A fast, quiet mail client — with your calendar, tasks and notes beside it.
Built for getting through your mail, not for filing it.
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A work queue — every conversation is to do, waiting or done; one key moves it along.
All your accounts — one unified inbox, or one mailbox at a time, grouped by tag.
Home — your day in one sentence and the next things to do.
Calendar — month, week, day, 3 days and agenda; CalDAV both ways; invitations from mail.
Tasks — typed in one line (
tomorrow 9am Call Marie #Work !!), planned into your free time.Goals and habits — the pace a goal needs, habits ticked day by day with their streaks.
Notes — Markdown files written as they look, with LaTeX, flashcards and spreadsheets.
Sync between your devices — over your Wi-Fi, paired with a QR code, no account and no cloud.
Any width — the same Iris on a wide screen, a narrow window, a foldable or a phone.
Instant — opening, archiving and searching never wait, even with hundreds of thousands of messages.
Private — remote images and trackers blocked by default; no telemetry.
Sorting — rules, VIP, office hours and filing, on mail as it arrives.
| Platform | How |
|---|---|
| Windows 10 / 11 | Download iris-setup-<version>.exe from Releases and run it. No administrator rights needed. |
| Android 8+ (preview) | Download iris-<version>.apk from the same release and open it on the phone (Android asks to allow installs from the app that opened it). |
- The installer is not signed yet: if Windows shows Windows protected your PC, click More info, then Run anyway.
- Iris updates itself: an Update now button appears in the status bar when a new version is out. Every update is signed and checked before it runs.
- To uninstall on Windows: Settings › Apps. Your mail and settings are kept.
- Open Iris: with no mailbox yet, it starts on a welcome page.
- Add your first account: your address and password. Iris finds the servers on its own and tells you where it found them.
- Your mail arrives, inbox first.
Already using Iris on another computer? Choose Set up from another device instead (see Sync between devices).
More ways to add an account:
- Import a profile — a
.mobileconfigfrom your host or IT department fills in the servers (signed profiles too). - Configure manually — servers, ports and a user name when the login is not the address. Nothing is ever sent unencrypted.
- Google or Microsoft — set your own OAuth client in Settings › Sign in with Google or Microsoft, then sign in through the browser. Without one, use an app password.
Passwords are kept in the Windows credential store, or in an encrypted vault whose key the Android Keystore holds.
- The five places — Home, Mail, Calendar, Tasks, Notes — sit at
the top of the side column (
Ctrl+0toCtrl+4), in a rail on a medium window, and at the foot of the screen on a phone. - Back and Forward (
Alt+←/Alt+→, or the mouse's side buttons) return to the places you visited, as in a browser. Ctrl+Kopens every command, narrowed as you type;?lists the keys; pointing at a button shows its key.- Settings (
Ctrl+,): appearance (light, dark or as the system is), accent colour, density, text size, Reduce effects (nothing slides, fades or springs; Iris also follows the system's own animation setting), window buttons.
- Below 600 pixels each place shows one thing at a time: the list, then the conversation, task, habit or note as a page of its own.
- Mail opens on a large title (All accounts ▾, which opens the mailboxes and folders), how much is to do, and the queues across the screen; New message floats over the list. Lists opens the tasks' lists.
- Questions rise from the bottom as sheets; forms fill the screen.
- Settings is a list of groups, each opening as a page.
- Swipe a conversation right for Done, left for Snooze, with Undo for a few seconds; a long press opens a row's menu. Pull the list down from its top to check for new mail.
- Under a conversation: Delete, Archive, Snooze, Done and Reply; a tap on Reply offers Reply all and Forward, a second tap replies.
- Ticking a task or a habit, a swipe, a choice or a delete gives a light vibration, finishing the day's habits or reaching inbox zero a firmer one (the phone's own touch-feedback setting turns them off).
- A note being written has formatting keys under it. Hold a note or a folder a moment to drag it into a folder; held over a closed folder, it opens.
- New message's formatting keys format the words selected, or what is typed next.
- At the end of the setup a phone asks for notifications and to run in the background; Settings › Notifications warns while Android holds either back.
- Android's home screen can show the Iris · Today widget: what is next, the tasks due and the mail to answer. A tap opens Iris.
- Settings › Updates › Copy the energy report copies what Iris used minute by minute (CPU by thread, memory), to paste in a report when the phone warms up.
Escape, or Android's Back, closes what is open, then goes back.- On a phone, Home's magnifier searches mail, tasks, events and notes at once.
- Tapping the tab you are in returns to its first screen (Mail's list, today in the calendar).
- If Iris stopped unexpectedly, the next start says what and where, to report it.
