Turn a mail into task candidates, and into nothing else (#246)

The extraction half. internal/email.Extractor asks the resident Qwen3-1.7B,
under a GBNF grammar, what one message requires of him, and returns at most
three short candidates with an optional date.

Everything it can produce is a row in `tasks` with status "candidate",
written through the intake seam #130 built for exactly this (Source
"email:<mailbox>", Evidence = the subject line). No reminder, no fact, no
note, no calendar event. That bound is the design: a reminder FIRES, so a
1.7B misreading "встреча была в четверг" as a future appointment would wake
him up about it, whereas a wrong candidate is a line he dismisses in one
click. A due date the model read out of the mail is stored on the candidate,
where no scheduler reads it — the review page sorts by it. Relative wording
("до пятницы") is deliberately left in the text rather than resolved to a
date the model would get wrong.

The prompt is written against the two things a small model does here: it
summarises when asked to extract, and it invents an obligation out of a
polite closing line. Hence the demand for a verb phrase, and an explicit
empty array — most mail contains no task, and a model with no way to say
"nothing" says something.

Wiring: core owns extraction because llama-server lives in core's process,
so the reader hands messages over a new ipc.MethodIngestMail. It is a Server
hook (like StepUp/UnlockFn), not a CoreAPI method — not a store operation,
and no CoreAPI implementation should have to carry it. The hook stays nil
without an `email` config block or without a llama-server phraser, so the
method answers ErrUnknownMethod: off unless configured, twice over. There is
no keyword fallback on purpose — "the subject became a task" is a mailbox
rendered as a to-do list, not extraction.

Privacy: junk is refused before the model is called, mail text is never
search input, extraction errors carry byte counts rather than the reply, the
stored evidence is a truncated subject, and the log line names the mailbox
and the UID only.

cmd/mavend/mail.go

@@ -0,0 +1,158 @@
+// mavend/mail.go — core's half of the email reader (Vikunja #246,
+// docs/plans/01-email-reader.md).
+//
+// The split: cmd/mavmaild holds the IMAP credential, connects to the mailbox
+// and converts messages to plaintext; it hands each message to core over
+// ipc.MethodIngestMail. Core runs the extraction on the resident model —
+// llama-server lives in this process, spawned by the phraser — and writes what
+// comes back through the one task intake seam.
+//
+// What this file may produce is exactly one thing: rows in `tasks` with status
+// "candidate". No fact, no reminder, no note, no nudge, no calendar event. A
+// 1.7B misreading a mail can therefore put a wrong line on a review page and
+// nothing else; it can never make Maven speak, and it can never make her
+// recite something out of an advert as true.
+//
+// Off unless configured twice over: no `email` block in mavend.json ⇒ the IPC
+// method does not exist; no llama-server phraser ⇒ same. A reader pointed at a
+// core that is not set up for mail gets ErrUnknownMethod rather than silence.
+package main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"log"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/config"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/email"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/ipc"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/phraser"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/store"
+)
+
+// evidenceMaxChars — how much of the subject line is kept as a candidate's
+// evidence. Enough to recognise the mail on /tasks, not enough to turn the task
+// list into a copy of his mailbox.
+const evidenceMaxChars = 160
+
+// mailIntake — extraction + capture for one message at a time.
+type mailIntake struct {
+	st      *store.Store
+	ex      *email.Extractor
+	timeout time.Duration
+	now     func() time.Time
+}
+
+// newMailIntake returns nil when mail ingestion must not be available, which is
+// the default. Both preconditions are real:
+//
+//   - no cfg.Email ⇒ not configured, and a capability is off unless configured;
+//   - no llama-server phraser ⇒ nothing to extract with. There is deliberately
+//     no keyword fallback: "the subject line became a task" is not extraction,
+//     it is a mailbox rendered as a to-do list, and it would fill the review
+//     page faster than he could clear it.
+func newMailIntake(st *store.Store, phr phraser.Phraser, cfg *config.Config) *mailIntake {
+	if cfg.Email == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+	lp, ok := phr.(*phraser.LLMPhraser)
+	if !ok {
+		log.Printf("mail intake: configured but no llama-server phraser — mail ingestion disabled")
+		return nil
+	}
+	timeout := time.Duration(cfg.Email.Timeout)
+	if timeout <= 0 {
+		timeout = config.DefaultEmailTimeout
+	}
+	ex := email.NewExtractor(llm.New(lp.BaseURL(), timeout), cfg.Email.MaxTasks, contextBlockFn(cfg, time.Now))
+	log.Printf("mail intake: enabled (max %d candidates per message, timeout %s)", cfg.Email.MaxTasks, timeout)
+	return &mailIntake{st: st, ex: ex, timeout: timeout, now: time.Now}
+}
+
+// ingest handles one ipc.MethodIngestMail call.
+//
+// Junk and empty messages are answered Skipped without touching the model — the
+// reader's header filter is what keeps the resident model off newsletters.
+//
+// Every candidate is captured with Status "candidate", Source "email:<mailbox>"
+// and the subject as Evidence. CaptureTask dedupes on normalised text among
+// live rows, so a mailbox re-read after a restart produces Created=0 rather
+// than a second copy of every task.
+func (m *mailIntake) ingest(ctx context.Context, req ipc.IngestMailReq) (ipc.IngestMailResp, error) {
+	msg := email.Message{
+		UID:     req.UID,
+		From:    req.From,
+		Subject: req.Subject,
+		Date:    req.Date,
+		Body:    req.Body,
+		Junk:    req.Junk,
+	}
+	if msg.Junk || (msg.Subject == "" && msg.Body == "") {
+		return ipc.IngestMailResp{Skipped: true}, nil
+	}
+
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, m.timeout)
+	defer cancel()
+	cands, err := m.ex.Extract(ctx, msg)
+	if err != nil {
+		// The error from internal/email never carries mail text; keep it that way
+		// by not adding the subject here.
+		return ipc.IngestMailResp{}, fmt.Errorf("mail intake: uid %d: %w", req.UID, err)
+	}
+	if len(cands) == 0 {
+		return ipc.IngestMailResp{}, nil
+	}
+
+	source := email.SourcePrefix + req.Mailbox
+	evidence := truncateRunes(req.Subject, evidenceMaxChars)
+	now := m.now()
+	var resp ipc.IngestMailResp
+	for _, c := range cands {
+		t := store.Task{
+			CreatedTs: now,
+			Text:      c.Text,
+			Source:    source,
+			Evidence:  evidence,
+			// The one status this path may ever write. Anything Maven derived from
+			// something she read is a suggestion until he confirms it on /tasks.
+			Status: store.TaskCandidate,
+		}
+		if due, ok := email.ParseDue(c.Due); ok {
+			t.Due = &due
+		}
+		id, created, err := m.st.CaptureTask(ctx, t)
+		if err != nil {
+			return resp, fmt.Errorf("mail intake: capture: %w", err)
+		}
+		resp.TaskIDs = append(resp.TaskIDs, id)
+		if created {
+			resp.Created++
+		}
+	}
+	// Counts only: the log line names the mailbox and the UID, never the subject,
+	// the sender or the task text. Reviewing a candidate is what /tasks is for.
+	log.Printf("mail intake: %s uid %d → %d candidate(s), %d new", source, req.UID, len(cands), resp.Created)
+	return resp, nil
+}
+
+// wireMailIntake installs the IPC hook, or leaves it nil so the method reports
+// ErrUnknownMethod. Called on both startup paths (unlocked boot and passkey
+// unlock) so mail behaves the same either way.
+func wireMailIntake(srv *ipc.Server, st *store.Store, phr phraser.Phraser, cfg *config.Config) {
+	mi := newMailIntake(st, phr, cfg)
+	if mi == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	srv.IngestMailFn = mi.ingest
+}
+
+// truncateRunes cuts a string to n runes, marking the cut.
+func truncateRunes(s string, n int) string {
+	r := []rune(s)
+	if len(r) <= n {
+		return s
+	}
+	return string(r[:n]) + "…"
+}

