{"slug": "notmuch", "name": "notmuch", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 6, "warners": 1, "score": 1.931, "rising": 2.0, "first": "2025-11-12", "latest": "2026-10-14", "why": "tightly integrated with notmuch(a common mail full text search engine) tagging engine", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 4, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "tightly integrated with notmuch(a common mail full text search engine) tagging engine", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["notmuch", "Notmuch"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 801300657, "item_id": 50081291, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50081291", "by": "SoftTalker", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "use notmuch for searching/indexing. It's amazing.", "excerpt": "On linux I read my mail in emacs, and use notmuch for searching/indexing. It's amazing. On the go I use a web browser on my phone for gmail or outlook. No apps. I try to minimize doing email on my phone because it's so awkward to type.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "email search and indexing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 795069458, "item_id": 49691841, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49691841", "by": "rjzzleep", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "tightly integrated with notmuch(a common mail full text search engine) tagging engine", "excerpt": "I'm building notmutt (notmuch + mutt). A tabbed, async terminal mail client with unified inbox, with included html viewer(with image support), mcp server, lua scripting. I tried using neomutt with unified inbox and I ended up messing up my maildirs every so often. i also tried adding async tasks(for sending) to neomutt, but there was no interest from the project, which made me realize that there is a lot more to it t", "context": "", "use_case": "mail search and tagging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 739505540, "item_id": 46219096, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46219096", "by": "tmtvl", "date": "2025-12-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I tried Notmuch, but it didn't work so well with the upstream mailboxes.", "excerpt": "I use isync (mbsync), mu, and Emacs for my e-mail needs and it work fine. Both isync and mu4e needed a bit of configuration (and Emacs itself needed one change to stop automatically breaking lines), but it's been working well for years now. I previously used Thunderbird but its editor was garbage, so then I tried a few things (neomutt and I believe something called alpine or something like that) before settling on Em", "context": "", "use_case": "email indexing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Putting email in its place with Emacs and Mu4e"}]}], "who": [{"by": "SoftTalker", "context": "Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50081291", "date": "2026-10-14"}, {"by": "iLemming", "context": "Emacs user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982949", "date": "2026-05-01"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["email search and indexing", "mail search and tagging", "mail indexing", "email", "email in emacs", "email indexing"], "compared": [{"slug": "emacs", "name": "Emacs", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "neomutt", "name": "neomutt", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "isync", "name": "isync", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "mu4e", "name": "mu4e", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "alpine", "name": "alpine", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50072913", "title": "Thunderbird for iOS", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49686380", "title": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48721442", "title": "Is aerc better than neomutt now?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48584135", "title": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47906651", "title": "I have officially retired from Emacs", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140579", "title": "Putting email in its place with Emacs and Mu4e", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"warn": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 801300657, "item_id": 50081291, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50081291", "by": "SoftTalker", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "use notmuch for searching/indexing. It's amazing.", "excerpt": "On linux I read my mail in emacs, and use notmuch for searching/indexing. It's amazing. On the go I use a web browser on my phone for gmail or outlook. No apps. I try to minimize doing email on my phone because it's so awkward to type.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "email search and indexing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 795069458, "item_id": 49691841, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49691841", "by": "rjzzleep", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "tightly integrated with notmuch(a common mail full text search engine) tagging engine", "excerpt": "I'm building notmutt (notmuch + mutt). A tabbed, async terminal mail client with unified inbox, with included html viewer(with image support), mcp server, lua scripting. I tried using neomutt with unified inbox and I ended up messing up my maildirs every so often. i also tried adding async tasks(for sending) to neomutt, but there was no interest from the project, which made me realize that there is a lot more to it t", "context": "", "use_case": "mail search and tagging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)"}, {"id": 780433394, "item_id": 48777087, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48777087", "by": "eisleggje", "date": "2026-07-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "involved setups with notmuch/isync", "excerpt": "It is nice in but the documentation (or at least the wiki) is inconsistent within itself at times. For all its cruft, neomutt is much more accessible in this regard. The man pages are better, but in the case of more involved setups with notmuch/isync, one can be left wondering what setting needs to be made to achieve some desired behaviour. There is also a smaller and shorter pool of users so it can be harder to find", "context": "", "use_case": "mail indexing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Is aerc better than neomutt now?"}, {"id": 777399843, "item_id": 48587490, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48587490", "by": "SoftTalker", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I also use notmuch for email.", "excerpt": "I'm glad to see that people are working on emacs, as I use it constantly. That said, I personally don't see myself really using any of the stuff highlighted in this article. I've never really been in to advanced auto-complete or tree-sitter type of functionality. Some tasteful syntax highlighting and indentation support is fine but that's about as far as I go. That, org-mode, and magit is about all I use for coding a", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving"}, {"id": 767727192, "item_id": 47982949, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982949", "by": "iLemming", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "For email I use notmuch.", "excerpt": "Wow, thank you of course, but honestly, you're giving me way too much credit. None of this stuff I mentioned requires some special skills - most of it is about finding the right package and installing it. My Emacs config is here\u00b9 - there's nothing to hide there, it's all pretty much public knowledge. - Org-Roam is a widely known and popular package. However, I moved to Vulpea, because it has much faster and improved ", "context": "Emacs user", "use_case": "email in Emacs", "switched_from": "", "story": "I have officially retired from Emacs"}, {"id": 739505540, "item_id": 46219096, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46219096", "by": "tmtvl", "date": "2025-12-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I tried Notmuch, but it didn't work so well with the upstream mailboxes.", "excerpt": "I use isync (mbsync), mu, and Emacs for my e-mail needs and it work fine. Both isync and mu4e needed a bit of configuration (and Emacs itself needed one change to stop automatically breaking lines), but it's been working well for years now. I previously used Thunderbird but its editor was garbage, so then I tried a few things (neomutt and I believe something called alpine or something like that) before settling on Em", "context": "", "use_case": "email indexing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Putting email in its place with Emacs and Mu4e"}, {"id": 734502320, "item_id": 45906395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45906395", "by": "BeetleB", "date": "2025-11-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use notmuch, which is tags based.", "excerpt": "I use notmuch, which is tags based. The most important thing is not what to do with emails in your inbox, but figuring out what should go in the inbox to begin with. I have a whitelist. Anything not in the whitelist goes into \"quarantine\". I give some details here: https://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2018/Sep/solving-my-email-problem/ HN discussion at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18100807 Once we take care", "context": "", "use_case": "email management with tags", "switched_from": "", "story": "Archive or Delete?"}]}