Start from Now

Now is the front page: the few things that need you now, from every mode. It shows at most ten things, in four sections that never change order:

• People: whose turn it is with you, from Messages. Never the people you are waiting on.
• Due soon: To do’s Now band, overdue first, then by act-by date.
• Updates: one card for the notifications since the last digest cut (08:00 and 16:30), never more than two days back.
• For tonight: from 17:00, one issue to read, from the newsletter you read most.

Each section shows at most three items, then “and 11 more in Messages”. A long list of people becomes one line: “14 people waiting on you: 7 you’ve written to, 7 new. Start with the three below.” The headline, that line and “and 11 more in Messages” count the same people, so the numbers add up. A section with nothing in it disappears, and when they all have, Now says “Clear.” and when the next to-do surfaces. The caps live in the daemon, so the web app, the TUI and mxr now show the same ten things.

Messages, Updates and Reading are early versions built on the desk, Paper trail and the Reading place, and Archive’s records are not built yet. Each says “early version” where it shows. Email modes has the status of each mode.

Open Now

The web app and the TUI open on Now. Press g h to come back to it from anywhere. From the command line:

mxr now --format table

Saturday morning. 14 people waiting on you, 1 thing to act on.

PEOPLE  (and 11 more in Messages)
  14 people waiting on you: 7 you've written to, 7 new. Start with the three below.
  Samir Patel             Contract renewal details
    From Messages: your turn with Samir Patel, 16h.
  Leo Park                Research notes: terminal workflows
    From Messages: your turn with Leo Park, 25h.
  Ari Stone               Flight options for the Portland demo day
    From Messages: your turn with Ari Stone, 18h.

DUE SOON
  Fix payment for Spotify  £11.99  act now

UPDATES  (early version)
  11 updates from 4 sources. Most from Account Verification, Build Watch and Pager Relay.

Not now: Reading 5 this week

That is the demo mailbox on a Saturday morning. Every row says which mode it came from and why. mxr now prints JSON by default, with the same sections, caps and lines.

Act on a row in its own mode

Key	What it does
j / k	Next and previous row
Enter	Open the row in its own mode: a person in Messages, a to-do in To do, the card in Updates, the pick in Reading
e	Done here, in the row’s mode
r	Reply to a person
o	Open the email
A	Let go of the Updates card, after a preview
u	Undo
?	What Now is for, then its keys

Done here takes the conversation out of that one mode until a new message arrives. Other modes keep it, and the email is archived in your mail provider only when no mode holds it any more. The toast says which happened every time:

Done in Messages. Still in To do (due Mon).
Done. Archived in Gmail.

u or the toast’s Undo puts it back. To keep mail in the inbox even when the last mode lets go, set modes.archive_on_last_done = false. The desk’s own Done at /desk follows the same rule: it never archives an email To do still holds.

In To do, e ticks off that one to-do. Another to-do on the same email stays open, and the email stays in the inbox until the last one is ticked off. In Updates, e on a sender’s row first shows how many of their conversations it covers, all of them, not just the ones on screen.

mxr modes done THREAD_ID --mode todo --todo TODO_ID --dry-run
mxr modes done --mode updates --sender notifications@github.com --account ACCOUNT_ID --dry-run

A on the Updates card previews what letting go does (“Let go of 11 updates from 4 sources? 3 conversations leave your inbox. 1 conversation also in To do stays there.”) and lets go only when you confirm.

See which other modes hold an email

One email can be in several modes: the landlord who asks “are you around Thursday?” and sends a lease to sign by Monday is in Messages and To do. The reader and the rows in Messages say so, in that mode’s words:

Also in To do: Sign the document from Sam Okafor, act by Mon 5 Oct  g x

The g key opens that mode. From the command line:

mxr modes why MESSAGE_ID          # or --thread THREAD_ID

Answer a new sender’s one question

When a person writes to you for the first time, their row asks once where their mail belongs: “New sender. Keep in Messages?” with Messages, Updates, Reading and Block as the answers. Answering moves the sender for their future mail too, and undo puts it back. Automated senders are never asked: their mail goes to Updates or Reading, and the row’s why line names the rule. The Screener page, under More, lists every sender you have decided on.