cmd/mavend/mail_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,182 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/config"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/email"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/ipc"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/store"
+)
+
+// mailLLM — a canned extraction reply.
+type mailLLM struct {
+	reply string
+	calls int
+}
+
+func (m *mailLLM) Complete(_ context.Context, _ llm.Req) (string, error) {
+	m.calls++
+	return m.reply, nil
+}
+
+func newTestIntake(t *testing.T, reply string) (*mailIntake, *store.Store, *mailLLM) {
+	t.Helper()
+	st := newTestStore(t)
+	fake := &mailLLM{reply: reply}
+	return &mailIntake{
+		st:      st,
+		ex:      email.NewExtractor(fake, 0, nil),
+		timeout: 5 * time.Second,
+		now:     func() time.Time { return time.Date(2026, 8, 1, 10, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC) },
+	}, st, fake
+}
+
+func ingestReq() ipc.IngestMailReq {
+	return ipc.IngestMailReq{
+		Mailbox: "INBOX", UID: 42,
+		From:    "billing@isp.example",
+		Subject: "Счёт за интернет",
+		Body:    "Оплатите счёт до 5 августа.",
+	}
+}
+
+// The one property that matters: a mail-derived task is a candidate, attributed
+// to the mailbox, with the subject as reviewable evidence — and nothing else is
+// written.
+func TestIngestCapturesCandidates(t *testing.T) {
+	mi, st, _ := newTestIntake(t, `[{"text":"оплатить счёт за интернет","due":"2026-08-05"}]`)
+	resp, err := mi.ingest(context.Background(), ingestReq())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("ingest: %v", err)
+	}
+	if resp.Created != 1 || len(resp.TaskIDs) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("resp = %+v, want one created task", resp)
+	}
+	tasks, err := st.ListTasks(context.Background(), "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("list: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(tasks) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("got %d tasks, want 1", len(tasks))
+	}
+	got := tasks[0]
+	if got.Status != store.TaskCandidate {
+		t.Errorf("status = %q, want %q — mail may only produce candidates", got.Status, store.TaskCandidate)
+	}
+	if got.Source != "email:INBOX" {
+		t.Errorf("source = %q, want email:INBOX", got.Source)
+	}
+	if got.Evidence != "Счёт за интернет" {
+		t.Errorf("evidence = %q, want the subject line", got.Evidence)
+	}
+	if got.Due == nil || got.Due.Format("2006-01-02") != "2026-08-05" {
+		t.Errorf("due = %v, want 2026-08-05", got.Due)
+	}
+	// Nothing else may have been written: no reminder, no fact.
+	rem, err := st.ListReminders(context.Background(), 10)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("list reminders: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(rem) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("mail created %d reminders; a misread mail must never be able to fire", len(rem))
+	}
+}
+
+// Re-reading a mailbox must not grow the list — CaptureTask dedupes among live
+// rows, and the intake relies on exactly that.
+func TestIngestSameMailTwiceIsIdempotent(t *testing.T) {
+	mi, st, _ := newTestIntake(t, `[{"text":"оплатить счёт","due":""}]`)
+	if _, err := mi.ingest(context.Background(), ingestReq()); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("first ingest: %v", err)
+	}
+	resp, err := mi.ingest(context.Background(), ingestReq())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("second ingest: %v", err)
+	}
+	if resp.Created != 0 || len(resp.TaskIDs) != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("resp = %+v, want the existing row and Created=0", resp)
+	}
+	tasks, _ := st.ListTasks(context.Background(), "")
+	if len(tasks) != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("got %d tasks after two reads, want 1", len(tasks))
+	}
+}
+
+func TestIngestJunkSkipsTheModel(t *testing.T) {
+	mi, st, fake := newTestIntake(t, `[{"text":"купить со скидкой","due":""}]`)
+	req := ingestReq()
+	req.Junk = true
+	resp, err := mi.ingest(context.Background(), req)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("ingest: %v", err)
+	}
+	if !resp.Skipped || resp.Created != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("resp = %+v, want skipped", resp)
+	}
+	if fake.calls != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("model called %d times for junk, want 0", fake.calls)
+	}
+	if tasks, _ := st.ListTasks(context.Background(), ""); len(tasks) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("junk produced %d tasks, want 0", len(tasks))
+	}
+}
+
+func TestIngestEmptyMessageSkipped(t *testing.T) {
+	mi, _, fake := newTestIntake(t, "[]")
+	resp, err := mi.ingest(context.Background(), ipc.IngestMailReq{Mailbox: "INBOX", UID: 1})
+	if err != nil || !resp.Skipped {
+		t.Fatalf("resp = %+v, err = %v; want skipped", resp, err)
+	}
+	if fake.calls != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("model called %d times for an empty message, want 0", fake.calls)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestIngestNoTasksWritesNothing(t *testing.T) {
+	mi, st, _ := newTestIntake(t, "[]")
+	resp, err := mi.ingest(context.Background(), ingestReq())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("ingest: %v", err)
+	}
+	if resp.Created != 0 || len(resp.TaskIDs) != 0 || resp.Skipped {
+		t.Errorf("resp = %+v, want nothing captured and not skipped", resp)
+	}
+	if tasks, _ := st.ListTasks(context.Background(), ""); len(tasks) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("got %d tasks, want 0", len(tasks))
+	}
+}
+
+func TestIngestTruncatesEvidence(t *testing.T) {
+	mi, st, _ := newTestIntake(t, `[{"text":"дело","due":""}]`)
+	req := ingestReq()
+	req.Subject = strings.Repeat("щ", 400)
+	if _, err := mi.ingest(context.Background(), req); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("ingest: %v", err)
+	}
+	tasks, _ := st.ListTasks(context.Background(), "")
+	if len(tasks) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("got %d tasks, want 1", len(tasks))
+	}
+	if n := len([]rune(tasks[0].Evidence)); n > evidenceMaxChars+1 {
+		t.Errorf("evidence kept %d runes, want ≤ %d", n, evidenceMaxChars)
+	}
+}
+
+// Off unless configured: no email block ⇒ no intake, so the IPC method does not
+// exist at all.
+func TestNewMailIntakeOffWithoutConfig(t *testing.T) {
+	st := newTestStore(t)
+	if mi := newMailIntake(st, nil, &config.Config{}); mi != nil {
+		t.Error("no email block must mean no mail intake")
+	}
+	// Configured but with a non-LLM phraser: still off — there is no fallback
+	// extraction, by design.
+	if mi := newMailIntake(st, nil, &config.Config{Email: &config.EmailConfig{}}); mi != nil {
+		t.Error("without a llama-server phraser there is nothing to extract with")
+	}
+}

cmd/mavend/main.go

@@ -320,6 +320,13 @@ func run(args []string) error {
 
 	srv.StepUp = func(ctx context.Context) error { return passkeySess.Assert(ctx, auth.Scope{}) }
 
+	// Mail ingestion (Vikunja #246): the hook stays nil unless an email block is
+	// configured and there is a llama-server to extract with, in which case
+	// ipc.MethodIngestMail reports ErrUnknownMethod.
+	if !locked {
+		wireMailIntake(srv, st, phr, cfg)
+	}
+
 	// WrapKeyFn — wraps the env key with a passkey credential public key and
 	// persists the wrapped blob. Only wired when the daemon has the key in
 	// memory (env key mode). Called by mavweb after passkey enrollment.
@@ -457,6 +464,7 @@ func run(args []string) error {
 			}
 			srv.SetAPI(newAPI)
 			srv.Check = (&auth.Gate{Enrollment: auth.NewFloorEnrollment(), Session: passkeySess}).Check
+			wireMailIntake(srv, st, phr, cfg)
 
 			// Start voice server.
 			if voiceW != nil {

internal/auth/policy.go

@@ -74,7 +74,12 @@ func Requirement(m ipc.Method) Authority {
 		// existing analogue.
 		ipc.MethodCaptureTask,
 		ipc.MethodListTasks,
-		ipc.MethodSetTaskStatus:
+		ipc.MethodSetTaskStatus,
+		// Mail ingestion (Vikunja #246). AuthRead because of what the method can
+		// produce: candidate tasks and nothing else. It cannot write a fact, set a
+		// reminder, or touch the tool allowlist, so a compromised mail reader can
+		// at worst put junk on a review page he clears in one click.
+		ipc.MethodIngestMail:
 		return AuthRead
 	}
 	// Unknown method ⇒ AuthRead, but ipc.dispatch returns ErrUnknownMethod

internal/config/config.go

@@ -150,6 +150,12 @@ type Config struct {
 	// absent ⇒ no evaluation loop at all. See MemoryEvalConfig.
 	MemoryEval *MemoryEvalConfig `json:"memory_eval,omitempty"`
 
+	// Email — mail ingestion (Vikunja #246). nil / absent ⇒ core refuses
+	// ipc.MethodIngestMail outright, so a mail reader cannot make Maven read a
+	// mailbox by merely existing. See EmailConfig; the IMAP host and credential
+	// live in the reader (cmd/mavmaild), never here.
+	Email *EmailConfig `json:"email,omitempty"`
+
 	// Praxis — the ecosystem attention-state service. When configured, maven
 	// calls the Praxis HTTP tools API for attention listing and item lifecycle.
 	// Maven never touches Praxis's database directly (ecosystem invariant: no
@@ -418,6 +424,26 @@ type MemoryEvalConfig struct {
 	MinConfidence float64 `json:"min_confidence,omitempty"`
 }
 
+// EmailConfig — core's half of the email reader: how many task candidates one
+// message may produce, and how long the extraction call may take.
+//
+// There is deliberately nothing about a mailbox here. Core does not connect to
+// IMAP, does not know an account exists, and holds no mail credential — the
+// reader daemon does, the same split mavpoll uses for the zenmoney token. This
+// block only says "extraction is allowed, with these bounds".
+type EmailConfig struct {
+	// MaxTasks — candidates per message. 0 ⇒ email.MaxCandidates (3).
+	MaxTasks int `json:"max_tasks,omitempty"`
+
+	// Timeout — per-message extraction budget. 0 ⇒ DefaultEmailTimeout. This is
+	// a Thinking model reading a mail; nobody is waiting on the answer, but a
+	// hung llama-server must not pin the reader's connection forever.
+	Timeout Duration `json:"timeout,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// DefaultEmailTimeout — extraction budget per message.
+const DefaultEmailTimeout = 2 * time.Minute
+
 // PhraserConfig — the LLM-backed phraser seam. The daemon spawns llama-server
 // as a managed subprocess and sends chat-completion requests to phrase nudge
 // and reminder messages. nil ⇒ the template-based Stub is used instead.
@@ -607,6 +633,12 @@ func (c *Config) applyDefaults() {
 		c.MemoryEval.Interval = Duration(DefaultMemoryEvalInterval)
 	}
 
+	// Same rule again: absent stays nil (⇒ mail ingestion refused), present gets
+	// the timeout default so `{}` is a valid "on with the defaults".
+	if c.Email != nil && c.Email.Timeout <= 0 {
+		c.Email.Timeout = Duration(DefaultEmailTimeout)
+	}
+
 	if c.Voice != nil {
 		if c.Voice.RouterThreshold <= 0 {
 			c.Voice.RouterThreshold = DefaultRouterThreshold

