Canonical local mailbox
Mail is stored on infrastructure controlled by the operator, not merely mirrored there as a secondary archive.
Self-host the mailbox. Outsource only transport.
Your email history should not belong to your email provider.
Shamash keeps your canonical mailbox, filtering, search, and history on infrastructure you control. Commercial providers do one job: move mail in and out.
Illustrative interface. Final alpha UI may differ.
Use large providers where they have made themselves unavoidable.
Keep the rest under your control.The problem
Email became centralized by design.
Running independent mail infrastructure is possible. Reliably exchanging mail with the largest providers is another matter. Large providers have built policies and systems that intentionally make independent delivery difficult.
The usual response is to give the same provider everything: transport, storage, filtering, search, and years of correspondence. Shamash rejects that coupling.
How it works
Separate transport from the mailbox.
A provider needs to receive messages for you and accept messages you send. It does not need to be the permanent home of your correspondence.
The provider moves the mail. Shamash keeps it.
Shamash periodically pulls incoming mail from configured providers, stores the canonical mailbox on your infrastructure, runs filtering and search locally, and exposes the mailbox to its own web interface and other mail software.
Outgoing mail is submitted through Shamash and relayed through the provider you configure.
Transport is delegated. Custody is not.
Provider independence
Change the courier. Keep the mailbox.
When you control the email address — usually by using your own domain — the transport provider can be replaced without rebuilding or migrating the canonical mailbox.
Your history, organization, filtering, search, and attachments stay where they are because they were never entrusted to the transport provider in the first place.
Provider-owned addresses such as @gmail.com or @yahoo.com remain tied to those providers.
No replacement lock-in
Your provider should not own your mail. Neither should Shamash.
Shamash stores the canonical mailbox in an open, directly accessible format. Other software can work with the storage, and Shamash exposes standard mail interfaces for existing clients and tools.
The point is not to move dependency from one vendor to another. The mailbox remains yours even if you later stop using Shamash.
- Direct access to stored mail
- Works with existing mail tools
- Multiple providers and accounts
- Historical mail remains usable without its old provider
Built-in webmail + your existing mail clients
A backend first
Use Shamash directly — or don’t.
Shamash includes its own browser interface, but replacing your preferred mail client is not the goal. The backend is the product.
Use the built-in webmail, connect desktop or mobile clients, or access the stored mailbox directly with other software.
Interface imagery is illustrative while Shamash is being implemented.
What the alpha is meant to include
A complete mail backend, not an archive bolted onto a provider.
The first Shamash alpha is intended to contain the full planned functionality rather than a partial architectural preview.
Provider ingress and egress
Pull mail from supported providers and relay outgoing mail through configured transport accounts.
Filtering and search
Organization and full-text search live with the mailbox, so changing transport does not rebuild your mail system.
Multiple users and accounts
One installation can serve an individual, a family, or an organization with isolated users and multiple mail sources.
Historical import
Keep old mail accessible even when the provider that originally carried it is no longer configured.
Scheduled synchronization
Built-in scheduling keeps providers synchronized without relying on an external cron job or timer.
Low-latency updates
Support for provider-side notification mechanisms reduces the delay between arrival and local availability where available.
Deduplication
Detect duplicate mail at storage and logical-message levels to keep large historical mailboxes sane.
Technical notes for self-hosters
Storage: Maildir++ is the canonical on-disk mailbox format.
Client access: Shamash is intended to expose standard mail protocols as well as its web UI.
Administration: Initial alpha configuration is via CLI and configuration files.
Distribution: Standalone Linux binary. No Shamash-operated account or service is required.
Where Shamash fits
Not hosted email. Not a full public mail server. Not merely an archive.
| Capability | Hosted email | Full self-hosted mail server | Mail archive | Shamash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canonical mailbox under your control | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Commercial provider handles Internet transport | Yes | No | Not the archive’s job | Yes |
| Normal sending and receiving | Yes | Yes | Usually no | Yes |
| Requires you to operate public mail transport | No | Yes | No | No |
| Direct access to stored mail | Usually no | Varies | Varies | Yes |
| Change transport provider without moving mailbox history* | Usually no | — | — | Yes |
* When using an email address controlled by the operator.
Built for self-hosting
One Linux binary. Your server. Your mail.
Shamash is designed to run independently on infrastructure you control. It does not require a Shamash account or a Shamash-operated backend to continue working.
The first alpha is administered through the command line and configuration files. A browser-based setup console is not part of the initial plan.
Why Shamash?
𒀭𒌓
A small nod to an old idea.
Shamash was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god, believed to see what happened in the world each day and associated with justice and the protection of travelers.
The name is a quiet reference to mail in motion and the history that should remain yours. The visual identity borrows the solar motif without turning the product into a historical theme.
Alpha
Keep the history. Change the provider.
Keep your mailbox on infrastructure you control. Let providers handle only the transport.
Alpha binary — release link pending This draft is ready for the release URL once the first alpha is published.