Mail

This page is what people actually do. For every command and flag, see the reference: messages, conversations, drafts, settings.

Read your mail

proton mail messages list                    # the inbox
proton mail messages list --unread
proton mail messages list --folder archive
proton mail messages get "Invoice #2291"     # headers, body, attachment list
proton mail messages get REF --body-only > body.txt

Folders are inbox, sent, drafts, trash, spam, archive, starred, scheduled, snoozed, all, or any label. Proton’s inbox tabs are folders too: primary, social, promotions, newsletters, transactions, updates. A tab holds the inbox’s mail sorted into it, and all is everything, or everything but spam and trash while almost-all-mail is on.

Listings come back newest first. --sort size orders by how much room a message takes, largest first, and --desc reverses either order. A listing ordered by size shows a SIZE column.

proton mail messages list --folder all --sort size --limit 10

get shows the plain-text body by default. --render html gives you the markup, --render raw the body exactly as it was sent, and --strip-quotes drops quoted reply blocks.

A Signature: line reports the verdict of the signature check against the sender’s key.

Count unread mail

proton mail conversations count
proton mail messages count --folder Receipts

Every folder and label gets a row with how much it holds and how much of that is unread. While categories are on, so does each tab the inbox shows.

conversations count counts threads, and a thread counts as unread while any message in it is. messages count counts messages. --folder counts one folder or label.

To count what a filter matches, read the last line of list: in 25 of 42 messages, 42 match.

Spot a message Proton distrusts

A message Proton flagged carries two more lines:

$ proton mail messages get 5bH2mQxK
Subject:    Your account will be suspended
From:       PayPal <security@paypa1-secure.com>
To:         me@proton.me
Date:       2026-04-15 14:32
Signature:  unsigned
DMARC:      failed
Flagged:    phishing
ID:         5bH2mQxK

Flagged: reads phishing, suspicious, or both. DMARC: failed means the sender’s domain did not vouch for the message, so the address it claims to come from may not be the address it came from.

list marks the same messages with ✗ in the FLAGS column. In --output json each verdict is a field of its own: phishing, suspicious and dmarc_failed, present only when true.

proton mail messages mark legitimate REF      # Proton was wrong about this one
proton mail messages mark phishing REF        # report it, and file it as spam

mark legitimate settles the Flagged: verdict on that message alone, and the DMARC: line stays. To let a sender through from now on, see Who reaches the inbox.

mark phishing sends the message to Proton decrypted, body included, for their anti-abuse team to read. Nothing withdraws a report. To keep a sender out without reporting anything, use proton mail settings senders block.

See who tried to track you

While image-proxy is on, links in get come without their tracking, and a Links: line counts the ones that had some. Replies and forwards quote the cleaned links.

proton mail messages trackers list 'The north trail is open again'

Each row is an image a known tracker serves, or a link that carried tracking. An image row names who serves it, and nothing in the message is loaded to find out. A link row names the parameters taken out, or redirect for a link that went through a click-tracking address.

With image-proxy off, links stay as they were sent and trackers list refuses. To turn it on:

proton mail settings set image-proxy on

Search

Searching is list with a filter. list looks in the inbox; --folder all searches everything, spam and trash included unless almost-all-mail is on.

proton mail messages list --keyword invoice --folder all
proton mail messages list --from billing@example.com --after 2026-01-01 --folder all
proton mail messages list --subject "Q1 report" --folder archive
proton mail messages list --via work@example.com --has-attachments --folder all

--from and --to match addresses. --keyword matches the subject, a display name and an address.

--via takes one of your own addresses, by email or ID, and matches the mail that arrived at it or left from it. It finds what --to misses: mail that came by Bcc, through a mailing list or a catch-all. A plus-alias is not one of your addresses, so find its mail with --to.

--has-attachments and --read narrow by what a message carries and whether you have read it. On a thread, --read means nothing in it is unread.

Bodies are not searched. To search what a message says, build an index on this machine: Local index. With one, --keyword covers bodies and --from covers display names.