internal/email/extract.go

@@ -0,0 +1,226 @@
+package email
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/persona"
+)
+
+// Extraction — turning one mail into task CANDIDATES, and nothing else.
+//
+// The output of this file can only ever become rows in `tasks` with status
+// "candidate" (store.TaskCandidate), written through the one intake seam
+// (ipc.CaptureTaskReq, Vikunja #130). That bound is the whole design:
+//
+//   - No reminder. A reminder FIRES; it speaks to him unprompted. A 1.7B that
+//     misreads "встреча была в четверг" as a future appointment would then wake
+//     him up about it. A candidate that is wrong is a line on a review page he
+//     dismisses in one click, which is the correct cost of a model being wrong
+//     about someone's mail.
+//   - No fact. A fact is a claim Maven will later recite as true. Nothing read
+//     out of a marketing mail deserves that standing.
+//   - No calendar event, no note, no action. Extraction writes candidates or
+//     writes nothing.
+//
+// The due date the model may return is stored on the candidate (tasks.due_ts),
+// which no scheduler reads — it is there so the review page can sort by it.
+//
+// Privacy: the mail text goes to the resident model on this box and nowhere
+// else. It is never search input (CLAUDE.md: "his notes and facts are never
+// search input" — mail is the same class), and Evidence keeps only the subject
+// line, so the review page shows him where a candidate came from without the
+// store growing a copy of his mailbox.
+
+// MaxCandidates — at most this many candidates per message, enforced by the
+// grammar. A mail with four tasks in it is a mail he has to read himself; a
+// model allowed ten will produce ten.
+const MaxCandidates = 3
+
+// SourcePrefix — provenance for everything this package captures. The mailbox
+// name is appended: "email:INBOX". Same vocabulary as tap:voice / poll:netdata.
+const SourcePrefix = "email:"
+
+// Candidate — one piece of work the model thinks the mail is asking for.
+type Candidate struct {
+	Text string `json:"text"`
+	// Due — "YYYY-MM-DD" or empty. A date the model read out of the text, not a
+	// date it computed: relative wording ("до пятницы") is left in Text, because
+	// a small model resolving "пятница" against today's date gets it wrong often
+	// enough that a stored wrong date is worse than no date.
+	Due string `json:"due"`
+}
+
+// Completer — the llama-server seam, same shape memeval and the router use, so
+// the one resident model serves this caller too.
+type Completer interface {
+	Complete(ctx context.Context, r llm.Req) (string, error)
+}
+
+// Extractor reads a message and returns candidates. It holds no store and no
+// writer on purpose: this type cannot persist anything, so "extraction never
+// acts" is a property of the code, not of a review.
+type Extractor struct {
+	llm Completer
+	// MaxCandidates — 0 ⇒ MaxCandidates.
+	max int
+	// ContextBlock — the shared persona block, optional. Extraction output is
+	// not spoken, so the persona matters less here than in the phraser; it is
+	// wired anyway so a candidate reads in her voice on the review page.
+	contextBlock func() string
+}
+
+func NewExtractor(c Completer, max int, contextBlock func() string) *Extractor {
+	if max <= 0 || max > MaxCandidates {
+		max = MaxCandidates
+	}
+	return &Extractor{llm: c, max: max, contextBlock: contextBlock}
+}
+
+// extractGrammar — GBNF pinning the answer to a bounded array of fixed-shape
+// candidates. Same reasoning as memeval's evalGrammar and the router's
+// routeGrammar: the shape and the length bound are what keep a small model from
+// drifting into prose or spending the token budget repeating one field.
+//
+// The empty array is reachable, deliberately: most mail contains no task, and a
+// model with no way to say "nothing" invents something.
+const extractGrammar = `
+root  ::= "[" ws (item ("," ws item){0,2})? ws "]"
+item  ::= "{" ws "\"text\"" ws ":" ws text "," ws "\"due\"" ws ":" ws due ws "}"
+text  ::= "\"" ([^"\\] | "\\" .){1,120} "\""
+due   ::= "\"\"" | "\"" [0-9]{4} "-" [0-9]{2} "-" [0-9]{2} "\""
+ws    ::= [ \t\n]*
+`
+
+// extractSystem — the extraction prompt.
+//
+// Written around the two failure modes a small model has on this task: it
+// summarises when asked to extract (turning a mail into "письмо от Антона"),
+// and it invents an obligation from any polite closing sentence. Hence the
+// insistence on a verb phrase, and the explicit permission to return [].
+const extractSystem = `Ты читаешь одно письмо из его почты и достаёшь из него дела, которые письмо от него требует.
+
+Правила:
+- Отвечай ТОЛЬКО массивом JSON. Каждый элемент: {"text": "...", "due": "ГГГГ-ММ-ДД" или ""}.
+- text — короткая формулировка дела по-русски, с глаголом: "оплатить счёт за интернет", "отправить акт". Не пересказывай письмо и не описывай его.
+- Дело — это то, что должен сделать ОН. Рассылка, реклама, уведомление, отчёт, письмо «просто к сведению» — дел не содержат.
+- Если письмо ничего от него не требует, верни пустой массив []. Это нормальный ответ, так бывает чаще всего.
+- Ничего не придумывай. Если срока в письме нет — "".
+- due заполняй только когда в письме стоит конкретная дата. Слова вроде «до пятницы» оставь в text, дату не вычисляй.
+- Максимум три дела. Лучше одно точное, чем три общих.`
+
+// Extract returns the candidates in one message.
+//
+// Junk is refused without an LLM call — cheapest possible defence, and the
+// reason the header filter exists. An empty message (no subject, no body) is
+// likewise not worth a round trip.
+//
+// A parse failure is an error the caller logs and moves past. It is never
+// silently turned into zero candidates, because "the model went off the rails"
+// and "the mail contains no task" want different reactions from a human reading
+// the log.
+func (e *Extractor) Extract(ctx context.Context, msg Message) ([]Candidate, error) {
+	if msg.Junk {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+	user := renderForModel(msg)
+	if user == "" {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+	raw, err := e.llm.Complete(ctx, llm.Req{
+		System:        persona.Prepend(e.contextBlock, extractSystem),
+		User:          user,
+		Grammar:       extractGrammar,
+		MaxTokens:     512,
+		RepeatPenalty: 1.1,
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("email: extract: %w", err)
+	}
+	items, err := parseCandidates(raw)
+	if err != nil {
+		// The raw reply is NOT in the error: it is a transformation of his mail,
+		// and this error reaches the daemon log.
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("email: extract: unparsable reply (%d bytes)", len(raw))
+	}
+	out := make([]Candidate, 0, len(items))
+	seen := map[string]bool{}
+	for _, it := range items {
+		it.Text = strings.TrimSpace(it.Text)
+		if it.Text == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		key := strings.ToLower(strings.Join(strings.Fields(it.Text), " "))
+		if seen[key] {
+			continue // the model repeating itself is not two tasks
+		}
+		seen[key] = true
+		if _, ok := ParseDue(it.Due); !ok {
+			it.Due = "" // a date the grammar allowed but the calendar does not
+		}
+		out = append(out, it)
+		if len(out) >= e.max {
+			break
+		}
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
+// renderForModel is the user turn: subject, sender and body, labelled. Only
+// these three fields — no headers, no recipient list, no message-id, nothing
+// that would let the model start reasoning about routing metadata.
+func renderForModel(msg Message) string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	if msg.From != "" {
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "От: %s\n", msg.From)
+	}
+	if msg.Subject != "" {
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "Тема: %s\n", msg.Subject)
+	}
+	if msg.Body != "" {
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "\n%s\n", msg.Body)
+	}
+	if msg.Subject == "" && msg.Body == "" {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return b.String()
+}
+
+// parseCandidates decodes the grammar-constrained reply, tolerating the
+// wrappers a Thinking model sometimes leaves around it (a fenced block, or
+// leading reasoning before the array).
+func parseCandidates(raw string) ([]Candidate, error) {
+	s := strings.TrimSpace(raw)
+	if i := strings.Index(s, "["); i > 0 {
+		s = s[i:]
+	}
+	if j := strings.LastIndex(s, "]"); j >= 0 {
+		s = s[:j+1]
+	}
+	var out []Candidate
+	if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(s), &out); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
+// ParseDue turns the model's "YYYY-MM-DD" into a time in UTC. Exported because
+// the daemon-side intake stores it on the candidate.
+//
+// The zero-value/empty case returns ok=false rather than an error: no date is
+// the common answer, not a failure.
+func ParseDue(s string) (time.Time, bool) {
+	s = strings.TrimSpace(s)
+	if s == "" {
+		return time.Time{}, false
+	}
+	t, err := time.Parse("2006-01-02", s)
+	if err != nil {
+		return time.Time{}, false
+	}
+	return t, true
+}

internal/email/extract_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+package email
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+)
+
+// fakeLLM returns a canned reply and records the request, so a test can assert
+// on the grammar and on what of the mail was sent.
+type fakeLLM struct {
+	reply string
+	err   error
+	got   llm.Req
+	calls int
+}
+
+func (f *fakeLLM) Complete(_ context.Context, r llm.Req) (string, error) {
+	f.calls++
+	f.got = r
+	return f.reply, f.err
+}
+
+func msgFor(subject, body string) Message {
+	return Message{UID: 1, From: "anton@example.org", Subject: subject, Body: body}
+}
+
+func TestExtractCandidates(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeLLM{reply: `[{"text":"отправить акт","due":""},{"text":"оплатить счёт","due":"2026-08-05"}]`}
+	e := NewExtractor(f, 0, nil)
+	got, err := e.Extract(context.Background(), msgFor("Акт и счёт", "Надо отправить акт и оплатить счёт до 5 августа."))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("extract: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(got) != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("got %d candidates, want 2: %+v", len(got), got)
+	}
+	if got[0].Text != "отправить акт" || got[1].Due != "2026-08-05" {
+		t.Errorf("candidates = %+v", got)
+	}
+	if f.got.Grammar == "" {
+		t.Error("extraction must be grammar-constrained")
+	}
+	// The subject and body go to the model; nothing else about the message does.
+	if !strings.Contains(f.got.User, "Акт и счёт") || !strings.Contains(f.got.User, "оплатить счёт") {
+		t.Errorf("user turn = %q", f.got.User)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestExtractEmptyArrayIsNotAnError(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeLLM{reply: "[]"}
+	got, err := NewExtractor(f, 0, nil).Extract(context.Background(), msgFor("FYI", "Просто к сведению."))
+	if err != nil || len(got) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("got (%v, %v), want (empty, nil) — no task is the normal answer", got, err)
+	}
+}
+
+// Junk must never reach the model: the header filter exists so the resident
+// model is not spent on newsletters.
+func TestExtractSkipsJunkWithoutCallingModel(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeLLM{reply: `[{"text":"купить всё со скидкой","due":""}]`}
+	msg := msgFor("Скидки", "Sale!")
+	msg.Junk = true
+	got, err := NewExtractor(f, 0, nil).Extract(context.Background(), msg)
+	if err != nil || got != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("got (%v, %v), want (nil, nil)", got, err)
+	}
+	if f.calls != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("model called %d times for junk, want 0", f.calls)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestExtractEmptyMessageIsNotSent(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeLLM{reply: "[]"}
+	if _, err := NewExtractor(f, 0, nil).Extract(context.Background(), Message{UID: 3}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("extract: %v", err)
+	}
+	if f.calls != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("model called %d times for an empty message, want 0", f.calls)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestExtractCaps(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeLLM{reply: `[{"text":"a","due":""},{"text":"b","due":""},{"text":"c","due":""}]`}
+	got, err := NewExtractor(f, 2, nil).Extract(context.Background(), msgFor("s", "b"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("extract: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(got) != 2 {
+		t.Errorf("got %d, want the configured cap of 2", len(got))
+	}
+}
+
+func TestExtractDropsRepeatsAndBadDates(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeLLM{reply: `[{"text":"Отправить акт","due":"2026-02-31"},{"text":"отправить  акт","due":""},{"text":"  ","due":""}]`}
+	got, err := NewExtractor(f, 0, nil).Extract(context.Background(), msgFor("s", "b"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("extract: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(got) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("got %d candidates, want 1 (repeat and blank dropped): %+v", len(got), got)
+	}
+	if got[0].Due != "" {
+		t.Errorf("due = %q, want empty — 2026-02-31 is not a date", got[0].Due)
+	}
+}
+
+// A Thinking model sometimes wraps the array; and when it emits something
+// unparsable the caller must hear about it rather than see "no tasks".
+func TestParseCandidatesTolerance(t *testing.T) {
+	got, err := parseCandidates("думаю... [{\"text\":\"x\",\"due\":\"\"}] всё")
+	if err != nil || len(got) != 1 || got[0].Text != "x" {
+		t.Fatalf("got (%+v, %v)", got, err)
+	}
+	if _, err := parseCandidates("нет никакого JSON"); err == nil {
+		t.Error("unparsable output must be an error")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestExtractParseErrorHidesMailText(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeLLM{reply: "он просил отправить акт, вот такой ответ"}
+	_, err := NewExtractor(f, 0, nil).Extract(context.Background(), msgFor("Акт", "секретный текст"))
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("want an error")
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "акт") || strings.Contains(err.Error(), "секретный") {
+		t.Errorf("error text leaks mail content: %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestParseDue(t *testing.T) {
+	if _, ok := ParseDue(""); ok {
+		t.Error("empty due must be (zero, false)")
+	}
+	if got, ok := ParseDue("2026-08-05"); !ok || got.Year() != 2026 || got.Month() != 8 || got.Day() != 5 {
+		t.Errorf("ParseDue = (%v, %v)", got, ok)
+	}
+	if _, ok := ParseDue("05.08.2026"); ok {
+		t.Error("a non-ISO date must not parse")
+	}
+}