- Queues: To do, Waiting, Done in the toolbar. To do empty is inbox zero, and Iris counts your streak.
- Acting on a conversation: Done
E, SnoozeS(later today, tomorrow, this weekend, next week), WaitingW, To taskT, ArchiveA, starF, delete. Point at a row to do it without opening it, or right-click it (Mark as › To do, Waiting, Done);Ctrl+Zundoes, on the server too. - Reading: a conversation you open is marked read, on the server too;
Rmarks it unread, or read again. Double-click a word to select it, triple-click for its paragraph; a selection can start in the margin. - States follow you: Waiting and Done are written on the server, so Iris on your other computers finds them.
- Writing: address chips, attachments, formatting, signatures, aliases (Send
as…), Send later, and an Undo of a few seconds after sending (Settings ›
Undo send), from the notice or with
Ctrl+Zwherever you are. Send asks first when your words mention an attachment ("attached", "ci-joint"…) and none is attached; in a reply only what you wrote counts, never the earlier messages. - People in a message: right-click the sender or a recipient to copy their address or name, write to them, or see their mail.
- Words to a task: select words in a message, right-click, Make it a task; the task links back to the message.
- Opening Mail shows All accounts and All folders; the Inbox is a click away.
- Replying:
Ctrl+R, orCtrl+Shift+Rfor everyone; the earlier messages sit in the writing field under what you write, each folding on its own. Click a recipient for their card, with buttons to copy the name and the address. - Trackers: a message that tries to learn when you read it says so; Ignore keeps its remote content blocked, Allow loads it, and the warning goes either way.
- Searching (
/): free text, each word found as you type it (réufinds réunion), andfrom:,is:unread,has:attachment,newer_than:7d, or the pills under the field. - Folders are one name across your mailboxes, made on all of them or the ones you tick.
- Accounts and Folders fold by their titles, each on its own, down to the one you are in; the other takes the room. Iris remembers it.
- Tags group your mailboxes (Clients, Personal…); click one to see its mail only.
- All at once: right-click a mailbox, a tag's title or a folder for Mark all as read; a mailbox or a tag also has Send all to To do, Waiting or Done. It takes thousands of messages in one go, and never brings back what is already Done.
- Invitations show as a banner: Accept, Maybe or Decline, and the calendar follows.
- Unsubscribe beside a mailing list's sender, in one click.
- Sorting (Settings › Sorting), on new mail, each off until you fill it in:
VIP pins mail from the addresses or
@domainsyou list and puts it back to do; Office hours holds mail that arrives outside your working hours (in UTC, weekends optionally) until the next working morning; Filer files a conversation into the first folder whosepattern -> Folderline matches its subject or an attachment's name (the folder must exist). Rules (Settings › Rules) mark mail from a sender or a domain done as it arrives, and can be tried on past mail first. - Safety: links open only in your browser; attachments are marked as downloaded, so Windows warns before running them.
New mail is checked at least every quarter of an hour, every two minutes for the
mailbox on screen, at once when the server announces it, and with F5. On Windows the
taskbar button shows how many messages are unread, and clicking a notification opens
the message, event, task or habit it is about, even when Iris was closed.
- Views: Month, Week, Day, 3 days and Agenda (
M/W/D;Ttoday, the arrows move). - Click a free slot and type a name to add an event; drag it to move it, drag its edge
to stretch it.
Ctrl+Zundoes; adding, editing and deleting an event also say so in a message with an Undo button. Calendars are coloured boxes to tick; today and your selection follow the accent colour. - Video calls: Join on Meet (or Teams, Zoom, Webex) on the event and on Home.
- Your own calendars, calendars subscribed by link (
webcal://,.ics), and CalDAV accounts (iCloud, Fastmail, Nextcloud, Google…) kept both ways. - Import an
.icsfile from the Calendar's toolbar into your own calendar. - A subscribed calendar's events can be deleted, moved or renamed; that holds until the calendar itself changes them, on the device where you did it.
- Drag today's tasks onto the week to book time for them; open an event to add notes and tasks to it.
- Today, Upcoming, All tasks, From mail, and your own lists.
- Type a task in one line: date, time, list and priority are read from it
(
vendredi 14h30 Dentiste,in 2 weeks Renew the passport #Admin !!!). - Subtasks, notes, reminders, how long it takes, repeats (every day, weekday, week, month, year).
- Plan my day lays the day's tasks into your free time; Find a slot books one;
Later (
L) puts one off. - Goals: a number or milestones by a date, the pace needed, time blocked weekly in the calendar (Make time for it).