The rail

The sidebar lists Now, the five modes and Inbox, with their keys:

Entry	Key	Opens
Now	g h	The front page; its badge counts people whose turn it is and things to act on
Messages	g m	People, built on the desk’s lanes (early version)
To do	g x	Things email asked you to do, by when to act
Updates	g u	Notifications, built on Paper trail (early version). g p opens it too
Reading	g r	Newsletters and lists (early version)
Archive	g e	Records, which are coming; search finds receipts until then
Inbox	g i	Everything, newest first

Screener, Reply queue, Waiting on, Snoozed and Subscriptions are under More. Subscriptions no longer has a g key; g u opens Updates. mxr modes rail prints the same list with counts.

On a phone the web app shows five tabs instead: Now, Messages, To do, Reading and Find. Find holds search, Archive and Inbox. Updates opens from the card on Now.

Messages, built on the desk

Until Messages ships as people with their topics inside, it is the desk: four lanes of what needs you.

• You owe: someone you have written to wrote last.
• Due: a promise you made is coming due.
• Waiting on: you wrote last and they have not answered.
• New from people: a person you have not written to before.

Every row says why it is there and how long it has been. Newsletters, receipts and notifications are not here; they are in Updates and Reading. The exact lane rules are in the reference.

Person mail still in your inbox that no lane holds, such as a note from weeks ago you never answered, stays in Messages as quiet: it is nobody’s turn, but nobody let it go either. It keeps the email from vanishing from every mode, and ticking off a to-do on it never archives it. The reader names it (“Also in Messages: quiet, from Iris Chen”). Quiet conversations are not in the count beside Messages, which counts people; the line under Messages’ name, and mxr modes rail, say how many there are.

In Messages, e is done in Messages, except on a promise under Due, where it is the desk’s Done below. /desk still opens the desk itself.

Open the desk

In the web app, Messages (g m) shows the desk’s lanes. In the TUI, Messages in the sidebar opens the desk lens. From the command line:

mxr desk

14 replies owed, waiting on 4 threads, 7 new messages from people.

You owe 14
  Jon Bell                Research notes: terminal workflows · wrote to you           22h · usually 47m
  Samir Patel             Contract renewal details · 2 messages since you last wrote  16h · usually 47m
  Samir Patel             Action required: unusual sign-in attempt · wrote to you     10h · usually 47m
  and 11 more (--limit to see them)

Waiting on 4
  Samir Patel             Launch checklist for Project Aurora · no reply to your la…  1d
  Ari Stone               Urgent password reset notice · no reply to your last mess…  1d
  Leo Park                Weekly local-first reading list · no reply to your last m…  19h
  and 1 more (--limit to see them)

New from people 7
  Cal Brooks              Contract renewal details · wrote to you                     4h
  Account Verification    Build failed on release branch · wrote to you               8h
  Cal Brooks              Spring upgrade offer for your workspace · wrote to you      11h
  and 4 more (--limit to see them)

Everything else: Reading 6 · Paper trail 3 · Deliveries 2 · Screener 27

That output is from mxr desk --limit 3 against the demo mailbox. Each row shows the counterparty, the subject, the reason, how long it has been, and “usually” when mxr knows how fast replies go between you (the median of at least two past replies). A row that is past its usual time is flagged overdue; the web app colours its age.

The Everything else line counts what arrived this week in Reading and Paper trail, active deliveries, open invites and new senders in the screener. None of those are unread counts.

In the web app, the greeting counts the work (“Saturday morning. 3 replies, 2 promises.”) and each count links to its lane. A lane shows five rows; Show all opens the rest. mxr desk --account NAME limits the CLI to one account.