internal/email/fetch.go

@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+package email
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// FetchSince is the whole read path in one call: connect, log in, examine the
+// mailbox read-only, list what arrived since a date, fetch and parse the ones
+// the caller has not seen, log out.
+//
+// It is a function rather than a long-lived object because a mail poller should
+// not hold an authenticated session (and therefore his credential in a live TLS
+// state) between polls. Connect, read, drop.
+//
+// skip decides which UIDs are already known — the poller's seen-set. max bounds
+// one poll: a mailbox that received 400 messages overnight must not turn into
+// 400 LLM calls, and the newest max are the ones a task could still be hiding
+// in. Junk messages are returned too, flagged, so the caller can mark them seen
+// without a second protocol round.
+type FetchSince struct {
+	Addr    string // host or host:993
+	User    string
+	Mailbox string // e.g. "INBOX"
+	Timeout time.Duration
+	Since   time.Time
+	Max     int
+	Skip    func(uid uint32) bool
+
+	// dial is the connection seam. nil means Dial (implicit TLS); the tests set
+	// it to an in-process fake. Unexported so no configuration path can point
+	// the reader at a non-TLS transport.
+	dial func(addr string, timeout time.Duration) (*Conn, error)
+}
+
+// Run performs one read. password is passed here, not stored in the struct, so
+// the configuration of a mailbox and the secret for it are never the same value
+// sitting in the same place.
+func (f FetchSince) Run(password string) ([]Message, error) {
+	if f.Addr == "" || f.User == "" || f.Mailbox == "" {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("email: mailbox not configured (addr/user/mailbox)")
+	}
+	dial := f.dial
+	if dial == nil {
+		dial = Dial
+	}
+	c, err := dial(f.Addr, f.Timeout)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	defer c.Close()
+	if err := c.Login(f.User, password); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	defer c.Logout()
+	if err := c.Select(f.Mailbox); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	uids, err := c.SearchSince(f.Since)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	// Newest UIDs first — IMAP hands them back ascending, and when Max clips the
+	// list the recent mail is what matters.
+	wanted := make([]uint32, 0, len(uids))
+	for i := len(uids) - 1; i >= 0; i-- {
+		if f.Skip != nil && f.Skip(uids[i]) {
+			continue
+		}
+		wanted = append(wanted, uids[i])
+		if f.Max > 0 && len(wanted) >= f.Max {
+			break
+		}
+	}
+
+	out := make([]Message, 0, len(wanted))
+	for _, uid := range wanted {
+		raw, err := c.Fetch(uid)
+		if err != nil {
+			// One unreadable message does not abandon the poll; the rest of the
+			// mailbox is still worth reading. The error names the UID, not the
+			// message.
+			return out, fmt.Errorf("email: fetch uid %d: %w", uid, err)
+		}
+		if len(raw) == 0 {
+			continue // vanished between SEARCH and FETCH
+		}
+		msg, err := ParseMessage(uid, raw)
+		if err != nil {
+			continue // unparsable headers — nothing to review, skip silently
+		}
+		out = append(out, msg)
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}

internal/email/fetch_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+package email
+
+import (
+	"net"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+func TestFetchSinceRun(t *testing.T) {
+	mk := func(subject string) string {
+		return "Subject: " + subject + "\r\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\r\n\r\nbody\r\n"
+	}
+	f := &fakeIMAP{
+		uids: []uint32{1, 2, 3},
+		msgs: map[uint32]string{1: mk("one"), 2: mk("two"), 3: mk("three")},
+	}
+	fs := FetchSince{
+		Addr: "mail.example:993", User: "kami", Mailbox: "INBOX",
+		Timeout: 5 * time.Second,
+		Since:   time.Date(2026, 7, 30, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC),
+		Max:     2,
+		Skip:    func(uid uint32) bool { return uid == 3 },
+		dial: func(addr string, timeout time.Duration) (*Conn, error) {
+			cli, srv := net.Pipe()
+			go f.serve(t, srv)
+			return NewConn(cli, timeout)
+		},
+	}
+	msgs, err := fs.Run("secret")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("run: %v", err)
+	}
+	// Newest first, the already-seen UID skipped, Max respected.
+	if len(msgs) != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("got %d messages, want 2: %+v", len(msgs), msgs)
+	}
+	if msgs[0].Subject != "two" || msgs[1].Subject != "one" {
+		t.Errorf("subjects = %q,%q, want two,one (newest first)", msgs[0].Subject, msgs[1].Subject)
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(strings.Join(f.cmds, " "), "UID FETCH 3") {
+		t.Error("a skipped UID must not be fetched again")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestFetchSinceRequiresConfig(t *testing.T) {
+	if _, err := (FetchSince{}).Run("secret"); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("an unconfigured mailbox must not be read")
+	}
+}

