Summary

Velo is a desktop email client engineered for speed, privacy, and efficiency, targeting users frustrated by slow, bloated, or data-leaking alternatives. It offers a local-first, keyboard-centric experience with integrated AI features, enabling users to manage emails offline, navigate their inbox rapidly, and leverage intelligent assistance without compromising data sovereignty.

How It Works

Velo combines a Rust backend (Tauri v2) with a React frontend for native performance and a minimal footprint. Its local-first architecture stores emails in SQLite, ensuring privacy and offline access without third-party servers. Integrated AI features (summarization, generation, search) support user-selected providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google), with results cached locally.

Quick Start & Requirements

Clone (git clone https://github.com/avihaymenahem/velo.git), install (npm install), and run (npm run tauri dev). Requires Node.js v18+ and Rust. Gmail integration needs Google Cloud OAuth Client ID (PKCE). IMAP/SMTP accounts are added directly. Optional AI features require provider API keys.

Highlighted Details

• AI-Powered: Thread summaries, smart replies, AI composition, natural language search ("Ask My Inbox"), text transformations, locally cached results.
• Privacy-Focused: Local-first storage, remote image blocking, HTML sanitization, sandboxed rendering, encrypted credentials, OAuth PKCE for Gmail.
• High Performance: Rust/Tauri backend ensures native speed, instant startup, low memory usage. Keyboard-first UI with command palette and shortcuts.
• Rich Email Management: Supports Gmail (API) and IMAP/SMTP accounts, threaded conversations, advanced search, labels, snooze, follow-up reminders.

Maintenance & Community

The project is primarily developed by Avihay Menahem. No specific community channels (like Discord or Slack), active contributor lists, or roadmap links are detailed in the provided README.

Licensing & Compatibility

Velo is distributed under the permissive Apache-2.0 license. This license allows for commercial use and integration into closed-source projects without significant restrictions.

Limitations & Caveats

Users must provide their own API keys for optional AI features, potentially incurring usage costs. The initial setup for Gmail integration requires navigating Google Cloud Console, which may present a barrier for less technical users.