See what each row asks

With a language model configured, each row from a person says in one line what the conversation is about, and on You owe and New from people the reason becomes what they ask of you (“Asks: confirm who owns the rollout check”). The inbox, label queues, the reply queue and owed replies show the same line in place of the snippet, and so does the TUI.

Lines come from the cache at once. Missing ones are written in the background for the rows on screen first and appear as each is ready; the desk keeps a line’s space under every row, so nothing moves. Pointing at a line names the model that wrote it. Newsletters and automated mail never go to the model, and with no model the rows look as they always did.

A local model writes a line every few seconds (about 3 s each with gemma4 on Ollama), so a screen of rows fills in over a minute or so the first time, then comes from the cache until someone writes again. llm.gist_concurrency lets a hosted model write several at once.

mxr desk --gists                          # cached lines only, never waits
mxr briefing gists THREAD_ID --generate   # queue the missing ones

Deal with a row

Open the conversation, then do what it asks:

• Reply. The reply field sits at the bottom of the conversation. To answer everyone you owe in one sitting, use Focus & reply.
• Snooze. Snoozing takes the conversation off the desk until it wakes. Type the time in words, such as fri 3 or in 2d (time phrases).
• Keep a promise. Due rows are promises from mail you sent: ones mxr found, and ones you asked to be reminded about. Do the thing, then use Done. See promises on send.

When you reply, the row leaves You owe on its own. When they reply, a Waiting on row leaves on its own.

Come back to it later

Reply later takes a time. Press b on a row, type when you want it back, such as tue 9, tomorrow or in 2d, and check the exact time shown under the field before you press Enter. The toast names that time. What happens depends on who wrote last:

• They did (You owe, New from people): reply later. The conversation leaves the desk and your reply queue, and comes back to both at that time under You owe, with the reason “back from reply later”. Your inbox is not touched.
• You did (Waiting on): bring it back if nobody replies. The conversation leaves Waiting on. If nobody has replied by then, it comes back with the reason “no reply by the time you set” and joins your reply queue so you can follow up. If they reply first, it lands in You owe as usual and the time is dropped.

It comes back on its own, once, even if mxr was not running at the time. Press Enter with no time for the plain reply later: the reply queue, now. On Waiting on a time is required. u, or the toast’s Undo, puts back whatever was set before, for about a minute.

From the command line, preview with --dry-run, then set it. --at takes the same time phrases:

mxr desk later 7f5a428a-90b3-5f5f-a276-bfc82dd82874 309ae832-4d84-5d78-a3ef-76a7eda21496 --at "tue 9" --dry-run

Would set 2 conversations for Tuesday 6 October, 09:00 (in 6 days).
  7f5a428a-90b3-5f5f-a276-bfc82dd82874  reply later: back in You owe and the reply queue then
  309ae832-4d84-5d78-a3ef-76a7eda21496  waiting: back then if nobody has replied

mxr desk later 309ae832-4d84-5d78-a3ef-76a7eda21496 --at "in 3d"

Set 1 conversation for Saturday 3 October, 15:58 (in 3 days).
  309ae832-4d84-5d78-a3ef-76a7eda21496  waiting: back then if nobody has replied
Undo with: mxr undo 01a0f2d3-5a6c-7db2-8456-4781c4303b08

Snooze is different: it takes the conversation out of the inbox until it wakes. Reply later leaves the inbox alone and only changes the desk and the reply queue.

Put a row away with Done

Use Done when a row needs nothing from you: a thank-you, a thread that resolved itself, a promise you already kept. What Done does depends on the lane:

Lane	Done
You owe, New from people	Archives the conversation, marks it read, and keeps it off the desk.
Waiting on	Marks it read and stops waiting. Nothing is archived.
Due	Marks the promise kept and the conversation read. Other promises in the conversation stay.