--after and --before are the first and last whole days to include, read in your own zone, and both are included.

A change reaches list a few seconds late. To confirm one right away, get the ID the command printed.

Send

proton mail messages send --to alice@proton.me --subject Hi --body "Hello there"
proton mail messages send --to alice@proton.me --subject Report --body "See attached." --attach ./report.pdf
proton mail messages send --to alice@proton.me --subject Hi --body "<b>Hi</b>" --html
echo "Deployed." | proton mail messages send --to me@proton.me --subject Deploy --body -

send prints the new message ID on stdout, so ID=$(proton mail messages send …) works.

Your signature is applied automatically: the address’s own signature, plus Proton’s “Sent with Proton Mail secure email.” footer when your account has it enabled. Free accounts have that footer forced on.

• --no-signature leaves both out of one message.
• proton mail settings set pm-signature off turns the footer off account-wide.

Whether a recipient’s copy is encrypted, PGP-signed or sent as plain text follows their contact’s settings, and your account’s sign and pgp-scheme settings where the contact states none. They are set in How mail to an address is sent.

On an account with several addresses, --from chooses which one it leaves from, plus-aliases included:

proton mail messages send --from work@example.com --to alice@proton.me --subject Hi --body Hello

Scheduling, expiry, and outside recipients

proton mail messages send … --send-at 2026-05-01T09:00     # local time; confirms the resolved time
proton mail messages send … --expires 7d
proton mail messages send … --eo-password-file /run/secrets/jane --eo-password-hint "our usual"
pass show mail/jane | proton mail messages send … --eo-password-file -

The password a recipient outside Proton types comes from a file or from standard input, never from a flag value. It needs at least eight characters.

Such a message expires after 28 days whatever --expires says. --eo-password-file - takes the stream for itself, so it cannot be combined with --body -.

To read one that was sent to you, see Open a password-protected message somebody sent you.

A scheduled send sits in the scheduled folder until it goes. To pull it back to Drafts, run proton mail messages unschedule REF.

Reply and forward

proton mail messages reply "Invoice #2291" --body "Thanks, paid today."
proton mail messages reply REF --everyone --body "Looping in the team."
proton mail messages forward REF --to alice@proton.me --body "FYI"
proton mail conversations reply REF --body "Works for me."   # newest message in a thread

The original is quoted below your text, the subject gains Re: or Fw: (never twice), and the thread stays a thread.

A reply leaves from the address the original arrived on. A forward carries the original’s attachments without re-uploading them.

• --no-quote sends your text alone.
• --no-attachments leaves them behind.
• --draft stops before sending and prints the new draft’s ID, the same as clicking Reply and leaving the composer open.

Reply and forward take everything send takes.

Read receipts

Ask the people you write to for confirmation that they read the message:

proton mail messages send --to alice@proton.me --subject Contract --body "Signed and attached." --request-receipt

Every command that composes takes the flag: send, reply, forward, both conversations answers, and drafts create. On a draft, proton mail drafts update REF --request-receipt=false takes the request off again.

A message that asks you for one says so:

$ proton mail messages get 5bH2mQxK
Subject:    Invoice #2291 is ready
From:       Fastmail Billing <billing@fastmail.com>
To:         me@proton.me
Date:       2026-04-15 14:32
Receipt:    requested
Signature:  verified
ID:         5bH2mQxK

Nothing goes back until you send it:

proton mail messages receipt 5bH2mQxK

The line then reads Receipt: sent. A receipt cannot be taken back, and a message that already has one is refused.

In --output json a message carries receipt_requested, receipt_sent, and receipt_due for the ones you can still answer.

Drafts

A draft is a message, so messages get, move and the rest already work on one. mail drafts holds what only makes sense before it goes out.

proton mail drafts create --to alice@proton.me --subject Report --body "Draft one."
proton mail drafts update REF --body "Draft two." --attach ./report.pdf --detach old-annex.xlsx
proton mail drafts send REF

update replaces only what you pass. --to, --cc and --bcc replace the whole list; --attach adds a file and --detach removes one.

