Using spark

spark is a CLI for the Spark email client. Use it to query the user's mailbox, calendar, contacts, meetings, and team data.

Running spark

spark <command> [options]

Environment: spark is a thin client that talks over IPC to the user's running Spark macOS Desktop app - it does not ship its own mailbox, network stack, or credentials. Run it directly on the user's Mac against the live Spark Desktop process. Do not try to execute it inside a sandbox, container, CI runner, or any environment isolated from the user's desktop session - it will fail to connect. If Spark Desktop is not running, ask the user to launch it instead of retrying.

Commands

Command	Description
accounts	List accounts, calendars, teams, shared inboxes, and access levels
folders	List folders/labels with message counts
emails	List emails with filters and pagination
search	Hybrid keyword + semantic search with full bodies
thread	Read full thread - headers, bodies, attachments
draft	Create or edit an email draft (new, reply, forward)
comment	Post a team comment on a thread
events	List calendar events for a time range
availability	Find free time slots, optionally with attendees
contacts	Search contacts by name or email
team	Show team info, members, shared inboxes, assignments
meetings	List meeting transcripts
meeting	Read a single meeting transcript
action	Perform actions on emails (archive, pin, snooze, assign, etc.)
contact-action	Perform actions on contacts (block, accept, categorize, etc.)

accounts

List all configured accounts with their calendars, teams, and shared inboxes. Each account and shared inbox shows its access level in parentheses, which controls what operations Spark can perform.

spark accounts

Run this first to discover what accounts, calendars, and teams are available, and to check their access levels.

Access levels:

Level	Allowed operations
read-only	List, search, and read emails, threads, folders, events, contacts, meetings, teams
triage	Everything in read-only plus all write operations: drafts, team comments, email actions (archive, move, pin, snooze, assign, etc.) and contact actions (block, accept, categorize, etc.)

Access levels are configured separately for each account and each shared inbox in Spark Desktop under Settings -> AI Agents. Shared inboxes can have a different access level than the parent account - for example, a personal account may have triage access while a shared inbox under the same team is read-only or disabled.

If a command requires a higher access level than the account or shared inbox has, it returns an error with instructions on how to change the level.

folders

List folders with message counts. Output includes folder identifiers in parentheses - use these as arguments to emails and search. Mailboxes backed by a Google account show (Gmail labels) on the Email Account or Shared Inbox header. Teams show the team name as a usable identifier for emails.

spark folders                        # all accounts
spark folders user@example.com       # single account

emails

List emails with metadata (ID, From, Date, Subject, Flags). Supports pagination and Gmail-style filters.

spark emails                                                   # Unified Inbox
spark emails user@example.com:Archive                          # specific folder
spark emails "My Team"                                         # all shared threads in a team
spark emails --filter "from:alice@co.com is:unread"             # filtered
spark emails --filter "newer_than:7d has:attachment"            # recent with attachments
spark emails --page 2 --page-size 20                           # pagination
spark emails --order ascending                                 # oldest first
spark emails --new-senders                                     # show only new sender emails

GateKeeper filtering: When viewing the Inbox with GateKeeper in explicit mode, new sender emails are automatically filtered out and a "New Senders" count is shown at the top. Use --new-senders to view those emails. Use contact-action acceptContact <email> or contact-action blockContact <email> to accept or block a sender.

Folder identifier formats (run folders to see available ones):

Format	Example	Meaning
Bare name	Inbox, Archive	Unified folder (cross-account)
email	user@example.com	Account inbox shorthand
email:Folder	user@example.com:Archive	Specific account folder
"Team Name"	"My Team"	All shared threads in a team (quote if spaces)
shared@email:Folder	shared@co.com:Inbox	Shared inbox folder

Filter operators (combinable, Gmail-style):

Operator	Example
from:<addr>	from:alice@co.com
to:<addr>	to:bob@co.com
cc:<addr>	cc:team@co.com
subject:<text>	subject:"quarterly report"
before:yyyy/MM/dd	before:2026/03/01
after:yyyy/MM/dd	after:2026/01/01
newer_than:Xd	newer_than:7d (also w, m, y)
older_than:Xd	older_than:30d
has:attachment	also document, spreadsheet, presentation, reminder
is:unread	also read, starred, pinned, unreplied
is:shared	emails shared to any team (alias for is:shared_email)
is:shared_inbox_open	open items in shared inbox
is:shared_inbox_done	completed/closed items in shared inbox
category:personal	also priority, notification, newsletter, invitation, invitation_response
assigned_to:me	emails assigned to current user
assigned_to:<email>	emails assigned to specific teammate
assigned_to:unassigned	shared inbox items with no assignee
assigned_to:other	emails assigned to someone else (not me)
assigned_by:me	emails delegated by current user
filename:<name>	filename:report.pdf

search

Hybrid keyword + semantic search returning up to 20 emails with full bodies, sorted by relevance.

