This is a great setup. I was building agents in 2023 with email addresses, and it was very effective for onboarding tech laggards to generative AI. It also resulted in very low durable use rates. Users would onboard then stop using quickly. Christenson ftw again.
One thing that can be handled much better today than back then was MIME / attachment types and having agents assemble "fancy" email structures irt.
Just in that your agent runs on your local machine, has access to your local filesystem, and no code execution happens on our cloud, and that we don't look at or store the emails. Pure relay, so it’s just as private as business collaboration on regular email in that sense.
It's a paid product, you are not the product. We have 0 interest in your email content or data. Only in making it easy for you to run your agents without being stuck on your console.
Are the emails end to end encrypted (PGP or S/MIME where you/your server don't have the keys) or just in transit (TLS)? That would make the difference between "we can't look at your emails" and "we choose not to look at your emails".
I have not reviewed privacy. Copied it from another of my products. I will take a look.
It's a paid product, you are not the product. We have 0 interest in the content of your mails, or your data, we are interested making it easy for you to enjoy your life, so you're not stuck at your desk.
Your intentions are only as good as the systems (including governance frameworks) that back them up. You may not have any interest in my data, but your future self (or your acquirer) might.
Even if you have the best intentions, customers need to build trust through contracts and policies. They won't care about what you post here on social media.
To me it seems that you have not paid sufficient attention to important parts of the business, and it is a red flag.
GDPR says that consent for non-essential tracking purposes should be freely given, you can't use dark patterns nor make the "consent" option more prominent than the "decline" option. Similarly, inaction (ignoring the banner) does not count as consent.
Most products fail on that alone, and that's the very basics. But happy to be proven wrong.
I do a very similar thing but clunkier with Tailscale, ssh, zellij. Can ssh in from my phone too with Termux. But email sounds better - then I can actually get notified when it needs me!
I have to say, $12/mo feels steep. It's a minor improvement over what I have now. Compared to other $10+/mo services, this one feels pretty light.
I have claude code hooks that send local computer notifications when action is required or processing finished. And when I step away from computer, I get those notifications through pushover. Then I login on phone to ssh (mosh) with Termius and connect to the tmux session running claude. I use this approach when watching TV with the family and laptop is not appreciated on the sofa. :)
Every time I read these "I've managed to control Claude Code from my phone posts", they come with some variation of "so that I can continue being on my computer" during some other activity. It's a very personal decision, but feels like on of these points where people should re-evaluate. Just because we can, doesn't mean we should.
> it was so good that I caught myself coding from my phone while out with friends… and decided that this is something I should stop, more for mental health than anything.
I am not coding while out with friends. I am just checking status and giving new instructions between breaks. It lets me spend more time away from the computer screen without feeling unease.
I wouldn't want to code from phone. Ugly to type code on a tiny screen. But this feels different. Voice typing emails to an agent, from a space removed, taking a step back? It gives perspective. It's a good way to work, I find.
You can be in your day. You don't have to be 'head in the code'. Let the agent take care of it. That's what I made it for. To get you out of that!
It is pretty light. Maybe the pricing is wrong, idk. Early days so just figuring things out. The email advantage is as you say -- I always found Terminal on phones very taxing on typing, etc. Email is so much lighter on cognitive load etc. Thanks for having a look and for your feedback!
No affiliation and didn't get around to use it yet, but clawdbot[1] does WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, and WebChat.
Just like regular email in that sense. We don't do any encryption beyond standard HTTPS and we don't look at the data. It's a paid service, you're not the product.
This is such low hanging fruit. Coding agents can be orchestrated. Controlled, rerun, and tested. Are we just coming up with ways to not be at our desks working? Why not scale out agents on a cluster to do more work? Why email instead of SMS with a web endpoint? I can access each agent of mine via a dashboard from anywhere in the world.
Not trying to poo poo, just saying all it takes is Claude Code to introduce this and you’re done.
There's a sense in which you're right that it could be cloned easily by a provider. But that's also an advantage in that we work acorss providers, they're not going to create a service that interacts with each other. So it's more of a fit for someone outside the AI providers to do it, but we'll see.
Pretty sure this was vibe-coded in a few days based on a discussion that was on HN a few days back and few people mentioned it would be nice to code on the go via email.
It's fine, I would say it if it were true. Independent invention tho. Copied privacy/terms from another of my products, did not review prior to launch.
This is a great setup. I was building agents in 2023 with email addresses, and it was very effective for onboarding tech laggards to generative AI. It also resulted in very low durable use rates. Users would onboard then stop using quickly. Christenson ftw again.
One thing that can be handled much better today than back then was MIME / attachment types and having agents assemble "fancy" email structures irt.
https://github.com/realityinspector/ATAT
Really cool! Started something in the same area as well that is fully open source: www.runagentos.com
> Local and private
> Your agent runs on your machine. We only relay the messages.
How can this be private if this intermediate service is sending and receiving all the emails back and forth
Just in that your agent runs on your local machine, has access to your local filesystem, and no code execution happens on our cloud, and that we don't look at or store the emails. Pure relay, so it’s just as private as business collaboration on regular email in that sense.