internal/email/imap.go

@@ -0,0 +1,280 @@
+package email
+
+import (
+	"bufio"
+	"crypto/tls"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"net"
+	"regexp"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// A minimal IMAP4rev1 client — LOGIN, SELECT, UID SEARCH, UID FETCH with
+// BODY.PEEK, LOGOUT, and nothing else.
+//
+// Why hand-rolled instead of go-imap: the whole surface Maven needs is five
+// commands, and this is the one code path that holds his mailbox credential and
+// reads his private mail. A ~200-line client with no dependencies is auditable
+// in one sitting; a general-purpose IMAP library is a much larger amount of
+// code doing much more than we asked, in the most sensitive place in the tree.
+// If IDLE, CONDSTORE or server-side threading ever become worth having, that
+// trade should be re-made deliberately.
+//
+// BODY.PEEK[] rather than BODY[] is load-bearing: Maven reads his mail and must
+// leave no trace of having done so. Reading a message here does not mark it
+// \Seen, so the unread state in his own mail client stays his.
+
+// DefaultIMAPPort — implicit-TLS IMAP. There is no cleartext and no STARTTLS
+// path in this client: an option to send his password over a plain socket is an
+// option to get it wrong once.
+const DefaultIMAPPort = "993"
+
+// Conn — one authenticated IMAP connection. Not safe for concurrent use; the
+// poller drives one connection at a time.
+type Conn struct {
+	rwc     io.ReadWriteCloser
+	r       *bufio.Reader
+	tag     int
+	timeout time.Duration
+}
+
+// Dial opens an implicit-TLS connection and reads the server greeting.
+func Dial(addr string, timeout time.Duration) (*Conn, error) {
+	host, _, err := net.SplitHostPort(addr)
+	if err != nil {
+		host, addr = addr, net.JoinHostPort(addr, DefaultIMAPPort)
+	}
+	d := &net.Dialer{Timeout: timeout}
+	// ServerName is set from the host we asked for: certificate verification is
+	// the only thing standing between his password and a MITM on the way out.
+	c, err := tls.DialWithDialer(d, "tcp", addr, &tls.Config{ServerName: host, MinVersion: tls.VersionTLS12})
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("email: dial %s: %w", addr, err)
+	}
+	return NewConn(c, timeout)
+}
+
+// NewConn wraps an already-open stream (the tests speak IMAP over a pipe) and
+// consumes the greeting.
+func NewConn(rwc io.ReadWriteCloser, timeout time.Duration) (*Conn, error) {
+	c := &Conn{rwc: rwc, r: bufio.NewReaderSize(rwc, 64<<10), timeout: timeout}
+	line, err := c.readLine()
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("email: greeting: %w", err)
+	}
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(line, "* OK") && !strings.HasPrefix(line, "* PREAUTH") {
+		c.rwc.Close()
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("email: server refused connection: %s", line)
+	}
+	return c, nil
+}
+
+func (c *Conn) Close() error { return c.rwc.Close() }
+
+// Login authenticates with LOGIN. The password is passed as an argument and
+// never stored on the Conn: nothing in this package keeps a credential alive
+// past the command that uses it, so no struct dump or panic trace can carry it.
+func (c *Conn) Login(user, pass string) error {
+	// The command line itself is never logged (see exec) — a LOGIN line IS the
+	// credential.
+	if _, err := c.exec(fmt.Sprintf("LOGIN %s %s", quote(user), quote(pass))); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("email: login: %w", err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// Select opens a mailbox read-only. EXAMINE, not SELECT: read-only at the
+// protocol level means no command in this session can change a flag, expunge a
+// message, or move anything, even by mistake.
+func (c *Conn) Select(mailbox string) error {
+	if _, err := c.exec(fmt.Sprintf("EXAMINE %s", quote(mailbox))); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("email: examine %s: %w", mailbox, err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// SearchSince returns the UIDs of messages received on or after since. An
+// unlimited search is not offered: the first poll against a years-old mailbox
+// would otherwise fetch everything and hand a decade of mail to the model.
+//
+// The IMAP SINCE key has date granularity (and compares the server's internal
+// date), so the result can include messages slightly older than since. The
+// caller dedupes by UID anyway, so a wider window costs one extra fetch.
+func (c *Conn) SearchSince(since time.Time) ([]uint32, error) {
+	cmd := fmt.Sprintf("UID SEARCH SINCE %s", since.Format("2-Jan-2006"))
+	lines, err := c.exec(cmd)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("email: search: %w", err)
+	}
+	var uids []uint32
+	for _, l := range lines {
+		rest, ok := untagged(l, "SEARCH")
+		if !ok {
+			continue
+		}
+		for _, f := range strings.Fields(rest) {
+			n, err := strconv.ParseUint(f, 10, 32)
+			if err == nil {
+				uids = append(uids, uint32(n))
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return uids, nil
+}
+
+var literalSize = regexp.MustCompile(`\{(\d+)\}$`)
+
+// Fetch returns the raw RFC 5322 bytes of one message, by UID.
+//
+// Returns (nil, nil) when the UID no longer exists — a message he deleted
+// between SEARCH and FETCH is normal, not an error.
+func (c *Conn) Fetch(uid uint32) ([]byte, error) {
+	tag := c.nextTag()
+	if err := c.send(fmt.Sprintf("%s UID FETCH %d (BODY.PEEK[])", tag, uid)); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	var raw []byte
+	for {
+		line, err := c.readLine()
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("email: fetch %d: %w", uid, err)
+		}
+		if done, err := c.tagged(tag, line); done {
+			if err != nil {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("email: fetch %d: %w", uid, err)
+			}
+			return raw, nil
+		}
+		m := literalSize.FindStringSubmatch(strings.TrimSpace(line))
+		if m == nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		n, err := strconv.Atoi(m[1])
+		if err != nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		buf := make([]byte, n)
+		if _, err := io.ReadFull(c.r, buf); err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("email: fetch %d: literal: %w", uid, err)
+		}
+		if raw == nil {
+			raw = buf
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// Logout ends the session politely. A failure is not worth reporting — the
+// connection is being closed either way.
+func (c *Conn) Logout() {
+	_, _ = c.exec("LOGOUT")
+}
+
+// ---- protocol plumbing -----------------------------------------------------
+
+func (c *Conn) nextTag() string {
+	c.tag++
+	return fmt.Sprintf("a%03d", c.tag)
+}
+
+// exec sends one command and returns the untagged response lines.
+//
+// Neither the command nor the response is ever logged here. LOGIN goes through
+// this function, and a debug line "sent: a001 LOGIN ..." is how a credential
+// ends up in a log file forever.
+func (c *Conn) exec(cmd string) ([]string, error) {
+	tag := c.nextTag()
+	if err := c.send(tag + " " + cmd); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	var lines []string
+	for {
+		line, err := c.readLine()
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		if done, err := c.tagged(tag, line); done {
+			return lines, err
+		}
+		lines = append(lines, line)
+		// A response line may carry a literal (e.g. a header FETCH). Nothing we
+		// send asks for one outside Fetch, but skip it if it appears so the
+		// stream stays aligned.
+		if m := literalSize.FindStringSubmatch(strings.TrimSpace(line)); m != nil {
+			if n, err := strconv.Atoi(m[1]); err == nil {
+				if _, err := io.CopyN(io.Discard, c.r, int64(n)); err != nil {
+					return nil, err
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// tagged reports whether line completes the command with this tag, and turns a
+// NO/BAD completion into an error. The error text is the server's, which never
+// echoes a password.
+func (c *Conn) tagged(tag, line string) (bool, error) {
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(line, tag+" ") {
+		return false, nil
+	}
+	rest := strings.TrimSpace(line[len(tag):])
+	switch {
+	case strings.HasPrefix(rest, "OK"):
+		return true, nil
+	case strings.HasPrefix(rest, "NO"), strings.HasPrefix(rest, "BAD"):
+		return true, fmt.Errorf("server said: %s", rest)
+	default:
+		return true, fmt.Errorf("unexpected completion: %s", rest)
+	}
+}
+
+func (c *Conn) send(line string) error {
+	c.setDeadline()
+	if _, err := io.WriteString(c.rwc, line+"\r\n"); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("email: write: %w", err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (c *Conn) readLine() (string, error) {
+	c.setDeadline()
+	line, err := c.r.ReadString('\n')
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	return strings.TrimRight(line, "\r\n"), nil
+}
+
+// setDeadline applies the per-connection timeout when the transport supports
+// one. A hung IMAP server must not park the poller forever.
+func (c *Conn) setDeadline() {
+	if c.timeout <= 0 {
+		return
+	}
+	if d, ok := c.rwc.(interface{ SetDeadline(time.Time) error }); ok {
+		_ = d.SetDeadline(time.Now().Add(c.timeout))
+	}
+}
+
+// untagged splits "* SEARCH 1 2 3" into its payload when the key matches.
+func untagged(line, key string) (string, bool) {
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(line, "* ") {
+		return "", false
+	}
+	rest := strings.TrimSpace(line[2:])
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(rest, key) {
+		return "", false
+	}
+	return strings.TrimSpace(rest[len(key):]), true
+}
+
+// quote renders an IMAP quoted string. Passwords routinely contain characters
+// that would otherwise end the argument early, and CR/LF are stripped rather
+// than escaped because there is no legal way to send them — a credential file
+// with a stray newline must not become a second command.
+func quote(s string) string {
+	s = strings.NewReplacer("\r", "", "\n", "").Replace(s)
+	return `"` + strings.NewReplacer(`\`, `\\`, `"`, `\"`).Replace(s) + `"`
+}

internal/email/imap_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,162 @@
+package email
+
+import (
+	"bufio"
+	"fmt"
+	"net"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// fakeIMAP is a scripted server: enough of IMAP to exercise the client, and
+// nothing more. It records the commands it received so a test can assert on the
+// protocol (BODY.PEEK rather than BODY, EXAMINE rather than SELECT).
+type fakeIMAP struct {
+	msgs   map[uint32]string
+	uids   []uint32
+	cmds   []string
+	failOn string // substring of a command to answer NO
+}
+
+func (f *fakeIMAP) serve(t *testing.T, c net.Conn) {
+	t.Helper()
+	defer c.Close()
+	fmt.Fprint(c, "* OK fake IMAP ready\r\n")
+	r := bufio.NewReader(c)
+	for {
+		line, err := r.ReadString('\n')
+		if err != nil {
+			return
+		}
+		line = strings.TrimRight(line, "\r\n")
+		parts := strings.SplitN(line, " ", 2)
+		if len(parts) != 2 {
+			return
+		}
+		tag, cmd := parts[0], parts[1]
+		f.cmds = append(f.cmds, cmd)
+		if f.failOn != "" && strings.Contains(cmd, f.failOn) {
+			fmt.Fprintf(c, "%s NO computer says no\r\n", tag)
+			continue
+		}
+		upper := strings.ToUpper(cmd)
+		switch {
+		case strings.HasPrefix(upper, "LOGIN"), strings.HasPrefix(upper, "EXAMINE"):
+			fmt.Fprintf(c, "%s OK done\r\n", tag)
+		case strings.HasPrefix(upper, "UID SEARCH"):
+			var ids []string
+			for _, u := range f.uids {
+				ids = append(ids, strconv.FormatUint(uint64(u), 10))
+			}
+			fmt.Fprintf(c, "* SEARCH %s\r\n", strings.Join(ids, " "))
+			fmt.Fprintf(c, "%s OK search done\r\n", tag)
+		case strings.HasPrefix(upper, "UID FETCH"):
+			uid64, _ := strconv.ParseUint(strings.Fields(cmd)[2], 10, 32)
+			raw, ok := f.msgs[uint32(uid64)]
+			if ok {
+				fmt.Fprintf(c, "* 1 FETCH (UID %d BODY[] {%d}\r\n", uid64, len(raw))
+				fmt.Fprint(c, raw)
+				fmt.Fprint(c, ")\r\n")
+			}
+			fmt.Fprintf(c, "%s OK fetch done\r\n", tag)
+		case strings.HasPrefix(upper, "LOGOUT"):
+			fmt.Fprint(c, "* BYE\r\n")
+			fmt.Fprintf(c, "%s OK bye\r\n", tag)
+			return
+		default:
+			fmt.Fprintf(c, "%s BAD unknown\r\n", tag)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// dialFake wires a client Conn to an in-process server over net.Pipe.
+func dialFake(t *testing.T, f *fakeIMAP) *Conn {
+	t.Helper()
+	cli, srv := net.Pipe()
+	go f.serve(t, srv)
+	c, err := NewConn(cli, 5*time.Second)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("greeting: %v", err)
+	}
+	t.Cleanup(func() { c.Close() })
+	return c
+}
+
+func TestIMAPRoundTrip(t *testing.T) {
+	body := "Subject: hello\r\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\r\n\r\nCall the bank.\r\n"
+	f := &fakeIMAP{uids: []uint32{4, 9}, msgs: map[uint32]string{4: body, 9: body}}
+	c := dialFake(t, f)
+
+	if err := c.Login("kami", `pa"ss\word`); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("login: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := c.Select("INBOX"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("select: %v", err)
+	}
+	uids, err := c.SearchSince(time.Date(2026, 8, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("search: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(uids) != 2 || uids[0] != 4 || uids[1] != 9 {
+		t.Fatalf("uids = %v, want [4 9]", uids)
+	}
+	raw, err := c.Fetch(9)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("fetch: %v", err)
+	}
+	if string(raw) != body {
+		t.Errorf("fetched %q, want the literal verbatim", raw)
+	}
+	c.Logout()
+
+	joined := strings.Join(f.cmds, "\n")
+	// Read-only at the protocol level, and peeking — Maven must leave no trace
+	// of having read his mail.
+	if !strings.Contains(joined, "EXAMINE") || strings.Contains(joined, "SELECT ") {
+		t.Errorf("want EXAMINE (read-only), got:\n%s", joined)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(joined, "BODY.PEEK[]") {
+		t.Errorf("want BODY.PEEK, got:\n%s", joined)
+	}
+	// The password must have been quoted and escaped, not truncated at the quote.
+	if !strings.Contains(joined, `"pa\"ss\\word"`) {
+		t.Errorf("password not quoted correctly:\n%s", joined)
+	}
+	// SINCE must carry the IMAP date form.
+	if !strings.Contains(joined, "SINCE 1-Aug-2026") {
+		t.Errorf("want a SINCE date, got:\n%s", joined)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestIMAPServerNoIsAnError(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeIMAP{failOn: "LOGIN"}
+	c := dialFake(t, f)
+	err := c.Login("kami", "wrong")
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a NO completion must be an error")
+	}
+	// The error is the server's text; it must not echo the credential.
+	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "wrong") {
+		t.Errorf("error leaks the password: %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestIMAPFetchMissingUID(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeIMAP{uids: []uint32{1}, msgs: map[uint32]string{}}
+	c := dialFake(t, f)
+	raw, err := c.Fetch(1)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("fetch: %v", err)
+	}
+	if raw != nil {
+		t.Errorf("a vanished UID should give nil, got %q", raw)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestQuoteStripsNewlines(t *testing.T) {
+	if got := quote("pass\r\nA1 LOGOUT"); strings.ContainsAny(got, "\r\n") {
+		t.Errorf("quote kept a line break: %q", got)
+	}
+}

