logo. Choose your columns, layouts and keyboard shortcuts in Settings, which you can search.

Scripts and automation

Every command has --json (one envelope) or --ndjson (one record per line), stable exit codes, --yes for confirmations and --dry-run for anything that changes mail.

gucmail --json messages list --folder inbox --limit 5
gucmail --ndjson search --unread | ConvertFrom-Json | ? type -eq item | % { $_.data.subject }
gucmail --yes messages move msg_12 msg_13 --to "Courses/Distributed Systems"
gucmail quota                              # how full your mailbox is
gucmail doctor                             # checks everything, offline unless you ask

There's more under gucmail --help: rules, automatic replies, insights ("who fills my mailbox?"), cleanup plans, clustering and an EWS capability browser.

Good to know

• Some features depend on what GUC lets your account do: the directory, free/busy, rules, delegates and quota limits. When the server says no, gucmail tells you so and never invents a value.
• It's tested on Windows 11. Linux and macOS should work but aren't tested yet.
• More: user guide · all commands · troubleshooting · privacy & security · known limits

Licence

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 gucmail contributors

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.