REF resolves within Drafts only, so editing “Report” can never reach a message you already sent. Sending a draft delivers it exactly as stored.

Organize

A message lives in exactly one folder and carries any number of labels. So moving and labelling are different verbs, and passing a label to move is an error rather than a silent relabel. move --into takes inbox, archive, spam, trash, a tab or one of your own folders.

proton mail messages move REF --into archive     # it leaves where it was
proton mail messages label REF --label Work      # it stays where it is
proton mail messages mark read REF
proton mail messages star REF
proton mail messages trash REF

Every one of those takes filters instead of references, and acts on everything that matches:

proton mail messages trash --unread --older-than 30d
proton mail messages move --into archive --from newsletter@example.com --older-than 7d
proton mail messages delete --folder spam --all

Add --dry-run to see the list first. --limit caps how many a verb touches and defaults to 150. See Filters and bulk changes.

empty is not delete --all. A filtered delete shows what it will touch. empty clears the folder whole, takes no filter, and always asks. It clears trash, spam, snoozed and your own folders and labels, and refuses any other folder.

proton mail messages empty --folder trash
proton mail messages update REF --expires 7d   # delete itself later
proton mail messages update REF --expires never
proton mail messages unsubscribe REF           # leave the list a message came from

update --expires leaves a message whose sender set its expiry as it is, and sets none in trash or spam. list marks mail that deletes itself with ⧗.

unsubscribe uses whichever way the list offers, and the answer says which it used. To work from the senders instead of their mail, see Mailing lists.

Mailing lists

mail mailing-lists is the mailbox read by sender: everyone who writes to you as a list, how much they send, and how much of it you never open.

proton mail mailing-lists list
proton mail mailing-lists list --sort unread --desc
proton mail mailing-lists list --unsubscribed        # the ones you have left
proton mail mailing-lists get "Trailhead Weekly"

REF is the list’s name, its sender address, or its ID. Order with --sort name|unread|frequency|received|read, newest first, and --desc reverses.

proton mail mailing-lists unsubscribe "Trailhead Weekly"
proton mail mailing-lists update "Trailhead Weekly" --into Archive --mark-read
proton mail mailing-lists remove "Trailhead Weekly"

unsubscribe uses one of three ways, and says which: Proton submits a one-click form for you, an unsubscribe address gets a message sent from the address the list writes to, or a link opens in your browser and is printed either way. A list that offers none of them is refused, and the answer points at proton mail settings senders block.

update covers the mail already here and everything that arrives afterwards. It leaves a filter behind, which get names; turn the rule off with proton mail settings filters disable.

remove drops the entry from the listing. It unsubscribes from nothing, and the list comes back the next time it writes.

Threads

Conversations are whole threads, with the same verbs as messages.

proton mail conversations get REF              # every message, chronological
proton mail conversations get --summary REF    # one line per message
proton mail conversations snooze REF --until 3d
proton mail conversations update REF --expires 7d   # the whole thread deletes itself later

Snooze works on threads, not messages: a conversation leaves the inbox as a whole and returns as a whole.

--until takes a duration from now or a moment. A moment in the past is refused.

conversations update --expires changes every message of each thread. With --folder, it changes only the messages in that folder.

Attachments

proton mail messages attachments list REF
proton mail messages attachments download REF --dest-dir ./attachments/
proton mail messages attachments download REF invoice-2291.pdf --dest-dir .
proton mail conversations attachments download REF --dest-dir ./thread/

Naming an attachment downloads that one, by its own name or by its ID; naming none downloads them all.

Existing files are never overwritten silently: names collide into file (2).pdf, or pass --force. --include-inline covers embedded images too.

Open a password-protected message somebody sent you

A message sent to an address outside Proton arrives as a link, and the password comes to you some other way. Name it by the link or by the id in it:

proton mail protected get 9fK2pQ7xNv4mB8 --eo-password-file /run/secrets/jane
proton mail protected get 'https://mail.proton.me/eo/9fK2pQ7xNv4mB8' --eo-password-file -
proton mail protected attachments list 9fK2pQ7xNv4mB8 --eo-password-file /run/secrets/jane
proton mail protected attachments download 9fK2pQ7xNv4mB8 --eo-password-file /run/secrets/jane --dest-dir .

