More Than Email
An email client in the style of Sortd and Trello, run entirely off Gmail labels and emails.
- Every Gmail label is a workspace, Inbox included. The sidebar shows your labels as a nested tree (
Parent/Child names) with unread counts. Opening a label for the first time creates its workspace.
- A workspace starts with just the label's emails in an unsorted column, read live from Gmail. There are no preset columns. Add lanes when you want them, then drag emails into them.
- The email is the ticket. Notes and tasks belong to the email thread itself and follow it into every label it carries. One email can sit in a different lane in each of its labels' workspaces.
- Assigning an email to a workspace applies the Gmail label. In the email panel, add or remove workspaces; the change is made in Gmail. Inbox is just a label, so removing it archives the email.
- New labels are new workspaces. Use "+ New label" or the "+" on any label in the sidebar (nested names such as
Clients/JR work). Any email can be made into its own workspace: a new label nested under the current one, applied to the email.
- The label tree is colour-coded by branch (or by the label's Gmail colour), with guide lines showing which labels sit under which parent.
- Embedded images and attachments show in the email: inline images in place, image attachments as thumbnails, other files as downloads.
- New replies show on the card ("↩ New reply") until you open the email.
- In the Inbox, a Primary / All tabs switch keeps promotions out. Search looks within the current label.
- Resizable layout: drag the edges of the sidebar, the email column, the lanes and the email panel. Double-click an edge to reset it.
"My tasks" lists every task across all your emails, grouped by due date.
Stack: Next.js 15 (App Router, server actions) · Prisma + Postgres · Gmail API (gmail.modify: read mail and change labels; never sends or deletes) · dnd-kit · Tailwind.
Deploy (GitHub → Vercel)
- Google OAuth client. In the Google Cloud Console:
- Create a project, then enable the Gmail API.
- On the OAuth consent screen, choose External and add yourself as a test user. Add the
gmail.modify scope (the app reads mail and applies or removes labels; it never sends or deletes mail).
- Under Credentials → Create OAuth client ID, choose Web application. Add these as authorised redirect URIs:
https://<your-app>.vercel.app/api/auth/google/callbackhttp://localhost:3000/api/auth/google/callback
- Vercel project. Import this GitHub repo in Vercel. Pushes to
main deploy to production; pull requests get preview deployments.
- Database. In the Vercel project, open Storage and add Prisma Postgres. This sets
DATABASE_URL, which the app uses for queries and migrations. Tick the Development environment too if you want vercel env pull to work locally.
- Environment variables. Set
SESSION_SECRET, GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID, GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET and ALLOWED_EMAILS (see .env.example).
- Redeploy. The
vercel-build script runs prisma migrate deploy before building, so the database schema stays in step with each deploy.
GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/ci.yml) lints, typechecks, checks that migrations apply and match the schema, and builds on every push and PR.
While the Google OAuth app is in "Testing" mode, Google expires refresh tokens after 7 days, so you'll need to sign in again weekly. Publishing the app (no verification is needed for a single user who accepts the warning) removes that limit.
Preview deployments use the same database as production (the integration connects both). Any PR that changes the schema will migrate the shared database when its preview builds, so be careful with destructive migrations, or connect a separate database to Preview.
Local development
npm install
cp .env.example .env # or: vercel link && vercel env pull .env
npx prisma migrate deploy
npm run dev
Leave GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID blank to use demo mode with sample emails.
To change the schema, edit prisma/schema.prisma and then run npm run db:migrate -- --name <change>. Commit the generated migration.