spark search "quarterly report"
spark search "API integration" --filter "from:alice@co.com"
spark search "budget" --in user@example.com:Archive
spark search "vacation" --in user@example.com              # all folders in account

Parameter	Required	Description
<about>	Yes	Search topic (positional)
--filter	No	Gmail-style filter (same operators as emails)
--in	No	Scope: account, team, folder, or shared inbox. All folders if omitted.

Use search when the user asks about a topic. It returns email bodies so you can answer questions about content. Use emails when listing/browsing by folder or filters without needing bodies.

thread

Print every message in a thread - headers, full plain-text bodies, and attachment info. After the thread summary line, lists custom (non-system) folder labels once for the whole thread, using qualified names like account@domain.com:MyLabel (same style as folders).

spark thread 1114                          # by message ID from emails/search output
spark thread --download-attachments 1114   # also fetch attachments via IMAP

Use emails or search to find message IDs (the ID column), then thread to read the full conversation. Use folders to list valid label identifiers for action attachLabel / detachLabel.

draft

Requires: triage access level.

Create a new email draft or edit an existing one. The body is written in markdown and converted to HTML.

spark draft --to "alice@example.com" --subject "Hello" --body "Hi Alice, ..."
spark draft --to "alice@co.com" --to "bob@co.com" --cc "carol@co.com" --subject "Meeting" --body "..."
spark draft --edit 1234 --subject "Updated subject" --body "Updated body"
spark draft --reply-to 5678 --body "Thanks for the update!"
spark draft --forward 5678 --to "manager@co.com" --body "FYI"
spark draft --account "john@gmail.com" --to "alice@co.com" --subject "Hi" --body "..."
spark draft --to "alice@co.com" --subject "Report" --body "See attached" --attach /path/to/report.pdf
spark draft --to "alice@co.com" --subject "Files" --body "Two files" --attach /path/to/a.pdf --attach /path/to/b.xlsx

Parameter	Required	Description
--to	No	Recipient address (RFC822). Repeat for multiple.
--cc	No	CC address. Repeat for multiple.
--bcc	No	BCC address. Repeat for multiple.
--subject	No	Subject line.
--body	Yes (new)	Body content in markdown. Required for new drafts.
--edit	No	Message ID of an existing draft to update.
--reply-to	No	Message ID to reply to.
--forward	No	Message ID to forward.
--account	No	Account email to send from. Accepts a regular mail account, an alias, or a shared inbox email.
--attach	No	Absolute path to a file to attach. Repeat for multiple.

Use emails to find message IDs for --edit, --reply-to, and --forward. Use accounts to find account emails for --account - both personal accounts and shared inboxes are listed there, and either can be used as the from address when the account has draft & comment access.

comment

Requires: triage access level.

Post a team comment (chat message) on a thread. If the thread is not yet shared, it will be shared automatically. Supports text comments, file attachments, or both. Use --edit to update an existing comment.

spark comment 1234 --body "Looks good, let's proceed."
spark comment 1234 --body "Please review this" --team "Engineering"
spark comment 1234 --body "FYI" --team "Engineering" --user alice@co.com --user bob@co.com
spark comment 1234 --attach /path/to/screenshot.png
spark comment 1234 --body "See attached" --attach /path/to/report.pdf --attach /path/to/data.csv
spark comment --edit 5678 --body "Updated comment text"

Parameter	Required	Description
<message-id>	Yes (post)	Message ID of a message in the thread to comment on.
--body	When no --attach	Comment text to post. Required when using --edit.
--attach	When no --body	Absolute path to a file to attach. Repeat for multiple files. Each file is sent as a separate message. Cannot be used with --edit.
--edit	No	Message ID of an existing comment to edit. Requires --body.
--team	When >1 team	Team name. Required when you belong to multiple teams.
--user	When team >2 members	Teammate email to share with. Repeat for multiple. Only used when auto-sharing an unshared thread. For teams with 2 or fewer members, the whole team is shared with automatically.