Quote the link: a shell splits nothing in an id, and everything in a URL.

The password is the one whoever sent the message gave you, not a Proton password, and it comes from a file or from standard input.

$ proton mail protected get 9fK2pQ7xNv4mB8 --eo-password-file /run/secrets/jane
Subject:  Q3 numbers
From:     Jane Roe <jane@proton.me>
To:       me@example.com
Date:     2026-04-15 14:32
Expires:  2026-05-13 14:32

Here are the numbers we discussed.

Attachments
ID        NAME           SIZE
────────  ─────────────  ───────
kQ81mDx4  q3-report.pdf  84.2 KB

get takes the same --render, --body-only and --strip-quotes as mail messages get. The message is gone 28 days after it was sent.

An answer goes to whoever sent it and nobody else:

proton mail protected reply 9fK2pQ7xNv4mB8 --eo-password-file /run/secrets/jane --body 'Got them, thanks.'
proton mail protected reply 9fK2pQ7xNv4mB8 --eo-password-file /run/secrets/jane --body 'Signed copy attached.' --attach ./signed.pdf

Five answers can go back from behind one link, and a Replies line on get counts the ones already sent.

None of this needs an account. Your own mail, login included, is untouched by it.

Back it up

export writes ordinary RFC 822 files you can open in any mail client.

proton mail messages export --folder archive --older-than 1y --all --dest-dir ./backup
proton mail messages export --folder inbox --all --format mbox --dest inbox.mbox
proton mail messages export REF --dest - | formail -X ""

It takes the same filters as trash and move.

• --format eml writes one file per message, named <date> <subject>.eml.
• --format mbox concatenates everything into one file.
• --no-attachments skips downloads, which is much faster for a large archive.

Exported files are not encrypted. Their DKIM-Signature and ARC-* headers no longer verify either.

Going the other way, --eml reads a file back into a draft or a send:

proton mail drafts create --eml ./message.eml
proton mail messages send --eml ./message.eml --to someone-else@proton.me

Any flag you also pass overrides what the file says, and no signature is appended: the file is already a finished message.

A file cannot be placed straight into your archive. Mail comes in from another mailbox instead - see Bring mail over from another account.

Watch for new mail

proton mail messages watch
proton mail messages watch --output json | jq -c .

Stays attached and prints a line the moment a message lands.

It reports what happens while it is watching, so nothing that arrived beforehand comes up. A thread coming back from snooze counts as landing.

Without --folder it covers what Proton notifies you about: the inbox, starred mail and every folder whose notifications are on. With categories on, the inbox counts only in the categories that notify and in the hidden ones.

Each JSON line names the thread in conversation_id, so a consumer can act on the whole thread without looking it up. See Streams and Desktop notifications.

Folders and labels

proton mail settings folders create --name Projects
proton mail settings folders create --name Clients --parent Projects
proton mail settings labels create --name Important --color "#8080FF"
proton mail settings labels delete Important        # by name, or by ID

Colours have to be one of Proton’s 20 accent colours. An invalid one prints the palette and is refused before anything is sent.

A folder goes inside another with --parent, which takes the folder’s name, short ID or ID. --parent none brings it back to the top level.

Deleting a folder or label asks first. The messages it held are not deleted.

Order

folders list and labels list show them in the order Proton keeps them, which is the order every Proton client shows.

proton mail settings folders reorder Projects        # put it first
proton mail settings labels reorder --alphabetical   # sort them all

reorder moves the ones you name to the front, in the order you name them, and the rest keep the order they are in. A folder is ordered among the folders it sits beside, so name folders from one place at a time; --alphabetical covers every level.

Folders carry a NOTIFY switch, which is whether mail landing there is worth telling you about. It shows in folders list, --notify sets it, and it decides what messages watch covers by default. Labels have no such switch.

