Read Updates as a briefing, then let it go

Updates gathers notifications from services and apps into a digest at fixed times, 08:00 and 16:30 by default. You read one line per source, see what changed, and let go of the whole digest in one key. Anything that needs you, like a failed payment, is already in To do.

mxr updates                  # the latest digest and what arrived since
mxr updates let-go --dry-run # what letting go would do
mxr updates let-go           # let go of exactly that set

In the web app press g u, or open the Updates card on Now. In the TUI, pick Updates in the sidebar.

Each source is one line, sorted by what it asks of you

Updates holds automated mail in your inbox: the same senders the classifier puts in Updates, such as notifications@github.com or a no-reply address. Thirty emails from twelve senders read as twelve lines, in three sections that never change order:

Section	What lands there
Needs a look	A new sign-in, a failed payment, a failing build, a parcel with a delivery problem, or words like “failed”, “declined” or “suspended” in the subject. One line per kind of message.
Changed	A source that is new, a kind of message it hasn’t sent before, a number that moved, a build that went green again, an incident that was resolved, a parcel that moved.
Routine	Everything else, one line per source with a count.

Each line is a fact, not the subject as written. The rules clean the subject (they drop “Re:”, “[acme/api]” tags and the sender’s brand), and when the subject says nothing (“Your weekly update is here”) they use the first line of the body that does. No model writes any of it.

Numbers are quoted from the email. When the previous email of the same kind quoted a number with the same unit, the line adds the change, computed by code: “21.3 km over 3 runs, up 12% on last week”. Two different units, such as miles and kilometres or pounds and dollars, get no change at all rather than a guess.

Builds and incidents fold into one line with their current state: “Run failed: CI - main” for the latest of three failing runs, with how long it has been failing. Parcels from Deliveries lead with their current state, followed by available item names, tracking or order references, and delivery estimates.

Open Why this update? in the web app to read the classification evidence. Parcel lines keep that evidence under Details alongside their tracking and order references.

The digest is a fixed cut; mail after it waits

The digest holds everything that arrived by the latest cut and that you haven’t let go of. Anything left from an earlier digest folds into this one instead of stacking. Mail that arrives after the cut sits below the digest, quiet and uncounted, as “arriving for 16:30”, until the next cut.

mxr updates --cut 08:00                    # the 08:00 cut, today or yesterday
mxr updates --cut 2026-10-07T08:00:00Z     # or RFC3339

To change the times, set updates.cuts in your config to one to four times. See the config reference.

[updates]
cuts = ["07:30", "12:00", "18:00"]

Let go of the digest in one key

Letting go takes every update in the cut out of Updates. Shown or hidden, the whole cut goes, and nothing that arrived after it. A conversation no other mode holds is archived at your provider, the same rule as done here; one that To do still holds stays in the inbox.

Preview first:

mxr updates let-go --dry-run

The preview says how many updates from how many sources, how many of those the digest wasn’t showing (tuned away or past their window), and how many To do keeps. Without --dry-run, mxr updates let-go previews and then lets go of exactly the set it previewed, and prints an id for mxr undo. If mail landed in the cut between the two, it refuses and asks you to preview again.

To let go of one source only:

mxr updates let-go --source github.com/acme/api --dry-run

The keys:

Key	What it does
A	Let go of the digest, after a preview
e	Let go of this source
t	This needs me: make a to-do from the line
K	Tune this source
L	Open the line’s link (a tracker page, a build). Never a pay link
o	Open the email itself
p	Pin or unpin the latest email behind this line
S	Preview a sweep of this sender in this account; unavailable for parcels
u	Undo
?	What Updates is for, then its keys

Pin an email before sweeping its sender

In Updates, p pins the selected line’s latest email. The pin is local and survives reloads; changes made in the CLI, terminal or web app appear when the digest refreshes. It protects that email from a sweep, rather than pinning every future email from the sender.

Press S to preview a sender sweep. It applies to that line’s account, leaves pinned emails in place and asks before archiving. Cancel to leave the mail untouched, or use u after applying to undo it. Parcel trackers do not offer a sender sweep.

In the TUI, the Account: line shows the configured name and address when they fit; otherwise, it favors the address.

What needs you leads Needs a look as a suggested to-do

A new sign-in alert, a failed payment and a parcel with a delivery problem sit at the top of Needs a look, with a highlighted line saying why: “Suggested to-do: new sign-in alert from Google (accounts.google.com) (rule). t adds it.” mxr never adds the to-do for you; t does, with the title filled in (“Check new sign-in to Google (accounts.google.com)”). The line then shows “already in To do”.

Anyone can put “New sign-in” in a subject or “Google” in a display name, so every line in Needs a look and every title t fills in shows the host the mail came from beside the name. A sign-in alert from “Google” at g00gle-alerts.example reads “Google (g00gle-alerts.example)”.

t on any other line makes a to-do from it too.

One-time codes and alerts expire and never show

Some updates stop mattering:

Kind	Stops showing
One-time code	After the lifetime it states, else 10 minutes
Verify or confirm link	After the expiry it states, else 3 days
Sign-in or security alert	2 days after it arrived
Sale or offer	When it says it ends (“ends Sunday”), else 7 days

An update past its window never enters a digest. It stays in your inbox and in search. List them:

mxr updates --expired

The digest also says how many expired since you last opened Updates.

Tune a source

mxr updates source github.com/acme/api changes-only --dry-run
mxr updates source notifications@strava.com muted

Setting	The source’s mail
every-digest	In every digest (the default)
changes-only	Only when something changed or needs a look
muted	Never in the digest; still in your inbox, Archive and search
breakthrough	Every message leads Needs a look with a suggested to-do

A source is named by the key the digest prints (the sender’s domain, plus a repository for GitHub), or by any address it sends from. The output prints the command that puts the old setting back.

If you let go of a source in eight digests in a row without opening any of its mail, its line asks once whether to mute it, and asks again no sooner than a month later.

Script it

mxr updates --format json prints the whole digest: the cut, the three sections, since, and selection_token. --format jsonl prints one line per source line with a section field (needs_a_look, changed, routine, since). See JSON output.

# Facts that need a look, with their source.
mxr updates --format jsonl | jq -r 'select(.section == "needs_a_look") | "\(.source_name): \(.fact)"'

Agents can read the digest and preview a let go over MCP with mxr_updates_digest and mxr_updates_let_go_preview; letting go stays with you.

When something is not where you expect

• A notification isn’t in Updates: run mxr why MESSAGE_ID. A sender the rules call a person goes to Messages; move it with mxr sender kind ADDRESS paper-trail.
• A source shows nothing: it may be muted or changes-only. The digest says how many updates tuning hid.
• A parcel vanished: delivered parcels leave a day after delivery, and a parcel with no news goes quiet. See Deliveries.
• A code isn’t there: it expired. mxr updates --expired lists it.