Use emails to find message IDs. Use thread to see comment IDs in a conversation. Use team to list teams and their members.

events

List calendar events for a time range.

spark events                                          # today's remaining events
spark events --tomorrow
spark events --week
spark events --week --in user@example.com             # specific account
spark events --week --in user@example.com:Work        # specific calendar
spark events --start 2026-03-16 --end 2026-03-20      # custom range

Date formats: yyyy-MM-dd, dd/MM/yyyy, or yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm.

Run accounts to see available calendar accounts and calendar names.

availability

Find free time slots. Without --attendees, shows the user's own availability. With --attendees, computes mutual free windows.

spark availability                                                        # today
spark availability --tomorrow
spark availability --week --attendees alice@co.com
spark availability --start 2026-03-16 --end 2026-03-20 --attendees a@co.com,b@co.com

Free slots are within working hours (08:00-20:00), skip weekends, and ignore events marked "free".

contacts

Search contacts by name or email. Strict match first, then fuzzy fallback.

spark contacts "john"
spark contacts "example.com"

team

Show team info - metadata, shared inboxes with members, full member list, assigned emails, assignment summary.

spark team                     # list available teams
spark team "Readdle"           # specific team

meetings

List meeting transcripts with optional filters and pagination.

spark meetings
spark meetings --filter "newer_than:30d"
spark meetings --filter "subject:standup" --page-size 10

Filter operators: subject:<text>, before:yyyy/MM/dd, after:yyyy/MM/dd, newer_than:Xd, older_than:Xd.

meeting

Read a single meeting transcript's summary. Optionally include the full transcript and/or notes.

spark meeting 42                            # summary only
spark meeting --transcript 42               # include transcript
spark meeting --notes 42                    # include notes
spark meeting --transcript --notes 42       # everything

Use meetings to find meeting IDs.

action

Requires: triage access level.

Perform an action on one or more emails. Supports standard email actions and team actions.

spark action <action-name> <message-id...> [options]

Supported actions:

• pin - Pin the message to keep it at the top of the list
• unpin - Remove the pin from the message
• mute - Mute the thread to stop receiving notifications
• unmute - Unmute a previously muted thread
• snooze - Snooze the message until a specific date (requires --date)
• unsnooze - Remove the snooze and return the message to the inbox
• changeReminder - Set a follow-up reminder if no reply by the date (requires --date)
• clearReminder - Remove the follow-up reminder from the message
• setAside - Set the message aside for later review
• archive - Archive the message, removing it from the inbox
• moveToInbox - Move the message back to the inbox
• moveToTrash - Move the message to trash
• moveToFolder - Move the message to a specific folder (requires --folder)
• attachLabel - Attach a Gmail or Spark Team label without removing other labels (requires --folder)
• detachLabel - Remove a Gmail or Spark Team label from the message (requires --folder)
• markAsDone - Mark the message as done
• markAsUndone - Mark the message as not done
• markAsSeen - Mark the message as read
• markAsUnseen - Mark the message as unread
• markAsSpam - Mark the message as spam
• markThreadAsPriority - Mark the thread as priority
• unmarkThreadAsPriority - Remove the priority mark from the thread
• unsubscribe - Unsubscribe from the sender or mailing list
• changeCategoryPersonal - Change the email category to Personal
• changeCategoryNotification - Change the email category to Notification
• changeCategoryNewsletters - Change the email category to Newsletter
• shareInTeam - Share the thread with teammates (requires --team when multiple teams)
• assign - Assign the email to a teammate (requires --assignee)
• delegationComplete - Mark the delegation as complete
• delegationReopen - Reopen a completed delegation

Options:

