For Claude Desktop on Mac
Free during launch
Stop copy-pasting emails into the wrong Claude chat.
Mail to Claude in one shortcut. Select an email in Apple Mail, press a shortcut, and MailtoChat sends it, attachments included, to the right chat or project in Claude Desktop with your prompt already running.
Works with Claude Desktop and Apple Mail only, for now. Needs a Mac with Apple Silicon, macOS 13 or later.
Apple Mail
Maya Jensen · Acme
Re: Q4 proposal, updated numbers
proposal.pdf
Claude Desktop · Project: Acme
Illustration with example content
Unlimited mailboxes
Every account in Apple Mail works. No limits, no per-mailbox setup.
Private by design
Your emails never go to us. They travel from Apple Mail to Claude Desktop on your Mac.
Work smarter, not harder
One shortcut replaces the copying, switching, finding and retyping.
Every email you bring to Claude starts with the same chores.
If you use Claude for email, you already know the routine. It adds up fast, especially across several mailboxes.
Copy, switch, paste
Select the text, open Claude, find the window, paste, and hope the attachments made it across.
Which chat was it?
You keep a chat or project per client, team or topic. Finding the right one takes longer than the reply.
The sidebar overflows
Skip the hunt and you open a new chat every time: hundreds of one-off chats, none with the context Claude needs.
The same instruction, again
Draft a reply. Summarise. List next steps. You retype it for every single email.
MailtoChat removes all four.
Better replies
A chat that remembers makes a better reply.
Open a new chat for every email and Claude starts from zero every time. Keep each client, team or topic in one chat or project and Claude builds up what it needs: how you write, what was decided, which files matter. MailtoChat makes that the easy way to work.
A new chat every time
- Claude knows nothing about the client or the history
- You explain your tone and preferences again and again
- Earlier drafts, files and artifacts are lost in other chats
- Generic replies, and a sidebar full of one-off chats
One chat per client or topic, with MailtoChat
- Memory and context build up with every email
- Train it once on your tone, then keep refining it in the same place
- Files and artifacts stay with the chat or project they belong to
- Sharper replies that sound like you and know the history
Finding the right chat is one problem. Getting better answers from it is another. Chat routes solve both: the email always goes to the chat that already knows the story.
One shortcut. The right chat. The right action.
MailtoChat lives in your menu bar and sends mail to Claude for you.
Select an email
Click any message in Apple Mail, from any of your mailboxes. Unlimited mailboxes, no per-account setup.
Pick an action
Press a shortcut such as ⌥⌘R or choose one from the menu bar icon. Each action carries its own prompt.
Claude takes it from there
The email, its details and every attachment land in the chat or project your route points to, and your prompt runs.
Simple to start. Powerful once you configure it.
Set up your routes and prompts once. After that, every email lands where it belongs and gets the instruction you want.
Chat routes
Memory, context and a clean sidebar.
Link a sender, a recipient or a whole domain to a specific Claude chat or project. Replies draw on the memory, files and artifacts already in that place, instead of starting from zero.
- From or To. Route mail you receive by its sender, and mail you send by its recipient.
- One address or a whole domain. A domain covers you and every colleague there, subdomains too.
- Your choice of destination. An existing chat, a new chat in a project, a fresh chat, or incognito.
- Standing instructions. Add a line to a route, such as “Always reply formally, in Dutch”, and it travels with every email.
- Clear rules. A full address beats a domain, drag to reorder, and Test your routes shows which rule applies and why.
Add Route
Choose which emails this applies to, and where Claude should receive them.
When an email is...
...put it in Claude
Standing instructions (optional)
After pasting: Add a prompt to the email
Prompts
Tell Claude what to do, once.
Six action slots, each with its own name, shortcut and prompt. Start with three presets, write two of your own, and keep Paste Only for when you just want the email in the chat.
- Anything Claude can do. Draft a reply, summarise, research, fill a spreadsheet, open a ticket from your template, run a skill.
- Prompt first, email below. Your prompt sits above the email, followed by the route’s standing instructions.
- Send now or review first. Turn auto-send on for instant results, or off to read the prompt before you press send.
- The whole email comes along. From, To, Cc, date, subject, body and every attachment.