Sort the inbox into categories

proton mail settings set category-view on
proton mail settings categories list
proton mail settings categories enable transactions
proton mail settings categories update social --notify

With categories on, the inbox is split into tabs: primary, social, promotions, newsletters, transactions and updates. categories list shows which tabs are shown and which notify, and proton mail settings set category-view-counters on puts an unread count on each tab.

Primary is always shown, and its notifications cannot be changed. At least one other category stays shown; to stop using categories, run proton mail settings set category-view off.

In the web, the mail of a hidden category shows under Primary. --folder primary lists only the mail sorted into Primary itself.

A message changes category the way it changes folder:

proton mail messages move 7Kd2p1Qa --into primary

Filters

Server-side filters. Describe one with --if; it is stored as Sieve and opens in the web client’s filter builder afterwards.

proton mail settings filters create --name "Archive invoices" \
  --if "subject contains invoice" --into Archive

proton mail settings filters create --name Receipts \
  --if "sender contains billing@" --if "subject not contains draft" \
  --label Receipts --mark-read

proton mail settings filters create --name Loud --match any \
  --if "subject starts [ALERT]" --if "attachments contains" --star

A condition reads FIELD [not] COMPARATOR VALUE:

Part	Values
Field	subject, sender, recipient, attachments
Comparator	contains, is, starts, ends, matches

is wants the whole value. matches takes * and ? as wildcards. not inverts. attachments takes no value: it asks whether there is one.

Every condition has to hold unless you pass --match any.

Actions are --into (one folder), --label (repeatable), --mark-read and --star. A filter needs at least one. Every filter skips mail Proton has already called spam.

update rewrites the rule in place and replaces the whole thing rather than adding to it. The filter keeps its place in the order and stays enabled or disabled as it was, which is what makes this different from deleting it and making a new one.

get shows the rule as it stands, in the words --if takes. To bring your own script, use --sieve -; get then shows the script itself.

A filter acts once, as mail arrives, so a rule written today does nothing about yesterday’s mail:

proton mail settings filters apply                       # every enabled filter
proton mail settings filters reorder Receipts            # run this one first

Order decides the outcome: the first rule to file a message wins. reorder moves the filters you name to the front and leaves the rest in the order they are in.

Auto-reply

proton mail settings autoreply set --repeat fixed \
  --start 2026-07-01T09:00 --end 2026-07-14T18:00 \
  --body "I'm away until the 14th."
proton mail settings autoreply disable

--start and --end are written in the grammar the repeat mode dictates:

--repeat	--start / --end
fixed	2026-07-01T09:00 - a date and time
daily	09:00 - a time of day, with --days mon,tue,wed
weekly	mon:09:00 - a weekday and time
monthly	1:09:00 - a day of the month and time
permanent	not used

All of them take --zone, any IANA name, defaulting to your system’s.

Saving a schedule turns the auto-reply on. disable keeps it for later.

Every auto-reply goes out with the subject Auto, which cannot be changed. Auto-reply is a paid feature.

Who reaches the inbox

Spam, block and allow are one list with a destination on each entry, so list shows all three:

proton mail settings senders list
proton mail settings senders block spammer@example.com
proton mail settings senders block @example.com          # a whole domain
proton mail settings senders allow billing@example.com
proton mail settings senders remove billing@example.com

A decision applies before the spam filter forms an opinion. Deciding again about the same sender replaces the earlier decision. remove lets the filter decide again.

Forward one of your addresses

proton mail settings forwarding create me@proton.me jane@proton.me
proton mail settings forwarding create me@proton.me jane@example.com
proton mail settings forwarding list

Setting one up needs a paid Mail plan. Nothing is forwarded until the other side accepts. A Proton address accepts in its Proton client or with forwarding accept; an address outside Proton follows the link Proton emails it.

Forwarding to an address outside Proton turns off end-to-end encryption for your address. It comes back on when the last such forwarding from that address is deleted. proton mail settings addresses get me@proton.me shows whether it is on.