- Habits: every day, some days or so many times a week; streaks, reminders, an
amount with − and +. Type one in a line:
Run 3 times a week,No phone in bed. - Backups: your calendars, tasks, goals and habits are copied every day (fourteen
days kept); Settings › Your calendars and tasks restores one or exports
.ics.
Keys: N new, J / K move, Space done, D due date, L later, Delete.
Right-click a task to delete it or mark it done. Clear puts the completed tasks in
an archive: they leave the list but still count in the statistics.
The Archive (the box icon beside New task) shows them by the day they were done,
with the goals you archived from their page: restore one, or delete it for good.
Notes are Markdown files in folders on your disk (a space), so any app can read them; an Obsidian vault opens as it is.
- Written as they look, in Inter: headings, lists, checkboxes and quotes are
converted as you type; only the mark under the cursor shows its signs, and a
heading's
#show, dimmed, when the cursor is at its start. - Tables are written as a grid:
Tabgoes to the next cell,Enteradds a row (on an empty last row, it leaves the table), the+on its edges add a row or a column. - Pictures keep their proportions; drag their left or right edge to resize them.
- Right-click selected words to format, copy or make them a task, or a picture to copy it, open it or put it back to its size.
- Maths in LaTeX, drawn as in a book, with
Tabshortcuts (//a fraction,sqa root,mat2…). - Links between notes (
[[Note]],@Note), renamed everywhere when a note moves; a graph of them (Ctrl+G). - Spreadsheets (
.sheet) with formulas, formats and Excel/CSV export, shown in a note with![[Budget.sheet]]. - Charts of a spreadsheet's table (the toolbar's chart button, from the cells
selected): a flow from a whole to its parts, bars, columns, a donut or a line, each
in a tab beside the sheets. They count the rows by a column of categories, or add up
a column of numbers, and take the colour of their cells' text. A flow goes through
several columns in turn; a category written
Sent > Interviewis two steps; two columns naming each other (Income → Net,Net → Rent) chain their bands. Copy for a note gives![[Budget.sheet#Spending]], shown in any note and following the sheet;/chartoffers them too. A workbook's charts share one canvas: drag the background to move around,Ctrland the wheel (or −, +) to zoom, Fit to frame them all, and drag a chart's card to arrange it. The settings column folds away with the button at its top. - Flashcards (
Question :: Answer), revised with spaced repetition. - Tabs, each back where you left it, a note beside another (
Ctrl+\), reading mode (Ctrl+R), focus mode (F11), version history. Ctrl+←/Ctrl+→go to the line's start or end;→right after typing a mark steps out of it (**word**|).- With the rest of Iris: links to a conversation, an event or a task; a checkbox made a task stays ticked with it.
| Typed | Gives | Key |
|---|---|---|
**x**, *x* |
Bold, italic | Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I |
__x__, --x-- |
Underline, strikethrough | Ctrl+U, Ctrl+Shift+X |
==x== |
Highlight | Ctrl+Shift+H |
{r}x{/} |
Coloured text | Ctrl+Shift+1…7 |
`x` |
Code | Ctrl+E |
$x$, $$ |
A formula in the line, on its own | Ctrl+M |
[[Note]], @Note |
A link to a note | Ctrl+L |
[text](https://…) |
A web link | Ctrl+K |
# … ###### |
Headings | Ctrl+H |
- , 1. , [] |
Bullets, numbers, a checkbox | Ctrl+Enter ticks, Tab nests (numbers start at 1) |
| a | b | |
A table | Tab next cell, Enter new row |
>def , >thm , >tip … |
A callout, numbered | |
Question :: Answer |
A flashcard | |
/ |
Every block, with a preview |
An assistant that speaks MCP (Claude Desktop, Claude Code and others) can work in Iris for you: search the mail with every filter, read conversations, mark, file, snooze and send; see the calendar by day or week, create, move and delete events with their notes, meeting links and subtasks; manage tasks, habits and goals; browse note spaces, read and write notes in Iris's full syntax, and fill spreadsheets and charts.
- Settings › System › Let an AI assistant use Iris.
- Copy setup, and paste it into the assistant's MCP settings
(
claude_desktop_config.jsonfor Claude Desktop). For Claude Code:claude mcp add iris -- "<path to iris.exe>" mcp. - Restart the assistant. It starts
iris mcp, which reaches the Iris that runs (and starts it in the notification area if it does not).
What the assistant changes shows in Iris at once and syncs like your own clicks; a mail it sends waits in the outbox for the undo delay. Turning the setting off cuts it off at once. Desktop only: there is no assistant access on Android.
- On one device: Settings › Devices › Pair a device… shows a QR code.
