NeoMutt Workflows and Usage (Gmail Users Guide)

This guide translates familiar Gmail web UI concepts into NeoMutt workflows. It covers interface navigation, reading, replying, searching, composing, attaching files, and sending emails directly from the command line.

1. Key Concepts: Gmail vs. NeoMutt

2. Understanding the NeoMutt Interface

The NeoMutt UI is split into key sections:

+------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Sidebar          | Index View (Email List)                                     |
|                  |                                                             |
| N 1 Inbox (12)   |  1 N  Jan 12 Alice Smith     (1.2K) Meeting Notes           |
|   2 Sent         |  2    Jan 11 Bob Johnson     (4.5K) Re: Project Update     |
|   3 Drafts (1)   |  3 F  Jan 10 Server Alerts   (10K)  [URGENT] High Load     |
|   4 All Mail     |                                                             |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Status Bar       | -- NeoMutt: Inbox [Msgs:12 New:1 Flagged:1] (threads) ---  |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Help Line        | q:Quit  d:Del  r:Reply  m:Mail  c:ChangeFolder  /:Search    |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+

Status Flags in Index View

• N: New / Unread email
• O: Old (unread, but seen in previous session)
• r: Replied to
• F: Flagged / Starred
• D: Marked for deletion
• +: Message is addressed specifically to you

3. Navigation & Reading Messages

Moving Between Messages and Folders

• j / k (or Down / Up arrows): Move to next/previous email in list.
• Enter / Space: Open highlighted email in Pager view.
• q: Exit current view (leave message view back to index, or quit NeoMutt from index).
• c: Change mailbox (e.g. type +[Gmail]/Spam or =INBOX and press Enter).
• Sidebar Controls:
  • Ctrl+n: Move to next folder in sidebar.
  • Ctrl+p: Move to previous folder in sidebar.
  • Ctrl+o: Open highlighted folder in sidebar.
  • B: Toggle sidebar visibility.

Reading Messages in Pager View

• Space: Page down / scroll down through email text.
• -: Page up / scroll up.
• J / K: Jump to next / previous thread.
• v: View attachments list inside the email.
• h: Toggle display of raw email headers.

4. Searching & Filtering Mail

NeoMutt provides powerful search syntax using pattern modifiers:

Search within Current Mailbox (/)

Press / and enter a search pattern:

• / Alice: Search subject and body for "Alice".
• /~f Alice: Search messages From Alice.
• /~s Meeting: Search messages with Subject containing "Meeting".
• /~b "project update": Search message Body for phrase.
• /~N: Search for New (unread) messages.
• /~F: Search for Flagged (starred) messages.
• /~d <1d: Search for messages received in the last 1 day.

Press n to jump to the next search match, or N to jump to the previous match.

Filtering (Limiting) the View (l)

Press l (lowercase L) to hide all emails except those matching a pattern:

• l ~N: Show only unread emails.
• l ~f boss@example.com: Show only emails from boss@example.com.
• l all: Reset limit (show all emails again).

5. Replying, Forwarding & Managing Mail

• r: Reply to sender.
• g: Group reply (Reply All).
• f: Forward message.
• d: Mark message for deletion (purged on exit/folder sync).
• u: Undelete marked message.
• F: Flag / Star message.
• N: Toggle new/read status.
• s: Save / Move message to another IMAP folder.

6. Composing & Drafting Emails

Creating a New Email (m)

1. Press m in index view.
2. Enter recipient address (To:) and press Enter.
3. Enter subject (Subject:) and press Enter.
4. NeoMutt opens your configured text editor (e.g. Vim, Nano).
5. Type your email body, save, and exit the editor.

The Compose Menu

After exiting your editor, you are placed in NeoMutt's Compose Menu:

-- NeoMutt: Compose  [To: user@example.com, Subject: Test] -------------------
From: Your Name <your.email@gmail.com>
To: user@example.com
Cc:
Bcc:
Subject: Test
Attachments:
- I     1 /tmp/neomutt-body  [text/plain, 7bit, 0.1K]

y:Send  q:Abort  p:Postpone  e:EditBody  a:AttachFile  t:To  c:Cc  s:Subj

• y: Send the email immediately.
• a: Attach file (opens file browser to select file).
• p: Postpone (saves email to Gmail Drafts folder to edit later).
• e: Re-edit email body in text editor.
• t: Edit To: recipient.
• c: Add Cc: recipient.
• b: Add Bcc: recipient.
• s: Edit Subject:.
• q: Cancel / Abort composition.

Resuming Postponed Drafts (R)

Press R in index view to open the postponed draft list and resume editing.

7. Command Line Sending & Attachments

NeoMutt can be executed non-interactively directly from the shell or scripts to send emails with attachments.

Send Simple Email from Terminal

echo "This is the email body." | neomutt -s "Server Notification" recipient@example.com

Send Email with Attachment (-a)

neomutt -s "Quarterly Report" -a /path/to/report.pdf -- recipient@example.com < /path/to/message.txt

Note: The -- separator is required to denote the end of attachment flags before recipient addresses.

Send to Multiple Recipients with Attachments

neomutt -s "Project Backup"   -a /tmp/backup.tar.gz   -a /tmp/logs.txt   -- user1@example.com user2@example.com < /dev/null