internal/email/junk.go

@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+package email
+
+import (
+	"net/mail"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// The junk filter — the cheapest and most important half of reading mail.
+//
+// A mailbox is mostly machine-generated: newsletters, receipts nobody acts on,
+// social notifications, marketing. Sending all of it to a 1.7B and asking "is
+// there a task here" produces confident nonsense at a rate proportional to the
+// volume, so junk is decided by HEADERS, before any model sees the message.
+//
+// The rules are all bulk-mail markers that senders set on themselves, never
+// guesses about content:
+//
+//   - List-Unsubscribe / List-Id — by definition a mailing list. If he can
+//     unsubscribe from it, it is not asking him to do anything.
+//   - Precedence: bulk|junk|list — the sender declaring itself bulk.
+//   - Auto-Submitted other than "no" (RFC 3834) — generated by a machine.
+//   - X-Spam-Flag: YES, X-Spam-Status: Yes — the spam filter upstream already
+//     decided; we do not second-guess it in the other direction.
+//   - X-GM-LABELS / X-Gmail-Labels containing a Gmail category — Gmail's own
+//     Promotions/Social/Forums/Spam classification, when the server sends it.
+//
+// Deliberately NOT here: sender allow/deny lists and subject keyword matching.
+// Both are configuration that ages badly and both would be a place for his
+// contacts to end up in a config file. If a real correspondent's mail is being
+// dropped, the fix is a rule about a header, not a list of names.
+//
+// A junk verdict never deletes anything and never touches a flag on the server.
+// It means "do not spend the model on this", nothing more.
+
+// junkHeaders — headers whose mere presence marks bulk mail.
+var junkPresence = []string{"List-Unsubscribe", "List-Id", "List-Post"}
+
+// gmailCategories — Gmail's category labels, lowercased as they appear in
+// X-GM-LABELS. "important" and "inbox" are labels too, and are NOT categories.
+// Matching is by these exact tokens (substring is fine — they are namespaced
+// and cannot appear in a hand-made label by accident), so a user label named
+// "Social Club" is not mistaken for Gmail's Social category.
+var gmailCategories = []string{
+	"category_promotions", "category_social", "category_forums", "category_updates",
+	`\spam`, `\junk`,
+}
+
+// classifyJunk returns whether the message is bulk/automated and why. The
+// reason is a short header name, safe to log — it names the marker, never the
+// sender or the subject.
+func classifyJunk(h mail.Header) (bool, string) {
+	for _, name := range junkPresence {
+		if strings.TrimSpace(h.Get(name)) != "" {
+			return true, strings.ToLower(name)
+		}
+	}
+	switch strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(h.Get("Precedence"))) {
+	case "bulk", "junk", "list":
+		return true, "precedence"
+	}
+	if v := strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(h.Get("Auto-Submitted"))); v != "" && v != "no" {
+		return true, "auto-submitted"
+	}
+	if strings.EqualFold(strings.TrimSpace(h.Get("X-Spam-Flag")), "yes") {
+		return true, "x-spam-flag"
+	}
+	if v := strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(h.Get("X-Spam-Status"))); strings.HasPrefix(v, "yes") {
+		return true, "x-spam-status"
+	}
+	labels := strings.ToLower(h.Get("X-GM-LABELS") + " " + h.Get("X-Gmail-Labels"))
+	for _, c := range gmailCategories {
+		if c == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		if strings.Contains(labels, c) {
+			return true, "gmail-category"
+		}
+	}
+	return false, ""
+}

internal/email/junk_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+package email
+
+import (
+	"net/mail"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func headers(t *testing.T, raw string) mail.Header {
+	t.Helper()
+	m, err := mail.ReadMessage(strings.NewReader(strings.ReplaceAll(raw, "\n", "\r\n") + "\r\n\r\nbody\r\n"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("read headers: %v", err)
+	}
+	return m.Header
+}
+
+func TestClassifyJunk(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := []struct {
+		name   string
+		raw    string
+		junk   bool
+		reason string
+	}{
+		{"personal", "From: a@b.c\nSubject: привет", false, ""},
+		{"list-unsubscribe", "From: a@b.c\nList-Unsubscribe: <mailto:u@b.c>", true, "list-unsubscribe"},
+		{"list-id", "From: a@b.c\nList-Id: <golang-nuts.example>", true, "list-id"},
+		{"precedence bulk", "From: a@b.c\nPrecedence: bulk", true, "precedence"},
+		{"auto-submitted", "From: a@b.c\nAuto-Submitted: auto-generated", true, "auto-submitted"},
+		{"auto-submitted no", "From: a@b.c\nAuto-Submitted: no", false, ""},
+		{"spam flag", "From: a@b.c\nX-Spam-Flag: YES", true, "x-spam-flag"},
+		{"spam status", "From: a@b.c\nX-Spam-Status: Yes, score=9.1", true, "x-spam-status"},
+		{"spam status no", "From: a@b.c\nX-Spam-Status: No, score=0.1", false, ""},
+		{"gmail promo", "From: a@b.c\nX-Gmail-Labels: Inbox,CATEGORY_PROMOTIONS", true, "gmail-category"},
+		{"user label", "From: a@b.c\nX-Gmail-Labels: Social Club,Important", false, ""},
+	}
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		t.Run(c.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			junk, reason := classifyJunk(headers(t, c.raw))
+			if junk != c.junk || reason != c.reason {
+				t.Errorf("classifyJunk = (%v, %q), want (%v, %q)", junk, reason, c.junk, c.reason)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func TestNewsletterFixtureIsJunk(t *testing.T) {
+	msg, err := ParseMessage(9, fixture(t, "newsletter.eml"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("parse: %v", err)
+	}
+	if !msg.Junk {
+		t.Fatal("a newsletter with List-Unsubscribe + Precedence: bulk must be junk")
+	}
+	// The reason is what gets logged, so it must never carry mail content.
+	if strings.Contains(msg.JunkReason, "@") || strings.Contains(msg.JunkReason, "Скидки") {
+		t.Errorf("junk reason leaks content: %q", msg.JunkReason)
+	}
+}