What you can do with it.
If Claude can do it with an email, one shortcut can start it. A few ideas to adapt.
Answer one client in their own style
Route the client’s domain to their project, add a standing instruction, and every reply uses what Claude already knows about them.
Catch up on a long thread
Turn a wall of replies into what matters and what you need to do next.
Research before you reply
Get the background on a sender, a company or a topic before you commit to an answer.
Log an enquiry
Send enquiries to a leads chat and have Claude pull out the fields for your spreadsheet.
Open a support ticket
Route your support mailbox to one chat and turn emails into tickets in your template. Claude does the work with whatever it can reach.
Run a skill on an attachment
Invoices, contracts and reports arrive as attachments. Send them straight to the skill that checks them.
Built to be trusted with your inbox.
Email is sensitive. MailtoChat is small on purpose, and clear about what it does.
Private by design
MailtoChat never sends your emails, attachments or prompts to us or to any server. They go from Apple Mail to Claude Desktop on your Mac and nowhere else. Once in Claude, they are handled under Claude’s own terms, as if you had pasted them yourself.
You stay in control
Nothing watches your inbox and nothing runs when mail arrives. You select an email and you trigger the action. Nothing leaves your Mac unless you press the shortcut.
Unlimited mailboxes
Work, side projects, shared inboxes and personal accounts. If it is in Apple Mail, it works, with no limit and no per-mailbox setup.
A log that stays on your Mac
A searchable activity log shows what you sent and where. Click a subject to reopen the email, or a route to reopen its chat. Clear it, or switch it off, any time.
Light on your Mac
A small menu bar app with no Dock icon and no browser extension. It starts quietly and stays out of your way.
Free during launch
Use all of it, free, while we launch. No trial clock and no card to hand over.
Built for Claude Desktop on Mac. For now.
MailtoChat works with the Claude desktop app and Apple Mail. Other mail clients and Claude on the web are not supported yet.
Claude
Claude Desktop, installed
Keep it on its Chat view when you send an email, not the Code view.
Apple Mail
Any account you have added to Mail.
Mac
macOS 13 or later
On a Mac with Apple Silicon.
Permissions
Two, when macOS asks
Automation for Mail, to read the selected email. Accessibility, to paste into Claude.
Not supported yet: Outlook, Gmail in a browser, Claude on the web and Intel Macs.
Questions, answered.
What is MailtoChat?
MailtoChat is a small Mac menu bar app that sends mail to Claude. Select an email in Apple Mail, press a shortcut, and the email and its attachments are pasted into the right chat or project in Claude Desktop, with your prompt added.
How do I send an email from Apple Mail to Claude?
Install MailtoChat, select an email in Apple Mail and press an action shortcut such as ⌥⌘R to draft a reply. MailtoChat opens the matching chat or project in Claude Desktop, pastes the email and its attachments, and runs your prompt.
Does MailtoChat send my emails to you?
No. Your emails, attachments and prompts go from Apple Mail into Claude Desktop on your Mac and are never sent to us. The app only contacts a server to check for updates and your license, plus optional usage analytics that you choose to share.
Does it work with Outlook, Gmail or Claude on the web?
Not yet. MailtoChat works with Apple Mail and the Claude desktop app only. If your Gmail or Outlook accounts are added to Apple Mail, they work.
What if no route matches an email?
A window asks where it should go: an existing chat, a new chat in a project, a new chat, or an incognito chat. Save the choice as a new route, or use it just once. Prefer not to be asked? One setting always starts a new chat instead.
Does it send to Claude automatically?
You decide. With auto-send on, actions that add a prompt are submitted right after pasting. With it off, you read it first and press send. Paste Only never submits.
Why does Claude Desktop need to be on Chat?
MailtoChat finds your chat or project in the Chat sidebar. If Claude Desktop is showing the Code view, it cannot find the chat and shows an error. Switch to Chat and send again.
How much does it cost?
MailtoChat is free during the launch period.
Give every email a home in Claude.
Set up your routes once and send your next email to the right chat in a single shortcut.
Download MailtoChat for MacFree during launch. For Claude Desktop and Apple Mail on a Mac with Apple Silicon, macOS 13 or later.