• --date - required for snooze and changeReminder, optional for assign as due date (formats: yyyy-MM-dd, dd/MM/yyyy, yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm)
• --folder - required for moveToFolder, attachLabel, and detachLabel (qualified name: email@domain.com:FolderName; use folders to list labels including shared inboxes)
• --team - team name for team actions; required when you belong to multiple teams
• --user - teammate email to share with for shareInTeam; repeat for multiple users; required when team has more than 2 members
• --assignee - teammate email to assign the email to for assign
• --comment - comment text for the assign action

spark action pin 12345                                          # pin a message
spark action archive 100 200 300                                # archive multiple messages
spark action markAsSeen 100 200                                 # mark as read
spark action snooze 12345 --date 2026-04-10T09:00               # snooze until date/time
spark action snooze 12345 --date 2026-04-10                     # snooze until date
spark action moveToFolder 12345 --folder "user@example.com:Archive"  # move to folder
spark action attachLabel 12345 --folder "user@gmail.com:MyLabel"       # add Gmail/Team label
spark action detachLabel 12345 --folder "shared@company.com:SomeLabel"  # remove label
spark action changeReminder 12345 --date 2026-04-15             # set reminder
spark action shareInTeam 1234 --team "Engineering" --user alice@co.com  # share with teammate
spark action shareInTeam 1234 --user alice@co.com --user bob@co.com    # share with multiple
spark action assign 1234 --assignee bob@co.com                  # assign to teammate
spark action assign 1234 --assignee bob@co.com --date 2026-04-15 --comment "Please review"
spark action delegationComplete 1234                            # mark delegation done
spark action delegationComplete 100 200 300                     # complete multiple delegations
spark action delegationReopen 1234                              # reopen delegation

Use the emails command to find message IDs. Use folders to resolve qualified names for moveToFolder, attachLabel, and detachLabel. Use team to list teams and members for team actions.

contact-action

Requires: triage access level.

Perform an action on one or more contacts by email address.

spark contact-action <action-name> <email...>

Supported actions:

Action	Description
changeCategoryPersonal	Change the contact's email category to Personal
changeCategoryNotification	Change the contact's email category to Notification
changeCategoryNewsletters	Change the contact's email category to Newsletter
groupEmailsFromContact	Group emails from the contact by category
groupEmailsFromContactAndShowInInbox	Group emails from the contact and show in inbox
ungroupEmailsFromContact	Ungroup emails from the contact
markContactAsImportant	Enable notifications for the contact
unmarkContactAsImportant	Disable notifications for the contact
markContactAsPrimary	Mark the contact as priority (auto-prioritize emails)
unmarkContactAsPrimary	Remove priority mark from the contact
acceptContact	Accept or unblock the contact (bypass Gatekeeper)
blockContact	Block the contact
acceptDomain	Accept or unblock the contact's entire domain
blockDomain	Block the contact's entire domain
enableAutosummaryForContact	Enable auto-summary for emails from the contact
disableAutosummaryForContact	Disable auto-summary for emails from the contact

Examples:

spark contact-action blockContact spammer@example.com
spark contact-action acceptContact alice@co.com bob@co.com
spark contact-action changeCategoryPersonal alice@co.com
spark contact-action markContactAsPrimary ceo@company.com
spark contact-action enableAutosummaryForContact newsletter@example.com

Use the contacts command to look up email addresses.

Smart Categories

Spark automatically classifies incoming email into six categories. Use the category: filter operator with emails and search to view mail by category, and use action / contact-action to reclassify and tune.

Category	Filter	Typical Content
Priority	category:priority	Auto-prioritized or manually marked as priority
People	category:personal	Direct person-to-person email
Notifications	category:notification	Service notifications, alerts, receipts
Newsletters	category:newsletter	Subscriptions, digests, marketing
Invites	category:invitation	Calendar invitations
Invite Responses	category:invitation_response	RSVPs, accepts, declines

Browse by category (read-only):

spark emails Inbox --filter "category:priority is:unread"       # unread priority mail
spark emails Inbox --filter "category:personal is:unread"       # unread people mail
spark emails Inbox --filter "category:invitation"               # pending invites
spark emails Inbox --filter "category:notification is:unread"   # unread notifications
spark emails Inbox --filter "category:newsletter newer_than:7d" # recent newsletters

Reclassify a message (triage):

spark action changeCategoryPersonal <id>       # move to People
spark action changeCategoryNotification <id>   # move to Notifications
spark action changeCategoryNewsletters <id>    # move to Newsletters

Tune per-contact category rules (triage) - changes apply to all future mail from the sender:

spark contact-action changeCategoryPersonal sender@example.com         # reclassify as People
spark contact-action changeCategoryNewsletters sender@example.com      # reclassify as Newsletters
spark contact-action groupEmailsFromContact sender@example.com         # group by category
spark contact-action markContactAsImportant vip@example.com            # enable notifications
spark contact-action markContactAsPrimary ceo@example.com              # auto-prioritize
spark contact-action enableAutosummaryForContact newsletter@example.com # AI summaries

Category-first triage pattern: Process inbox in priority order - priority first, then people, then invites, then notifications, then newsletters. This ensures the most important messages get attention first.