internal/email/message.go

@@ -0,0 +1,258 @@
+// Package email is the reading half of the email reader (Vikunja #246,
+// docs/plans/01-email-reader.md): a small IMAP client, a MIME-to-plaintext
+// converter, and the junk filter that decides a message is not worth reading at
+// all. Extraction lives in extract.go and writes nothing itself.
+//
+// Two constraints shape everything here, both from CLAUDE.md:
+//
+//   - Mail is personal. Nothing in this package logs a body, a subject, or an
+//     address; callers get the text and decide. Mail text is never search input
+//     — no function here reaches the network except the IMAP connection itself.
+//   - Off unless configured. There is no default host, no default account, and
+//     no fallback that would make a mailbox get read because a field was empty.
+//
+// The IMAP subset is deliberately tiny (LOGIN, SELECT, UID SEARCH, UID FETCH
+// with BODY.PEEK, LOGOUT). No IDLE: a poll every few minutes is what a task
+// candidate needs, and IDLE would mean holding a connection and a credential
+// open forever for latency nobody is waiting on.
+package email
+
+import (
+	"encoding/base64"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"mime"
+	"mime/multipart"
+	"mime/quotedprintable"
+	"net/mail"
+	"regexp"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// MaxBodyBytes — how much of one message body is kept. A task hides in the
+// first screenful; the rest is signature, quoted history and legal boilerplate,
+// and it would only spend the resident model's 4096-token context.
+const MaxBodyBytes = 4000
+
+// Message — one mail, reduced to the fields extraction and review need.
+//
+// Raw is deliberately absent: once a message is parsed the original bytes are
+// dropped, so no caller can accidentally log or forward the whole mail.
+type Message struct {
+	UID     uint32
+	From    string
+	Subject string
+	Date    string // as sent, unparsed — display only
+	Body    string // plaintext, decoded, HTML-stripped, truncated
+	// Junk is set by the junk filter (see junk.go). A junk message is carried
+	// rather than dropped so the poller can count it and still mark it seen.
+	Junk       bool
+	JunkReason string
+}
+
+// ParseMessage turns one RFC 5322 message into a Message.
+//
+// It never fails on a body it cannot understand: an unparsable or
+// unsupported-charset body yields an empty Body and the headers still come
+// through, because a subject line alone is often the whole task ("Счёт за
+// интернет"). Only a message whose headers cannot be read at all is an error.
+func ParseMessage(uid uint32, raw []byte) (Message, error) {
+	m, err := mail.ReadMessage(strings.NewReader(string(raw)))
+	if err != nil {
+		return Message{}, fmt.Errorf("email: parse message: %w", err)
+	}
+	msg := Message{
+		UID:     uid,
+		From:    decodeHeader(m.Header.Get("From")),
+		Subject: decodeHeader(m.Header.Get("Subject")),
+		Date:    m.Header.Get("Date"),
+	}
+	msg.Junk, msg.JunkReason = classifyJunk(m.Header)
+	body, err := plaintextBody(m.Header.Get("Content-Type"), m.Header.Get("Content-Transfer-Encoding"), m.Body)
+	if err == nil {
+		msg.Body = truncate(collapse(body), MaxBodyBytes)
+	}
+	return msg, nil
+}
+
+// plaintextBody walks the MIME tree and returns the best plaintext it can.
+//
+// Preference order inside a multipart: text/plain first, text/html stripped
+// only when there is no plain part. multipart/mixed attachments are skipped
+// wholesale — an attachment is a file, not a sentence, and reading one would
+// mean parsing arbitrary formats from the network.
+func plaintextBody(contentType, encoding string, body io.Reader) (string, error) {
+	mediaType, params, err := mime.ParseMediaType(contentType)
+	if contentType == "" || err != nil {
+		// No Content-Type at all is legal and means text/plain; a broken one is
+		// treated the same rather than dropping the message.
+		mediaType, params = "text/plain", nil
+	}
+	switch {
+	case strings.HasPrefix(mediaType, "multipart/"):
+		boundary := params["boundary"]
+		if boundary == "" {
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("email: multipart without boundary")
+		}
+		return multipartText(multipart.NewReader(body, boundary))
+	case mediaType == "text/html":
+		raw, err := decodeBody(body, encoding, params["charset"])
+		if err != nil {
+			return "", err
+		}
+		return stripHTML(raw), nil
+	case mediaType == "text/plain":
+		return decodeBody(body, encoding, params["charset"])
+	default:
+		// A single-part non-text message (a bare PDF, say). No body, headers only.
+		return "", nil
+	}
+}
+
+// multipartText reads one multipart level, recursing into nested multiparts.
+// Returns the plain part if any part yielded one, else the stripped HTML.
+func multipartText(mr *multipart.Reader) (string, error) {
+	var plain, html string
+	for {
+		part, err := mr.NextPart()
+		if err == io.EOF {
+			break
+		}
+		if err != nil {
+			// A truncated multipart still gives up whatever came before it.
+			break
+		}
+		if part.FileName() != "" {
+			part.Close()
+			continue // attachment
+		}
+		ct := part.Header.Get("Content-Type")
+		mediaType, _, _ := mime.ParseMediaType(ct)
+		text, err := plaintextBody(ct, part.Header.Get("Content-Transfer-Encoding"), part)
+		part.Close()
+		if err != nil || strings.TrimSpace(text) == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		if mediaType == "text/html" && !strings.HasPrefix(mediaType, "multipart/") {
+			if html == "" {
+				html = text
+			}
+			continue
+		}
+		if plain == "" {
+			plain = text
+		}
+	}
+	if strings.TrimSpace(plain) != "" {
+		return plain, nil
+	}
+	return html, nil
+}
+
+// decodeBody applies the transfer encoding, then the charset.
+//
+// Charset support is UTF-8 (and ASCII, its subset) only, on purpose: x/text's
+// encoding tables are not vendored here, and guessing at windows-1251 bytes
+// would feed the model mojibake it would happily extract a task from. An
+// unsupported charset returns an error, which ParseMessage turns into an empty
+// body — subject-only, which is honest.
+func decodeBody(r io.Reader, encoding, charset string) (string, error) {
+	switch strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(encoding)) {
+	case "quoted-printable":
+		r = quotedprintable.NewReader(r)
+	case "base64":
+		r = newBase64Reader(r)
+	}
+	b, err := io.ReadAll(io.LimitReader(r, 1<<20))
+	if err != nil && len(b) == 0 {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("email: read body: %w", err)
+	}
+	switch cs := strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(charset)); cs {
+	case "", "utf-8", "utf8", "us-ascii", "ascii":
+		return string(b), nil
+	default:
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("email: unsupported charset %q", cs)
+	}
+}
+
+// decodeHeader decodes RFC 2047 encoded words ("=?utf-8?B?...?="), which is how
+// every Russian subject line arrives. Undecodable headers come back as-is
+// rather than empty: a mangled subject is still a hint, and it is only ever
+// shown to him as evidence.
+func decodeHeader(v string) string {
+	dec := new(mime.WordDecoder)
+	out, err := dec.DecodeHeader(v)
+	if err != nil {
+		return collapse(v)
+	}
+	return collapse(out)
+}
+
+var (
+	scriptStyle = regexp.MustCompile(`(?is)<(script|style)\b[^>]*>.*?</\s*(script|style)\s*>`)
+	htmlBreak   = regexp.MustCompile(`(?i)<\s*(br\s*/?|/p|/div|/tr|/li|/h[1-6])\s*>`)
+	htmlTag     = regexp.MustCompile(`(?s)<[^>]*>`)
+	htmlComment = regexp.MustCompile(`(?s)<!--.*?-->`)
+)
+
+// stripHTML reduces an HTML part to text. A regex stripper, not a parser:
+// x/net/html is not vendored, and the consumer is a model reading prose — a
+// stray angle bracket costs nothing, whereas a new dependency for the privacy-
+// sensitive path costs review.
+func stripHTML(s string) string {
+	s = scriptStyle.ReplaceAllString(s, " ")
+	s = htmlComment.ReplaceAllString(s, " ")
+	s = htmlBreak.ReplaceAllString(s, "\n")
+	s = htmlTag.ReplaceAllString(s, " ")
+	return unescapeEntities(s)
+}
+
+var entities = strings.NewReplacer(
+	"&nbsp;", " ", "&amp;", "&", "&lt;", "<", "&gt;", ">",
+	"&quot;", `"`, "&#39;", "'", "&apos;", "'", "&mdash;", "—", "&ndash;", "–",
+)
+
+func unescapeEntities(s string) string { return entities.Replace(s) }
+
+// collapse squeezes runs of whitespace, keeping single newlines. Mail bodies
+// arrive with hard-wrapped lines and blocks of blank space; the model does not
+// need them and they are pure context budget.
+func collapse(s string) string {
+	lines := strings.Split(strings.ReplaceAll(s, "\r\n", "\n"), "\n")
+	var out []string
+	blank := 0
+	for _, l := range lines {
+		l = strings.TrimSpace(strings.Join(strings.Fields(l), " "))
+		if l == "" {
+			blank++
+			if blank > 1 {
+				continue
+			}
+			out = append(out, "")
+			continue
+		}
+		blank = 0
+		out = append(out, l)
+	}
+	return strings.TrimSpace(strings.Join(out, "\n"))
+}
+
+// truncate cuts to n bytes on a rune boundary.
+func truncate(s string, n int) string {
+	if len(s) <= n {
+		return s
+	}
+	cut := s[:n]
+	for len(cut) > 0 && !isRuneStart(cut[len(cut)-1]) {
+		cut = cut[:len(cut)-1]
+	}
+	return strings.TrimSpace(cut) + "…"
+}
+
+func isRuneStart(b byte) bool { return b&0xC0 != 0x80 }
+
+// newBase64Reader — base64.NewDecoder already skips the CRLFs mail bodies wrap
+// with, so this is only a named seam for decodeBody to read cleanly.
+func newBase64Reader(r io.Reader) io.Reader {
+	return base64.NewDecoder(base64.StdEncoding, r)
+}

internal/email/message_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+package email
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func fixture(t *testing.T, name string) []byte {
+	t.Helper()
+	b, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join("testdata", name))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("read fixture %s: %v", name, err)
+	}
+	return b
+}
+
+func TestParsePlainRussian(t *testing.T) {
+	msg, err := ParseMessage(7, fixture(t, "plain_ru.eml"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("parse: %v", err)
+	}
+	if msg.UID != 7 {
+		t.Errorf("uid = %d, want 7", msg.UID)
+	}
+	if want := "Нужно закрыть задачу"; msg.Subject != want {
+		t.Errorf("subject = %q, want %q", msg.Subject, want)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(msg.From, "Антон") {
+		t.Errorf("from = %q, want the decoded display name", msg.From)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(msg.Body, "Надо отправить акт до пятницы.") {
+		t.Errorf("body = %q, want the quoted-printable text decoded", msg.Body)
+	}
+	if msg.Junk {
+		t.Errorf("a personal mail must not be junk (%s)", msg.JunkReason)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestParseHTMLOnlyIsStripped(t *testing.T) {
+	msg, err := ParseMessage(1, fixture(t, "html_only.eml"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("parse: %v", err)
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(msg.Body, "<") || strings.Contains(msg.Body, "color:red") || strings.Contains(msg.Body, "x()") {
+		t.Errorf("body still has markup/script/style: %q", msg.Body)
+	}
+	for _, want := range []string{"Счёт за интернет: 700", "Оплатить до 5 августа."} {
+		if !strings.Contains(msg.Body, want) {
+			t.Errorf("body = %q, want it to contain %q", msg.Body, want)
+		}
+	}
+	// &nbsp; must have become a real space, not vanished into the number.
+	if strings.Contains(msg.Body, "&nbsp;") {
+		t.Errorf("entity left unescaped: %q", msg.Body)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestParsePrefersPlainAndSkipsAttachments(t *testing.T) {
+	msg, err := ParseMessage(2, fixture(t, "mixed_attachment.eml"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("parse: %v", err)
+	}
+	if got := strings.TrimSpace(msg.Body); got != "Sign the contract before Monday." {
+		t.Errorf("body = %q, want the text/plain alternative only", got)
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(msg.Body, "PDF") {
+		t.Errorf("attachment bytes leaked into the body: %q", msg.Body)
+	}
+}
+
+// An unsupported charset must degrade to headers-only rather than to mojibake
+// the model would then extract a task from.
+func TestParseUnsupportedCharsetKeepsHeaders(t *testing.T) {
+	msg, err := ParseMessage(3, fixture(t, "cp1251.eml"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("parse: %v", err)
+	}
+	if msg.Subject != "Legacy" {
+		t.Errorf("subject = %q, want Legacy", msg.Subject)
+	}
+	if msg.Body != "" {
+		t.Errorf("body = %q, want empty for an undecodable charset", msg.Body)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestParseTruncatesLongBody(t *testing.T) {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	b.WriteString("Subject: long\r\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\r\n\r\n")
+	for i := 0; i < 2000; i++ {
+		b.WriteString("длинная строка ")
+	}
+	msg, err := ParseMessage(4, []byte(b.String()))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("parse: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(msg.Body) > MaxBodyBytes+8 {
+		t.Errorf("body kept %d bytes, want ≤ %d", len(msg.Body), MaxBodyBytes)
+	}
+	if !strings.HasSuffix(msg.Body, "…") {
+		t.Errorf("truncated body should be marked: %q", msg.Body[len(msg.Body)-20:])
+	}
+}
+
+func TestCollapseSqueezesBlankLines(t *testing.T) {
+	got := collapse("  a  b \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n  c  \r\n")
+	if got != "a b\n\nc" {
+		t.Errorf("collapse = %q, want %q", got, "a b\n\nc")
+	}
+}

internal/email/testdata/cp1251.eml

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+From: legacy@example.org
+To: kami@example.org
+Subject: Legacy
+Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0400
+Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1251"
+
+Ï

internal/email/testdata/html_only.eml

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+From: billing@isp.example
+To: kami@example.org
+Subject: =?utf-8?B?0KHRh9GR0YIg0LfQsCDQuNC90YLQtdGA0L3QtdGC?=
+Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0400
+MIME-Version: 1.0
+Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="B1"
+
+--B1
+Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8"
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
+
+PGh0bWw+PGhlYWQ+PHN0eWxlPnB7Y29sb3I6cmVkfTwvc3R5bGU+PC9oZWFkPjxib2R5PjxwPtCh0YfRkdGCINC30LAg0LjQvdGC0LXRgNC90LXRgjogNzAwJm5ic3A74oK9PC9wPjxwPtCe0L/Qu9Cw0YLQuNGC0Ywg0LTQviA1INCw0LLQs9GD0YHRgtCwLjwvcD48c2NyaXB0PngoKTwvc2NyaXB0PjwvYm9keT48L2h0bWw+
+--B1--

internal/email/testdata/mixed_attachment.eml

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+From: hr@work.example
+To: kami@example.org
+Subject: Contract
+Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2026 07:00:00 +0400
+MIME-Version: 1.0
+Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="M1"
+
+--M1
+Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="A1"
+
+--A1
+Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
+
+Sign the contract before Monday.
+--A1
+Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8"
+
+<p>Sign the contract before Monday.</p>
+--A1--
+--M1
+Content-Type: application/pdf; name="contract.pdf"
+Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="contract.pdf"
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
+
+JVBERi0xLjQgbm90IHJlYWxseSBhIHBkZg==
+--M1--

internal/email/testdata/newsletter.eml

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+From: news@shop.example
+To: kami@example.org
+Subject: =?utf-8?B?0KHQutC40LTQutC4INGC0L7Qu9GM0LrQviDRgdC10LPQvtC00L3Rjw==?=
+Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0400
+List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:unsub@shop.example>
+Precedence: bulk
+Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
+
+Sale!