Every lane also takes the conversation out of your reply-later queue and drops any time set to bring it back. It stays off the desk until someone writes in it again, you or them.

• Web app: the check at the end of the row. On the desk the archive key is Done, in every lane and on a selection, and from the reader when you opened the conversation from the desk. With a mouse the check shows when you point at the row; on a touch screen it is always there, and a short swipe right is Done too.
• TUI: the archive key on a desk row, or in the conversation opened beside the desk.
• CLI: preview first, then put it away:

mxr desk done 080a03cf-08ab-5aca-a5e6-73c9f269800d --dry-run

Would put away 1 conversation.
  080a03cf-08ab-5aca-a5e6-73c9f269800d  owed        would archive 5, mark 1 read, off the desk until someone writes

mxr desk done 080a03cf-08ab-5aca-a5e6-73c9f269800d

Done: 1 conversation.
  080a03cf-08ab-5aca-a5e6-73c9f269800d  owed        archived 5, marked 1 read, off the desk until someone writes
Undo with: mxr undo 01a0e733-f0fb-7510-9fb5-0462837a28ae

The thread id is the row’s thread_id in mxr desk --format json, or a line of mxr desk --format ids. Without --lane, Done picks Waiting on when you wrote last and You owe otherwise. For a Due row, pass the promise:

mxr desk done THREAD_ID --promise COMMITMENT_ID --dry-run

Would put away 1 conversation.
  93d1de1e-0556-5bcb-b5d9-9effb317b6b6  due         promise kept, off the desk until someone writes

Keys for every surface are in the keybindings reference. Holding a key down in the web app does not put away row after row. In the TUI a held key repeats, so tap once per row.

Undo

Undo puts everything back as it was: the messages return to the inbox, each read or unread as before, the row returns to the desk and to reply-later, and a promise is open again. Use the toast’s Undo in the web app or TUI, or the id Done printed:

mxr undo 01a0e733-f0fb-7510-9fb5-0462837a28ae

Undone

The undo window is about a minute.

If a conversation cannot be put away (its account is offline, say), its row stays, the rest are done, and mxr desk done exits non-zero. The first Done’s undo id still restores everything it changed. Run Done again to retry; the retry gets its own undo id.

Stop waiting without marking read

mxr desk dismiss takes a Waiting on row off the desk until a new message arrives, and changes nothing else:

mxr desk dismiss 309ae832-4d84-5d78-a3ef-76a7eda21496 --dry-run

Would stop waiting on 1 conversation.
  309ae832-4d84-5d78-a3ef-76a7eda21496

mxr desk restore THREAD_ID puts it back in Waiting on.

Script the desk

--format json returns every lane with its rows and totals. Row fields are listed in the desk reference.

# Subjects of the replies you owe, most overdue first.
mxr desk --format json | jq -r '.owed.rows[] | .subject'

# Read the most overdue one.
mxr cat "$(mxr desk --format json | jq -r '.owed.rows[0].message_id')"

Make the inbox your home instead

In the web app, set Settings > Appearance > Home to Inbox. The arrival-order inbox shows everything, Updates and Reading mail included, and Now stays one key away (g h).

When a conversation is not where you expect

• Not on the desk at all: run mxr why MESSAGE_ID. A newsletter or notification goes to Reading or Paper trail, and a screened-out sender never shows. To count a sender as a person, move them to People (move a sender).
• Gone after you archived it: You owe and New from people show only while the conversation is in the inbox. Undo, or move it back and wait for the next message.
• Came back after Done: someone wrote in the conversation again. Done holds only until the next message, on purpose: new mail is new information.
• Gone after b: you set a time. It comes back then; until then it is still in the inbox. u right away, or b again with a new time, changes it.
• In You owe instead of New from people: you have written to them before, or replied in that conversation.
• In New from people after you moved them to People: moving a sender to People makes their mail count as from a person. It lands in You owe once you have written to them.

Next: answer everyone you owe in one sitting.