Ivan Kovmir

Neomutt for Beginners - Ivan Kovmir

Neomutt for Beginners

Last edit: 2025-01-25

Neomutt is a terminal UNIX E-Mail client, formely known as mutt. The problem of all the other guides is they throw a lot of things at you, so much that one does not know where to start and what is actually necessary.

Introduction
Configure
Futher Steps

Introduction

IMAP protocol allows one to view and handle incoming mail directly on the server. POP protocol allows one to fetch mail from the mail server and store it locally. SMTP protocol allows one to send mail. This guide touches IMAP and SMTP, most common use-case.

Configure

You need 3 lines to handle e-mail via IMAP:

# In ~/.config/neomutt/neomuttrc
set folder="imaps://user@server:993"
set imap_pass="your_account_password"
set spoolfile="+INBOX"

To be able to send mail:

# In ~/.config/neomutt/neomuttrc
set realname='Your Name'
set from="email_to_send_mail_from"
set smtp_pass="your_account_password"
set ssl_force_tls
set smtp_url="smtps://user@server:465"

user is usually your full e-mail address. server is IMAP/SMTP server address. spoolfile is the server directory with incoming mail; usually INBOX, + sign expands to folder value. realname and from combination result in Your Name <email_to_send_mail_from> in the From: field of an outgoing message. ssl_force_tls forces TLS encryption.

Futher Steps

Now go ahead to any other neomutt guide on the internet and steal configuration options from there. See ArchWiki page and Gideon Wolfe’s guide, those are particularly useful.