Apple Mail Search

Direct SQL search against Apple Mail's Envelope Index database. Queries complete in under 0.5 seconds against all mail accounts.

When to use

• You need to find emails by subject, sender, or date.
• You want to list available mailboxes and accounts.
• You need fast search without opening Mail.app.
• You want to read email content from specific messages.

How it works

1. Reads Apple Mail's Envelope Index SQLite database at ~/Library/Mail/V10/MailData/
2. Joins messages with subjects, addresses, and mailboxes tables
3. Returns metadata (subject, sender, date, mailbox) for matching messages
4. Can retrieve full email content from .emlx files when needed

The database is always up-to-date as Mail.app writes to it in real-time.