internal/email/testdata/plain_ru.eml

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+From: =?utf-8?B?0JDQvdGC0L7QvQ==?= <anton@example.org>
+To: kami@example.org
+Subject: =?utf-8?B?0J3Rg9C20L3QviDQt9Cw0LrRgNGL0YLRjCDQt9Cw0LTQsNGH0YM=?=
+Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2026 09:12:00 +0400
+Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
+Message-ID: <plain-ru@example.org>
+
+=D0=9F=D1=80=D0=B8=D0=B2=D0=B5=D1=82! =D0=9D=D0=B0=D0=B4=D0=BE =D0=BE=D1=82=
+=D0=BF=D1=80=D0=B0=D0=B2=D0=B8=D1=82=D1=8C =D0=B0=D0=BA=D1=82 =D0=B4=D0=BE =
+=D0=BF=D1=8F=D1=82=D0=BD=D0=B8=D1=86=D1=8B.
+
+--
+Anton

internal/ipc/api.go

@@ -138,6 +138,44 @@ type CaptureTaskResp struct {
 	Created bool  `json:"created"`
 }
 
+// IngestMailReq — one message a mail reader has fetched, handed to core for
+// extraction (Vikunja #246).
+//
+// The mail reader (cmd/mavmaild) holds the IMAP credential and core never sees
+// it, the same split mavpoll uses for the zenmoney token. What crosses this
+// boundary is only the message text, because extraction runs on the resident
+// model and llama-server lives inside core's process.
+//
+// Body is already plaintext and truncated by internal/email; core does not
+// re-parse MIME and never stores the body. Junk means the reader's header
+// filter already classified the message as bulk — core is told rather than
+// asked, so a junk message can be counted without a model call.
+//
+// This method is available only when core has an email block configured AND a
+// llama-server phraser; otherwise it answers ErrUnknownMethod, which is what
+// "off unless configured" looks like at the wire.
+type IngestMailReq struct {
+	Mailbox string `json:"mailbox"`
+	UID     uint32 `json:"uid"`
+	From    string `json:"from,omitempty"`
+	Subject string `json:"subject,omitempty"`
+	Date    string `json:"date,omitempty"`
+	Body    string `json:"body,omitempty"`
+	Junk    bool   `json:"junk,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// IngestMailResp — what core did with the message. TaskIDs are the rows
+// CaptureTask returned; Created counts the ones that were new (a re-read
+// mailbox dedupes to Created=0). Skipped is set when nothing was asked of the
+// model at all — junk, or an empty message.
+//
+// Nothing here echoes the mail back. The reader logs counts.
+type IngestMailResp struct {
+	TaskIDs []int64 `json:"task_ids,omitempty"`
+	Created int     `json:"created"`
+	Skipped bool    `json:"skipped,omitempty"`
+}
+
 type listTasksReq struct {
 	Status string `json:"status"` // "" all | "live" | candidate|open|done|dropped
 }

internal/ipc/client.go

@@ -448,6 +448,17 @@ func (c *Client) SetTaskStatus(ctx context.Context, id int64, status string, ts
 	return c.call(ctx, MethodSetTaskStatus, setTaskStatusReq{ID: id, Status: status, Ts: ts}, nil)
 }
 
+// IngestMail hands one fetched message to core for extraction. ErrUnknownMethod
+// means core has no email block configured — the caller should stop asking, not
+// retry.
+func (c *Client) IngestMail(ctx context.Context, req IngestMailReq) (IngestMailResp, error) {
+	var r IngestMailResp
+	if err := c.call(ctx, MethodIngestMail, req, &r); err != nil {
+		return IngestMailResp{}, err
+	}
+	return r, nil
+}
+
 func (c *Client) DismissProposedRoutine(ctx context.Context, id int64) error {
 	return c.call(ctx, MethodDismissProposedRoutine, dismissProposedRoutineReq{ID: id}, nil)
 }

internal/ipc/ipc_test.go

@@ -565,3 +565,36 @@ func mustJSON(v any) []byte {
 	}
 	return b
 }
+
+// TestIngestMail_OffUnlessConfigured — with no IngestMailFn set (the default,
+// and what an unconfigured core looks like) the method does not exist. A mail
+// reader gets a refusal it can act on rather than a silent success.
+func TestIngestMail_OffUnlessConfigured(t *testing.T) {
+	_, _, cli, _ := newServerWithStore(t)
+	if _, err := cli.IngestMail(context.Background(), IngestMailReq{Mailbox: "INBOX", UID: 1}); !errors.Is(err, ErrUnknownMethod) {
+		t.Fatalf("IngestMail error = %v, want ErrUnknownMethod", err)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestIngestMail_Hook — when the daemon wires the hook, the message crosses the
+// boundary intact and the response comes back.
+func TestIngestMail_Hook(t *testing.T) {
+	_, srv, cli, _ := newServerWithStore(t)
+	var got IngestMailReq
+	srv.IngestMailFn = func(_ context.Context, req IngestMailReq) (IngestMailResp, error) {
+		got = req
+		return IngestMailResp{TaskIDs: []int64{7}, Created: 1}, nil
+	}
+	resp, err := cli.IngestMail(context.Background(), IngestMailReq{
+		Mailbox: "INBOX", UID: 12, Subject: "Счёт", Body: "Оплатить.", Junk: false,
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("IngestMail: %v", err)
+	}
+	if resp.Created != 1 || len(resp.TaskIDs) != 1 || resp.TaskIDs[0] != 7 {
+		t.Errorf("resp = %+v", resp)
+	}
+	if got.UID != 12 || got.Subject != "Счёт" || got.Body != "Оплатить." {
+		t.Errorf("req across the wire = %+v", got)
+	}
+}

internal/ipc/server.go

@@ -421,6 +421,17 @@ type Server struct {
 	// Set by the daemon; nil ⇒ MethodStoreEncryptionKey returns ErrUnknownMethod.
 	WrapKeyFn WrapKeyFunc
 
+	// IngestMailFn — extracts task candidates from one fetched message. Set by
+	// the daemon only when an email block is configured AND there is a
+	// llama-server to extract with; nil ⇒ MethodIngestMail returns
+	// ErrUnknownMethod, so a mail reader pointed at a core that is not
+	// configured for mail is refused rather than silently ignored.
+	//
+	// Like StepUp/WrapKeyFn/UnlockFn this bypasses CoreAPI: it is not a store
+	// operation, it needs the resident model, and it must not become a method
+	// every CoreAPI implementation has to carry.
+	IngestMailFn IngestMailFunc
+
 	// UnlockFn — unwraps the store encryption key from the wrapped blob using
 	// the passkey credential public key, opens the encrypted store, and wires
 	// the rest of the daemon (voice, loop, delivery). Set by the daemon when
@@ -439,6 +450,9 @@ type WrapKeyFunc func(ctx context.Context, publicKey []byte) error
 // public key and completes daemon initialization.
 type UnlockFunc func(ctx context.Context, publicKey []byte) error
 
+// IngestMailFunc — core-side mail extraction. Returns what was captured.
+type IngestMailFunc func(ctx context.Context, req IngestMailReq) (IngestMailResp, error)
+
 // CheckFunc — the auth hook signature. Wired by the daemon (auth.Gate.Check
 // satisfies this); dispatch calls it once per request after param-unmarshal
 // independence (it gets the raw params, may unmarshal what it needs — ipc
@@ -606,9 +620,10 @@ func withoutParams[R any](fn func(ctx context.Context, api CoreAPI) (R, error))
 // existed) as an argument — so SetAPI's runtime swap (the unlock transition)
 // is still honored on the very next request with no extra plumbing here.
 //
-// MethodAssertStepUp, MethodStoreEncryptionKey and MethodUnlock are NOT in
-// this table: they bypass CoreAPI entirely (s.StepUp / s.WrapKeyFn /
-// s.UnlockFn), so dispatch special-cases them before consulting the table.
+// MethodAssertStepUp, MethodStoreEncryptionKey, MethodUnlock and
+// MethodIngestMail are NOT in this table: they bypass CoreAPI entirely
+// (s.StepUp / s.WrapKeyFn / s.UnlockFn / s.IngestMailFn), so dispatch
+// special-cases them before consulting the table.
 var methodTable = map[Method]handlerFunc{
 	MethodWriteFact: withParams(func(ctx context.Context, api CoreAPI, p WriteFactReq) (idResp, error) {
 		id, err := api.WriteFact(ctx, p)
@@ -816,7 +831,7 @@ func (s *Server) dispatch(ctx context.Context, req Request) (json.RawMessage, er
 		}
 	}
 
-	// These three bypass CoreAPI entirely — they drive Server fields set
+	// These bypass CoreAPI entirely — they drive Server fields set
 	// directly by the daemon (StepUp / WrapKeyFn / UnlockFn), not store
 	// state, so they can never be table entries keyed on a CoreAPI method.
 	switch req.Method {
@@ -845,6 +860,20 @@ func (s *Server) dispatch(ctx context.Context, req Request) (json.RawMessage, er
 			return marshalResult(nil), s.UnlockFn(ctx, p.PublicKey)
 		}
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("%w: %s", ErrUnknownMethod, req.Method)
+
+	case MethodIngestMail:
+		if s.IngestMailFn != nil {
+			var p IngestMailReq
+			if err := unmarshalParams(req.Params, &p); err != nil {
+				return nil, err
+			}
+			resp, err := s.IngestMailFn(ctx, p)
+			if err != nil {
+				return nil, err
+			}
+			return marshalResult(resp), nil
+		}
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("%w: %s", ErrUnknownMethod, req.Method)
 	}
 
 	h, ok := methodTable[req.Method]

internal/ipc/wire.go

@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ const (
 	MethodCaptureTask            Method = "capture_task"
 	MethodListTasks              Method = "list_tasks"
 	MethodSetTaskStatus          Method = "set_task_status"
+	MethodIngestMail             Method = "ingest_mail"
 )
 
 // Request — one frame from module to core. Params is the JSON-encoded argument