Apple Mail Search Safe (fruitmail)

**Quick judgment:** Fruitmail is a focused, high-performance CLI tool for searching Apple Mail on macOS using the local SQLite index, best suited for power users and automation scenarios. It’s fast and non-destructive, but tightly coupled to macOS/Mail.app internals and exposes sensitive email content to whatever calls it. **Strengths:** - Very fast queries on large mailboxes via the existing Envelope Index (claims ~50ms on ~130k emails). - Read-only SQLite access minimizes risk of corrupting Mail data; optional `--copy` mode adds an extra safety margin. - Practical commands (`search`, `sender`, `unread`, `body`, `open`, `stats`) and JSON output make it easy to integrate into scripts. **Key risks & limitations:** - **Platform lock-in:** macOS-only and Mail.app-specific; relies on internal `Envelope Index` paths (`V{9,10,11}`), which may change or break on newer macOS releases. - **Privacy/exfiltration risk:** While the tool itself is read-only, any agent/script using it can access and potentially exfiltrate full email content and metadata. It should only be used in trusted, local, and well-permissioned contexts. - **AppleScript dependency:** Full body retrieval uses AppleScript, which can be slower and sometimes brittle depending on system configuration and Mail.app state. **Recommended scenarios:** - Local, single-user macOS environments where an agent or script needs **fast, reliable read-only access** to Apple Mail contents for search and triage. - Integrations in productivity/automation setups (e.g., Alfred, Raycast, cron jobs) that need metadata search or to open specific messages. - Complementing a separate sending/composing skill (like an IMAP/SMTP tool) when only local search and reading are required, not sending or mailbox mutation.