Typical Workflows

Answer a question about emails:

1. spark search "topic" - find relevant emails with bodies
2. Read the output and answer the user's question

Find and read a specific email:

1. spark emails --filter "from:sender subject:keyword" - locate the email
2. spark thread <ID> - read the full conversation

Draft a reply:

1. spark emails --filter "from:sender" - find the email
2. spark draft --reply-to <ID> --body "Thanks for the update!"

Check someone's schedule for a meeting:

1. spark availability --tomorrow --attendees alice@co.com,bob@co.com
2. Suggest a time from the free slots

Comment on a shared thread:

1. spark emails --filter "from:sender" - find the email
2. spark comment <ID> --body "Looks good, approved!"

Get team workload overview:

1. spark team "Team Name" - see members and assigned emails

Look up a contact:

1. spark contacts "name or domain" - find their email address

Perform an action on emails:

1. spark emails --filter "from:sender" - find the email
2. spark action archive <ID> - archive it (or pin, snooze, etc.)

Share an email with your team:

1. spark emails --filter "subject:keyword" - find the email
2. spark action shareInTeam <ID> --user alice@co.com - share with a teammate

Delegate an email to a teammate:

1. spark emails --filter "subject:keyword" - find the email
2. spark action assign <ID> --assignee bob@co.com --date 2026-04-15 --comment "Please handle this"

Mark delegated emails as done:

1. spark emails --filter "subject:keyword" - find the email(s)
2. spark action delegationComplete <ID1> <ID2> - mark multiple as complete

Find unassigned shared inbox emails:

1. spark emails shared@co.com:Inbox --filter "assigned_to:unassigned" - list unassigned items
2. spark action assign <ID> --assignee bob@co.com - assign to a teammate

Review what's assigned to a teammate:

1. spark emails --filter "assigned_to:bob@co.com" - see their assignments
2. spark emails --filter "is:shared_inbox_open" - all open shared inbox items
3. spark emails --filter "is:shared_inbox_done" - completed items

Manage a contact:

1. spark contacts "name or domain" - find the contact email
2. spark contact-action blockContact spammer@example.com - block them (or accept, change category, etc.)

Keeping this skill up to date

The CLI and this skill share a single version (metadata.version in the front-matter above). New features in newer Spark Desktop releases ship with an updated embedded skill. Backward compatibility is guaranteed within a major version, so the commands and flags documented here keep working - but newly added features won't appear in this file until it is reinstalled.

Check for an update when - and only when - you hit one of these signals:

• The user asks about a Spark feature, command, or flag that isn't documented here.
• A spark command fails with an "unknown command" or "unknown option" error you didn't expect.
• The user explicitly says they upgraded Spark or that the skill is out of date.

In those cases:

spark --version

If the printed version is greater than metadata.version above, refresh this file before answering. spark skill prints SKILL.md to stdout - capture it and write it back over the file you're reading right now (the path is in your context). For example:

mkdir -p <parent-of-use-spark>/use-spark
spark skill > <parent-of-use-spark>/use-spark/SKILL.md

<parent-of-use-spark> is the directory containing the use-spark/ folder this SKILL.md lives in. If you have a file-write tool, you can also pipe spark skill output directly through it - the CLI itself does not write any files.

Do not check on every session or before every command - this skill is the source of truth unless one of the signals above tells you otherwise.

Tips

• Always quote multi-word arguments: spark search "project update"
• Combine filter operators in a single --filter string: --filter "from:alice@co.com is:unread newer_than:7d"
• Use folders to discover exact folder identifiers before passing them to emails or search --in
• Use accounts to discover calendar names before passing them to events --in
• The search command is best for topic-based queries; emails is best for browsing/filtering by metadata
• thread returns the full conversation - use it when you need the complete email text, not just metadata
• Use draft to compose emails - it supports new drafts, replies, forwards, and editing existing drafts
• Use comment to post team chat messages on threads - it auto-shares the thread if needed
• Use action to perform email actions like pin, archive, snooze, move to folder, and more
• Use contact-action to manage contacts - block, accept, change category, toggle auto-summary, and more