Bubbles.mail

An intelligent, minimalist, AI-powered email client for macOS.

Features • Tech Stack • Getting Started • Development

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🫧 Overview

Bubbles.mail is a modern, privacy-conscious desktop email client built specifically for macOS. It reimagines your inbox by moving away from cluttered lists and replacing them with an intelligent, timeline-based Daily Digest.

Integrated with the Vercel AI SDK, Bubbles.mail doesn't just show you emails—it reads them, understands them, and provides you with actionable tasks, upcoming deadlines, and concise summaries so you can achieve Inbox Zero with ease.

✨ Features

• Daily Intelligence Digest: Auto-generated morning briefing that groups your emails into actionable Tasks, critical Deadlines, and ongoing Threads.
• Bubbles.ai Assistant: Chat directly with your inbox. Ask Bubbles.ai to summarize a long thread, find an old receipt, or draft a reply in seconds.
• Smart Categorization: Automatically categorizes emails into Primary, Updates, Promotions, Social, and Forums using native Gmail labels.
• Multi-Account Support: Connect and switch between multiple Gmail accounts.
• Fast & Local: Emails are synced and cached locally using SQLite for instant loading and offline access.
• On-Device AI Ready: By leveraging tools like Ollama, Bubbles.mail can process your emails entirely on your machine. Keep your sensitive data strictly local while still enjoying the power of Large Language Models.

🛠 Architecture & Tech Stack

Bubbles.mail is built using web technologies packaged into a performant desktop application.

graph TD
    subgraph Cloud
        G[Gmail API]
    end

    subgraph Desktop App
        UI[Vue 3 User Interface]
        Main[Electron Main Process]
        DB[(Local SQLite Cache)]
        
        UI <-->|IPC Router| Main
        Main <-->|Read / Write| DB
    end

    subgraph Intelligence
        AI[Vercel AI SDK]
        Ollama[Ollama / External LLMs]
        
        Main -->|Send email data| AI
        AI -->|Generate structured JSON| Ollama
        Ollama -->|Stream responses| AI
        AI -->|Tasks, Summaries, Chat| Main
    end

    G -->|OAuth2 Sync| Main

Loading

• Framework: Electron + Vue 3 (Composition API)
• Language: TypeScript
• Build Tool: Vite + Electron-Builder
• Database: Better-SQLite3 (Local caching)
• AI Integration: Vercel AI SDK
• Styling: Vanilla CSS + modern CSS variables & backdrop-filters

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• macOS (Apple Silicon arm64 or Intel x64)
• Node.js (v18+)
• A Google Cloud Project with the Gmail API enabled (for OAuth 2.0 credentials)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/bubbles.mail.git
   cd bubbles.mail

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Set up Environment Variables: Create a .env file in the root directory and add your Google OAuth credentials and AI provider keys:

   VITE_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_google_client_id
   GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your_google_client_secret
   OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key

4. Run in development mode:

   npm run dev

📦 Building for Production

To package the application into a standalone macOS .dmg and .app:

npm run build:mac

The compiled binaries will be available in the dist/ directory.

🔒 Privacy & Security

Bubbles.mail respects your privacy.

• All emails are synced and stored locally on your machine in a SQLite database.
• 100% Local AI: For maximum security, you can configure Bubbles.mail to use local LLMs (via Ollama). This ensures your email data never leaves your machine for AI processing.
• If using external AI providers, you have full control over what data is sent securely via their APIs.
• We utilize standard OAuth 2.0 flows, meaning your Google password is never exposed or stored.

📄 License

MIT License © 2026 Bubbles.mail