OKNote
Getting Started

📮 Mail Guide

OKNote includes a full email client: a unified multi-account inbox, composing and replying, AI summary, AI draft reply, and mail-to-note. Message bodies are stored on your own server, so you can read them even when offline.

This guide has three parts: connecting a mailbox (with app-password walkthroughs for major providers) → everyday use → the AI features.

1. Connect your first mailbox

Click ✉️ Mail (⌘⇧2) in the module rail. The first time in, you'll see a welcome page — click "Add your first mailbox". To add more accounts later, click the + next to My mailboxes in the mail sidebar.

The wizard has just two steps:

  1. Step 1 — Mailbox: type your email address (or use the Gmail / QQ Mail / 163 / Outlook / iCloud quick buttons) and click Next. OKNote auto-detects the server settings — for common providers you never touch a server address.
  2. Step 2 — Configure: enter your "Password / app password", click "Test connection", and once it passes, click "Add".

⚠️ The one pitfall everyone hits: Gmail, QQ, 163, and most major providers will not accept your regular login password — you need an "app password" (a credential issued specifically for third-party mail clients). Here's how to get one, provider by provider.

Gmail

There are two ways to connect Gmail:

Option 1: OAuth (recommended when available) If a "Gmail OAuth" button appears at the top of the add-account dialog, just click it and complete the sign-in on the Google page that pops up — no password needed, and it's the most secure option.

Option 2: App password

  1. Your Google account must have 2-Step Verification turned on: go to myaccount.google.com → "Security" → enable "2-Step Verification".
  2. Visit myaccount.google.com/apppasswords.
  3. Enter a name (e.g. OKNote) and click "Create".
  4. Google generates a 16-character app password (like xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx) — copy it.
  5. Paste it into OKNote's "Password / app password" field (with or without the spaces, both work).

Note: connecting Gmail requires that your server's network can reach Google services.

QQ Mail

  1. Open mail.qq.com in a desktop browser and sign in.
  2. Click "Settings" → "Account" at the top (in the newer UI it's under "Account & Security").
  3. Scroll down to the "POP3/IMAP/SMTP/Exchange/CardDAV/CalDAV" section.
  4. Enable "IMAP/SMTP" and complete the SMS verification from your linked phone as prompted.
  5. Once verified, the page shows a 16-character authorization code — copy it immediately (it's shown in full only this once).
  6. Back in OKNote, paste it into "Password / app password".

Tip: changing your QQ password invalidates the code — just generate a new one.

Tencent Exmail

  1. Open exmail.qq.com in a desktop browser and sign in to your business mailbox.
  2. Click "Settings" → "Client settings" at the top right.
  3. Make sure the IMAP/SMTP service is enabled.
  4. If your organization enforces secure login, generate a "client-specific password" on the same page (this usually requires verifying your identity with a WeChat scan) — that password is your app password.
  5. Paste it into OKNote's "Password / app password".

If you can't find the client-specific password option, your admin hasn't enabled it. Ask your Exmail administrator to allow client logins in the admin console's security settings.

163 Mail

  1. Open mail.163.com, sign in, and click "Settings" → "POP3/SMTP/IMAP" at the top.
  2. Enable "IMAP/SMTP" and complete the SMS or QR-code verification as prompted.
  3. Copy the generated authorization code into OKNote.

Other providers

Outlook, iCloud, Alibaba Cloud Mail, Sina, Sohu, China Mobile 139, China Telecom 189, and other mainstream providers are all auto-detected. For niche providers, expand "Advanced options" in step 2 and fill in the IMAP host, port (usually 993), and SSL switch yourself. Advanced options also let you adjust:

  • Email history range: how far back the first sync fetches — 90 days by default, from 30 days up to full history.
  • Auto-sync interval: new mail is fetched every 2 minutes by default; set it to 0 for manual sync only.

Sending (SMTP)

When you add an account, OKNote auto-detects and saves the sending settings — usually you don't have to do anything. If sending fails later, go to Settings (⌘,) → Mail → Account sync → select the account → "Sending (SMTP)", click "Auto-detect SMTP" or fill it in manually, then click "Test" to verify.

2. Everyday use

The layout is the classic three panes: sidebar (Inbox / Sent / Drafts / Starred, plus your accounts) → message list → reading pane.

  • Receiving: mail from every account lands in the unified Inbox, each message carrying its account's color badge. Click "Sync now" next to an account in the sidebar, or let auto-sync do its thing (new mail plays a chime).
  • Reading: switch the body between Rendered / Plain text / Raw views; attachment cards support preview and download.
  • Reply / Reply all / Forward: the three buttons at the top of the reading pane. The reply editor is rich text and auto-saves a draft every 30 seconds. Cross-account reply is supported too — send under the identity of any other configured account.
  • New mail: the "Compose" button in the sidebar, with To/Cc/Bcc, multiple attachments, and pasted images.
  • Search: ⌘K for global search, or "Search this view" at the top of the list. The list can also filter by unread / starred / has attachments.
  • Signatures: under "Signatures" at the bottom of the sidebar, create several and set a default — it's appended automatically when you reply.
  • Tags: tag emails and browse by tag (separate from note tags).
  • Trash: deleted mail is kept for 30 days and can be restored. "Delete mailbox" only removes the locally synced copies — the originals on your mail server are untouched.
  • Export: "Export/import" in the sidebar backs up your mail as JSON.

3. The AI features

Prerequisite: finish AI setup first (see "🤖 AI Setup Guide"). The mail AI toggles live in Settings → Mail → Module switches.

AI summary: a screenful of mail in one minute

Sidebar → Smart views → "AI summary":

  1. Pick a scope (Unread / Today / This week).
  2. Pick a grouping rule and click "Generate now".
  3. The AI does a quick scan to flag the important messages, groups everything by your rule, and writes a one-line summary plus an urgency marker for each email. Click any card to jump to the original.

The companion "AI grouping rules" let you define your own categories (name + description + keywords). Three built-in templates ship with it — a daily work digest, a monthly finance report, and a weekly client report — copy one and adapt it.

AI draft reply: a reply in one click

Open an email and click "AI draft reply" (at the bottom of the reading pane, or inside the reply drawer):

  1. You can generate with no input at all — the AI reads the original and drafts a well-mannered reply in the same language as the incoming mail.
  2. Or add a one-line instruction first, such as "keep it short and decline", "reply in Chinese", or "accept and propose a meeting next Tuesday".
  3. The draft drops straight into the editor — touch it up and send.

💡 Need to translate an incoming email? The current best approach is to use "AI draft reply" with an instruction for cross-language situations, or convert the mail to a note and use the translate action in the note AI panel.

Convert to note: file important mail into your knowledge base

While reading a message, click "Convert to note": choose the target notebook and whether to include attachments, and the email body (formatting and images preserved) becomes a note — from then on you can edit, tag, and full-text search it like any other note.

Other smart views

  • Time capsule: browse your mail history by month or year — great for year-end retrospectives.
  • Sender groups: statistics grouped by sender, so you can see at a glance who fills your inbox.

Next up: "✅ Tasks & Reports Guide".