It's a paid product, you are not the product. We have 0 interest in your email content or data. Only in making it easy for you to run your agents without being stuck on your console.
Are the emails end to end encrypted (PGP or S/MIME where you/your server don't have the keys) or just in transit (TLS)? That would make the difference between "we can't look at your emails" and "we choose not to look at your emails".
No they are not E2E, like most email services. We don't look.
Good to call out use of semi-technical weasel words.
Their privacy policy is far from GDPR compliant. In a legal sense, they do not respect data privacy rights of their customers at all.
https://mailpilot.chat/#/privacy
I have not reviewed privacy. Copied it from another of my products. I will take a look.
It's a paid product, you are not the product. We have 0 interest in the content of your mails, or your data, we are interested making it easy for you to enjoy your life, so you're not stuck at your desk.
Your intentions are only as good as the systems (including governance frameworks) that back them up. You may not have any interest in my data, but your future self (or your acquirer) might.
Even if you have the best intentions, customers need to build trust through contracts and policies. They won't care about what you post here on social media.
To me it seems that you have not paid sufficient attention to important parts of the business, and it is a red flag.
No major tech product is GDPR compliant. Not making a judgement on whether that's right or wrong, just stating facts.
> just stating facts
You are confidently incorrect.
GDPR says that consent for non-essential tracking purposes should be freely given, you can't use dark patterns nor make the "consent" option more prominent than the "decline" option. Similarly, inaction (ignoring the banner) does not count as consent.
Most products fail on that alone, and that's the very basics. But happy to be proven wrong.
I do a very similar thing but clunkier with Tailscale, ssh, zellij. Can ssh in from my phone too with Termux. But email sounds better - then I can actually get notified when it needs me!
I have to say, $12/mo feels steep. It's a minor improvement over what I have now. Compared to other $10+/mo services, this one feels pretty light.
I have claude code hooks that send local computer notifications when action is required or processing finished. And when I step away from computer, I get those notifications through pushover. Then I login on phone to ssh (mosh) with Termius and connect to the tmux session running claude. I use this approach when watching TV with the family and laptop is not appreciated on the sofa. :)
Every time I read these "I've managed to control Claude Code from my phone posts", they come with some variation of "so that I can continue being on my computer" during some other activity. It's a very personal decision, but feels like on of these points where people should re-evaluate. Just because we can, doesn't mean we should.
> it was so good that I caught myself coding from my phone while out with friends… and decided that this is something I should stop, more for mental health than anything.
https://steipete.me/posts/2025/shipping-at-inference-speed
I am not coding while out with friends. I am just checking status and giving new instructions between breaks. It lets me spend more time away from the computer screen without feeling unease.
I wouldn't want to code from phone. Ugly to type code on a tiny screen. But this feels different. Voice typing emails to an agent, from a space removed, taking a step back? It gives perspective. It's a good way to work, I find.
You can be in your day. You don't have to be 'head in the code'. Let the agent take care of it. That's what I made it for. To get you out of that!
This is smart and the right way!
It is pretty light. Maybe the pricing is wrong, idk. Early days so just figuring things out. The email advantage is as you say -- I always found Terminal on phones very taxing on typing, etc. Email is so much lighter on cognitive load etc. Thanks for having a look and for your feedback!
Nice. Would be great to have this on Slack or Whatsapp
No affiliation and didn't get around to use it yet, but clawdbot[1] does WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, and WebChat.
[1]: https://github.com/clawdbot/clawdbot
Ya, I agree that's something. Maybe in future!
Considering emails are as private as postcards, I don't know how I could rely on such service to prompt anything even remotely sensitive.
Just like regular email in that sense. We don't do any encryption beyond standard HTTPS and we don't look at the data. It's a paid service, you're not the product.
This is such low hanging fruit. Coding agents can be orchestrated. Controlled, rerun, and tested. Are we just coming up with ways to not be at our desks working? Why not scale out agents on a cluster to do more work? Why email instead of SMS with a web endpoint? I can access each agent of mine via a dashboard from anywhere in the world.
Not trying to poo poo, just saying all it takes is Claude Code to introduce this and you’re done.
There's a sense in which you're right that it could be cloned easily by a provider. But that's also an advantage in that we work acorss providers, they're not going to create a service that interacts with each other. So it's more of a fit for someone outside the AI providers to do it, but we'll see.
>> Why email instead of SMS with a web endpoint
Pretty sure this was vibe-coded in a few days based on a discussion that was on HN a few days back and few people mentioned it would be nice to code on the go via email.
I saw this concept only 8 days on this very site ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46517458#46523962 )
Looking forward to it.
Missed that! Thanks for the link. Definitely feels like this kind of idea is zeitgeist rn.
Coincidental that the domain was registered on the same day... it's fine to say you were inspired to build from the discussion.
Why do your privacy and terms state they were updated on February 28, 2025?
It's fine, I would say it if it were true. Independent invention tho. Copied privacy/terms from another of my products, did not review prior to launch.
Also, I made a Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/products/mailpilot