Setting up that kind asks for your password, and so does the delete that turns encryption back on. With no terminal, pass --password-file, which takes - for standard input. The other commands that do this are listed in Account.

Change or stop a forwarding you set up

proton mail settings forwarding disable jane@proton.me
proton mail settings forwarding enable jane@proton.me
proton mail settings forwarding resend jane@proton.me
proton mail settings forwarding delete jane@proton.me

disable stops mail being forwarded and keeps the arrangement. resend offers it again to a forwardee who declined it, or whose material your key change left outdated. delete takes one down in either direction.

Accept a forwarding somebody sent you

proton mail settings forwarding list
proton mail settings forwarding accept jane@proton.me
proton mail settings forwarding decline jane@proton.me

A forwarding is named by the other party’s address, in either direction. Only a pending forwarding sent to one of your addresses can be accepted or declined, and accepting needs no plan.

Set up a custom domain

proton mail settings domains create example.com
proton mail settings domains get example.com
proton mail settings domains list

Adding a domain needs a paid Mail plan, and how many you may have depends on it. Without one, every command here says so.

Changing a domain asks for your password, even when you are signed in. That is create, update and delete. With no terminal, pass --password-file, which takes - for standard input. The other commands that do this are listed in Account.

get shows every DNS entry the domain needs and re-checks your DNS each time it runs. Add the entries at your registrar, then run it again. Each check reads ok, or what Proton found instead: missing, wrong, duplicate, wrong-priority, backup, error, warning, delegated or relaxed.

$ proton mail settings domains get example.com
Domain:        example.com
Status:        unverified
Addresses:     0
Catch-all:     (none)
Verification:  missing
               TXT  @  protonmail-verification=7c1e4f9a2b8d6503e1f74a0cc9b2d81e5f3a6740

No address can be added on the domain until Proton has seen the verification entry. Every entry has to stay in place afterwards: removing the verification entry gives the domain up.

list shows the last check rather than making a new one. Its DNS column reads ok, or names the checks that are not passing.

Catch mail sent to a name that does not exist

proton mail settings domains update example.com --catch-all work@example.com
proton mail settings domains update example.com --catch-all none

Mail sent to a name your domain has not got arrives at the catch-all address instead of being refused. --catch-all takes one of your addresses on that domain, or none to refuse such mail again. One address catches at a time, so naming another moves it.

Remove a custom domain

proton mail settings domains delete example.com

Every address on the domain stops sending and receiving, and the mail they hold stays. Adding the domain again needs its DNS entries verified from scratch.

Add an address

proton mail settings addresses create work@example.com --display-name Work
proton mail settings addresses list
proton mail settings addresses disable work@example.com
proton mail settings addresses enable work@example.com
proton mail settings addresses delete work@example.com

The address sends and receives as soon as it exists. Its domain has to be one the account can use: a Proton domain, or a custom domain already set up. Adding, disabling and deleting an address needs a paid Mail plan.

Your first Proton address and your short-domain address stay enabled and cannot be deleted. Proton allows one address deletion a year unless the address is on a custom domain, and a deleted address cannot be used again by anyone.

get shows whether an address holds a key. One that does not can neither send nor receive; running create on it publishes the missing key.

Turn on your @pm.me address

proton mail settings addresses create alice@pm.me

Your short-domain address is your username at pm.me: the local part of the address addresses list shows as original. It needs a paid Mail plan, takes the display name and signature of your default address, and once on cannot be disabled or deleted. Any other address on pm.me counts towards your address limit.

Make another address the default

proton mail settings addresses reorder alice@pm.me
proton mail settings addresses reorder alice@pm.me work@example.com alice@proton.me

The first address is the default: addresses list shows it first, and mail leaves from it when no --from is given. Name the addresses that should come first, in order; the rest keep the order they are in. A disabled or external address, or one that cannot send or receive, cannot be the default.