- On the other, on the same Wi-Fi: on a phone, Scan a code (or Set up from another device on the welcome page), or scan it with the phone's own camera, which opens Iris on it; on a computer, paste the code (Copy the code, then Join with a code).
- Both show the same six digits, and the first sync runs; the joining device ticks off accounts, tasks, calendars, settings and notes as they arrive. Scanning on Android needs Google Play services and its camera permission; when it is refused, Iris says where to allow it, or the code can be typed (Join with a code).
What travels: task lists and tasks, goals, habits, your own calendars and events, your accounts with their passwords, tags, rules, shared settings (VIP, office hours and Filer among them) and note spaces. Mail itself comes from your servers on each device; what you sort it into — To do, Waiting, Done, a snooze — travels, even to mail the other device has not fetched yet. Newer mail in the conversation on the other device wins over a choice made before it arrived.
- Paired devices sync on their own when they meet on the Wi-Fi, or with Sync now. A device that left the Wi-Fi shows a red dot, and Sync now says so.
- Remove beside a device forgets it and its key; pair it again to sync with it.
- A change made on both sides keeps the newer one, and Iris names it.
- A note changed on both keeps the other version in its history; a deleted note goes to the Recycle Bin.
- An account removed on one device is never removed on the other without asking.
- The code works once, for five minutes.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
E / A / S / W |
Done / Archive / Snooze / Waiting |
R / F / Shift+3 |
Read or unread / Star / Delete |
T |
Make the conversation a task |
C |
New message |
Ctrl+R / Ctrl+Shift+R |
Reply / Reply all |
/ or Ctrl+F |
Search the mail |
F5 |
Sync all accounts |
Ctrl+0 … Ctrl+4 |
Home / Mail / Calendar / Tasks / Notes |
Alt+← / Alt+→ |
Back / Forward |
Ctrl+K |
Commands |
Ctrl+, |
Settings |
Escape |
Close, leave full screen, a search or a selection |
Ctrl+N / Ctrl+O / Ctrl+Shift+F |
Notes: new / open / search |
Ctrl+T / Ctrl+W / Ctrl+Tab |
Notes: new tab / close / next tab |
Ctrl+← / Ctrl+→ |
Notes: the line's start / end |
? |
Every key |
- Android is a preview: mail is fetched only while Iris runs (behind the screen too once allowed to); opening files and Google or Microsoft sign-in are not wired (attaching a file uses the phone's picker).
- Iris speaks IMAP; POP accounts are not supported. Iris ships without an OAuth client of its own for Google and Microsoft.
- Attachments are limited to 25 MB per message, as on most servers.
- Replies and forwards are introduced in English ("On …, … wrote:").
- Outlook and Microsoft 365 calendars can only be subscribed to by link, read-only.
- Sync between devices needs both on the same Wi-Fi; a note space added from elsewhere does not travel, nor does a task's link to its conversation.
- Notes: input methods (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) do not type yet; spreadsheets have no merged cells or conditional formats; a chart reads one table of one sheet, shows at most 12 shares or 10 steps per column (the rest as "Other"), and is not exported to Excel.
- Office hours are set in UTC. Filer reads an attachment's name only once the message's body has been fetched. Iris has no plugins since 7.0.
- The command line only starts, checks (
iris doctor), registers Iris (iris register,iris unregister) and serves an assistant (iris mcp); accounts are added and synced in the window. - An assistant reaches Iris only while Iris runs on the same computer; it cannot add accounts, change settings or answer invitations.
- Iris talks only to your mail and calendar servers, to the calendars you subscribe to, to a list's address when you unsubscribe, and to GitHub for updates (a request that says nothing about you).
- Waiting and Done are written on your mail server as the keywords
$IrisWaitingand$IrisDone; other apps can see them, and they say nothing else. - Once you pair a device, Iris announces itself on your local network by a random device number, nothing else. What paired devices exchange is encrypted with a key only they hold, and never leaves the Wi-Fi.
- Backups and notes stay on your devices. Removing an account removes its mail, its passwords and its search index from the device.
- With Let an AI assistant use Iris on (off by default), Iris listens on your computer only (127.0.0.1) and answers only a program that holds the key it writes in your profile. What the assistant reads is then sent to its AI service: turn it on only for one you trust.
- On Windows Iris registers the
iris-mail:link type for your user (so a notification can open what it is about); uninstalling removes it.
Open an issue saying what you were doing and what happened. Never include a password or the content of a private message.
To contribute or see how Iris is built, read docs/ARCHITECTURE.md. Licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option; the Inter font, under the SIL Open Font License.