Email · checked 2026-10-13Can I vibecode Inbox Zero?
KINDA· weekend project
The loop Inbox Zero runs is simple to state: read each new email, ask a model which of your plain-English rules it matches, then label it, archive it or save a draft reply. An agent can wire that to Gmail over IMAP in an afternoon, together with a sender list for bulk unsubscribing. The weekend goes on making it safe to trust: a machine that stays on, undo for every action, drafts that sound like you, and Google's sign-in rules if an app password won't do. Inbox Zero is itself open source, so self-hosting the real app is often the shorter road.
$20/moprice per seat
$240you'd save a year
weekendbuild time
—people replaced it
What you need on hand.
DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.
TimeAn afternoon to build, then a few days in dry-run before you let it act
- Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
- A Gmail app passwordNeeds 2-Step Verification on the Google account. Some Google Workspace admins turn app passwords off; then you need OAuth instead.
- An OpenAI or Anthropic API keyA small, cheap model is enough for sorting. Ollama works if you want mail text to stay local.
- A machine that stays onA Mac mini, a Raspberry Pi or a small VPS; a laptop only sorts mail while it's awake.
Before you buildThere's no free plan, but Inbox Zero is open source: self-hosting the real app with your own AI key is free for personal use. Gmail's filters and its Manage subscriptions view may already cover the basics.
- 1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
- 2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
- 3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.
The prompt
Build me a local AI inbox assistant to replace Inbox Zero for my Gmail
account. Requirements:
- Node.js 22 + TypeScript. Connect with imapflow to imap.gmail.com using my
address and a Google app password from .env (IMAP_USER, IMAP_PASS). No OAuth.
- Rules live in ./rules.md in plain English: one "## Label" heading per rule
(Newsletter, Receipt, Cold pitch, Needs reply, FYI) with a line saying
whether matching mail is archived.
- Every 5 minutes, fetch new INBOX messages since the last seen UID (kept in
better-sqlite3 at ./data/inbox.db). Send sender, subject and the first 2,000
characters of plain text to the model and get back JSON {label, archive,
reason}. Use ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY, or Ollama if OLLAMA_MODEL
is set.
- Apply labels with Gmail's X-GM-LABELS IMAP extension and archive only when
the rule says so. Log every decision (uid, from, subject, label, reason).
- For "Needs reply", write a draft in my voice (style notes and 5 sample
emails in ./voice.md) and APPEND it to [Gmail]/Drafts with In-Reply-To and
References headers so it threads. Never send mail on its own.
- A page on http://127.0.0.1:4700 (Express, plain HTML): the decision log with
an Undo button per row, and senders ranked by volume over 90 days with
Unsubscribe (one-click POST from the List-Unsubscribe header when offered,
otherwise open the link) and Archive all buttons.
- DRY_RUN=true logs decisions without touching the mailbox; it is the default
until I change it.
- No accounts, no telemetry, local-first; only the model call leaves the machine.
- Out of scope: Outlook, calendars, meeting briefs, Slack and mobile apps.
- README: turning on 2-Step Verification and creating an app password (some
Workspace admins block them), running it under pm2, and exactly which text
is sent to the model.Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.
Then keep going
Next prompts, same folder.
The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Inbox Zero.
Add a cold-email filter to the inbox assistant in this folder. Requirements: - Treat a message as a possible cold pitch only if I have never emailed the sender: check my Sent folder over IMAP and cache known contacts in SQLite. - Ask the model for yes/no and a one-line reason; on yes, label it "Cold" and archive it. - An allowlist (./allowlist.txt, one address or domain per line) always wins. - Show the last 50 blocked messages on the local page with a "Not cold" button that moves the message back and adds the sender to the allowlist. - Update the README.
Add a daily digest to the inbox assistant in this folder. Requirements: - At 07:30 local time, collect everything labeled Newsletter or FYI in the last 24 hours. - Summarize each message in two lines with the model already configured, grouped by label, with sender and subject. - Send the digest only to my own address over SMTP (smtp.gmail.com, the same app password), never to anyone else. - A --preview flag prints the digest instead of sending it. - Update the README.
Add follow-up tracking to the inbox assistant in this folder. Requirements: - Every hour, scan my Sent folder. When a message I sent asks a question or makes a request (ask the model) and the thread has no reply after 3 days, label the thread "Awaiting reply". - Remove the label as soon as a reply arrives. - List waiting threads on the local page, oldest first, with a "Draft nudge" button that saves a short follow-up in [Gmail]/Drafts. Never send it. - Update the README.