Bring mail over from another account

proton mail settings imports create jane@fastmail.com --imap-password-file /run/secrets/fastmail
proton mail settings imports list
proton mail settings imports get jane@fastmail.com

create starts an import of another mailbox over IMAP and returns. The import carries on for as long as it takes, and list and get say how far it has got.

The other mailbox’s password is sent to Proton, which connects to the mailbox and keeps the password until the import is over. Most providers want an app password here rather than the one you sign in with. The password is read from a file, never a flag - - reads standard input.

--server and --port are looked up from the address. Give them for a provider Proton does not know, or for a login that is not an address:

proton mail settings imports create jane@example.com --imap-password-file /run/secrets/mailbox \
  --server imap.example.com --port 993

Every folder comes over. --skip leaves one out, and everything inside it, by name or by glob. --after and --before bound what is fetched by the day it arrived, and --to picks which of your addresses the mail belongs to:

proton mail settings imports create jane@fastmail.com --imap-password-file /run/secrets/fastmail \
  --skip Spam --skip 'Archive/*' --after 2024-01-01 --to jane@proton.me

A folder that matches one of yours lands in it, the rest keep their own names, and Gmail’s folders arrive as labels. Everything that arrives carries one label, named after the other mailbox unless --label says otherwise.

$ proton mail settings imports get jane@fastmail.com
Account:   jane@fastmail.com
Via:       imap
Server:    imap.fastmail.com:993
State:     importing
Messages:  2841/9302
Started:   2026-04-15 09:12
Folders:   INBOX → Inbox 1204
           Archive → Archive 1637 of 6902
           Sent → Sent 0 of 1196
ID:        b3Kd91mQ

cancel stops an import that is running and keeps what already arrived. resume sets a stopped one going again, with --imap-password-file where the other mailbox refused the connection. A delayed import is waiting on the other provider and picks itself up.

undo removes everything an import brought in - the messages, and the folders and labels made for them. Nothing brings them back; fetching the mailbox again is a new import. delete forgets the record and leaves the mail where it is.

Imports started in Proton’s own settings are listed here too, including from a Google or Microsoft account. Starting one of those needs a browser.

Send from a printer or another service

proton mail settings smtp-tokens create billing@example.com --name 'Office printer'
proton mail settings smtp-tokens list
proton mail settings smtp-tokens get 'Office printer'
proton mail settings smtp-tokens delete 'Office printer'

A token lets a device or a service send mail as one of your addresses. It sends from one custom domain address and nothing else, and needs a paid Mail plan. An address on a Proton domain cannot hold one.

Making and deleting a token asks for your password, even when you are signed in. With no terminal, pass --password-file, which takes - for standard input. The other commands that do this are listed in Account.

The token is shown once, when it is made. Set the device up with what create answers: the address as the SMTP username, the token as the password, and TLS turned on.

$ proton mail settings smtp-tokens create billing@example.com --name 'Office printer'
Token:    9Kd2mQxT9wLpN4vRs8kZc
Address:  billing@example.com
Server:   smtp.protonmail.ch
Port:     587
Name:     Office printer

Under --output json the token is the token field:

TOKEN=$(proton mail settings smtp-tokens create billing@example.com --name 'Office printer' --output json | jq -r .token)

get shows everything but the token, so one you have lost is deleted and made again. LAST USED in the listing is when something last sent with a token, and - where nothing ever has. Deleting a token stops the device sending.

Settings

proton mail settings get          # everything, at a glance
proton mail settings list         # the writable keys, grouped by page
proton mail settings set view-mode conversations
proton mail settings addresses update me@proton.me --display-name "Roman L."
proton mail settings addresses update me@proton.me --signature - < signature.html --html

Every key has a fixed set of values, checked before anything is sent. A value is given by its name, or by the number Proton stores for it where there is one.

Signatures are stored as HTML. Plain text is escaped and its newlines become line breaks; --html passes markup through.

Get a daily email about new mail

proton mail settings set daily-notifications on

The email goes to your recovery address, and turning it on is refused while the account has none. Set one with proton account settings recovery-email set.