Mail to Claude

System Requirements

-macOS 12 (Monterey) or later
-Apple Mail app
-Claude Desktop installed

Installation

1. Download the installer
After purchase, download MailToClaude.pkg from your account page. Your license key will be emailed to you.
2. Run the installer
Double-click the .pkg file and follow the prompts. The installer will ask for your license key and set everything up automatically.
3. You're done
The installer sets up everything automatically: a menu bar app with a global keyboard shortcut (Shift + Option + C), login item for automatic startup, and all necessary scripts. On first use, macOS may ask for Accessibility permissions.

Usage

1. Open Apple Mail and select the email you want to send to Claude.
2. Press Shift + Option + C. This works from anywhere in Mail — the message list or the preview pane.
3. Claude Desktop opens with a new chat containing the email text, images, and any attachments.

You can also click the ✉ icon in your menu bar and select "Send to Claude".

What gets sent to Claude

-Email metadata: sender, subject, date
-Email body: the full text content
-Images: all embedded images larger than 1 KB (tracking pixels are filtered out)
-Attachments: PDFs, Word documents (.doc, .docx), Excel spreadsheets (.xls, .xlsx), CSV files, text files, and zip archives

All data is processed locally on your Mac and sent directly to Claude Desktop. Nothing passes through our servers.

Mail to Claude runs as a lightweight menu bar app (✉ icon). It starts automatically when you log in and provides:

-Send to Claude — trigger the shortcut manually
-Manage Account — open your account page
-Uninstall — remove Mail to Claude completely

Troubleshooting

"No email selected" notification

Make sure you've clicked on (selected) an email in Apple Mail before pressing the shortcut. The email should be highlighted in the message list.

Keyboard shortcut doesn't work

Check that the Mail to Claude menu bar app is running — look for the ✉ icon in your menu bar. If it's not there, open "Mail to Claude" from your Applications folder. The shortcut also won't work if another app has already claimed the same key combination.

Permission denied / Accessibility error

On first use, macOS will ask for Accessibility access. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and enable "Mail to Claude". You may need to remove and re-add the entry if it was previously denied.

Claude Desktop doesn't open

Make sure Claude Desktop is installed and you've opened it at least once. The app should be at /Applications/Claude.app.

License validation error

Check that your subscription is active on your account page. You can re-enter your license key by running ~/.claude/mail-to-claude/activate.sh in Terminal.

Checking the log file

If something goes wrong, check the log file for error details:

cat /tmp/claude_mail_log.txt

Uninstalling

You can uninstall from the menu bar app (✉ → Uninstall), or run this in Terminal:

~/.claude/mail-to-claude/uninstall.sh

This removes all scripts, the menu bar app, and the login item. To cancel your subscription, visit your account page.

Documentation