What you lose
- Outlook support and several mailboxes in one place
- Calendar-aware meeting briefs and the meeting notetaker
- Slack, Notion and other app integrations
- The mobile apps and the browser extension
- Team analytics and shared billing
Why people still pay
People hand it their inbox because it works the moment Gmail or Outlook is connected: no server to look after, no model keys, and replies drafted in their own tone. Founders and managers mostly pay for the hours it gives back each week, and teams buy it so everyone runs on the same rules and numbers.
Inbox Zero or your own copy?
Seats
Over
Your usage
12h ×$/h
Inbox Zero, 1 yr$240
Your own copy, 1 yr$35running + build session
You keep$205pays for itself in the first month
Estimate · Sorting a few thousand emails a month with a small hosted model comes to about a dollar; drafting replies with a larger model adds a few more. With Ollama it's free if your machine can run it. A VPS, if you need one, adds about $5.
Take your data, then cancel.
1 · Take your data out of Inbox Zero
- 1Your mail has nothing to move: the labels, archived messages and drafts Inbox Zero made live in Gmail or Outlook and stay there.
- 2Open the assistant's rules and settings and copy the text of each rule, plus any notes on your writing style, into a file; the docs describe no export for them.
- 3For a full copy of the mailbox anyway, Google Takeout exports Gmail as MBOX.
2 · Cancel Inbox Zero
- 1Open the account menu at the bottom of the sidebar and choose Settings.
- 2In Billing, click Manage Subscription; it opens the billing portal, where you cancel.
- 3Then revoke its access to your mail: in your Google Account under Security > Your connections to third-party apps & services, or in your Microsoft account's app permissions.
- 4To remove your data from Inbox Zero as well, use Settings > Delete Account.
- The plan runs to the end of the period you paid for. If it didn't help, email support within 14 days of upgrading to ask for a refund.
- Deleting your Inbox Zero account doesn't revoke Google or Microsoft access, and revoking access doesn't delete the account: do both.
- Labels it created stay in Gmail after you leave; delete the ones you don't want.
The escape hatch
Don't feel like building it? These are already free.
Inbox Zero (self-hosted)FreeThe same app on your own server with your own AI key. AGPL plus extra terms: free for personal use and for organisations under five business users.★ 12k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗ZeroOpen sourceOpen-source email client for Gmail and other providers with AI features, built to be self-hosted; commits have slowed since May 2026.★ 11k · active May 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗imapfilterOpen sourceRule-based IMAP filtering scripted in Lua. No AI, but it sorts, labels and archives by sender, subject or age on any provider.★ 937 · active Mar 2026 · one-click install
CLI, macOS, LinuxVisit ↗
WebVisit ↗ZeroOpen sourceOpen-source email client for Gmail and other providers with AI features, built to be self-hosted; commits have slowed since May 2026.★ 11k · active May 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗imapfilterOpen sourceRule-based IMAP filtering scripted in Lua. No AI, but it sorts, labels and archives by sender, subject or age on any provider.★ 937 · active Mar 2026 · one-click install
CLI, macOS, LinuxVisit ↗
The numbers
Inbox Zero pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $20/user | $18/user | One mailbox; sorting and labels, reply drafts, cold-email blocking, bulk unsubscribe and archive, analytics, pre-meeting briefs, a limited knowledge base. |
| Plus | $35/user | $28/user | Two mailboxes per user, meeting notetaker, Slack and app integrations, email digests, attachment filing, unlimited knowledge base. |
| Professional | $50/user | $42/user | Everything in Plus with team-wide analytics, priority support and an onboarding manager. |
| Enterprise | custom | — | SSO, SCIM and on-premise deployment. |
- Free tier
- No free plan: every plan starts with a 7-day trial. The source code is public and self-hosting is free for personal use.
- Billing
- Monthly or annual (annual saves 10-20% depending on the plan); billed per user by card through Stripe; plan changes apply at once and are prorated; refund on request within 14 days of upgrading.
- Hidden costs
- Every teammate is another seat. Self-hosting removes the subscription but not the bills for your own AI provider and server, and the license requires a paid enterprise license for organisations with five or more business users.
- Source
- www.getinboxzero.com
Also on the list
Related apps
Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: Outlook support and several mailboxes in one place, Calendar-aware meeting briefs and the meeting notetaker.
About $20 a month on the Starter plan per seat, $240 a year (checked 2026-10-13).
Outlook support and several mailboxes in one place; Calendar-aware meeting briefs and the meeting notetaker; Slack, Notion and other app integrations; The mobile apps and the browser extension; Team analytics and shared billing. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.
Yes: Inbox Zero (self-hosted) (free), Zero (open source), imapfilter (open source).