About
About Passband
Passband is an email client for Mac and iOS that triages your Gmail. It syncs your mailbox, sorts it so the inbox holds only what matters, and lets you read, archive, label, and send mail.
01 · HOW IT WORKS
Two pieces. One passband.
squelchd is a daemon that connects to your Gmail mailbox over the Gmail API, syncs your messages, and scores each one. Passband is the app you read it in. The name is the point: a squelch mutes everything below a threshold, and the passband is the band a filter lets through. The inbox holds what made it through; everything else is filed without asking you first.
Triage
Every incoming message is scored and sorted, using rules you write in plain language plus an importance model. Mail from people you correspond with is always let through.
Read
Threads render oldest to newest, with inline images and attachments, full-text search across your mailbox, and Quick Look for anything attached.
Act
Archive, label, mark read or unread, and park a thread until a time you name, so it comes back when it is relevant.
Write
Compose, reply, and forward with Markdown formatting, contact autocomplete, and attachments, sent from your own Gmail address.
Extract
Deadlines, verification codes, and package tracking are pulled out of your mail as cards, so the one line that mattered is where you can see it.
Ask
A built-in assistant searches and summarizes your mailbox, and drafts any action for your confirmation before it touches anything.
02 · YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT
One Gmail permission. No others required.
Passband connects to Gmail through the Gmail API with your consent, over OAuth, using one permission. Your profile and Google Calendar are asked for too, and both are optional.
| Permission | Why Passband needs it |
|---|---|
gmail.modify |
Read your messages so they can be triaged, threaded, searched, and displayed; apply what triage or you decided (archive, label, mark read or unread, bring a parked thread back); and send the mail you write in Passband. It cannot permanently delete mail. |
userinfo.profile |
Optional. Read your Google account's name and profile photo, to greet you by name and show your photo on the account switcher. |
calendar.events, calendar.calendarlist.readonly |
Optional. Read your calendars, and add or change an event only when you do it in Passband. Asked for once at signup; nothing uses it until calendar is available on your account. |
The one permission can read and write, so Passband keeps them apart in its own code: the sync path loads its own credential slot and has no code that archives, labels or sends. What is stored, where it lives, and who can reach it is set out in full in the Privacy Policy and on the trust page.
03 · TWO WAYS TO RUN IT
Yours, or ours.
Same daemon, same app. The difference is whose disk your mail is on.
On your own box
Run the daemon on your own machine, NAS, or server. Your mail and your Google credentials stay on your disk and never reach infrastructure we operate. Open source under the MIT license; the setup is on the self-host page.
We run it for you
One isolated instance per account, which is what makes always-on triage and mobile push possible. Your mail and your Google refresh token are stored on our servers; the Privacy Policy explains exactly what that means. Invitation-only while the product is in preview.
04 · WHO MAKES IT
Passband is built by Braelyn Boynton. The source is at github.com/passband-app/passband, including the threat model. Questions, privacy requests, and vulnerability reports go to braelyn@passband.app.