lore-reply

lore-reply is a local single-user web tool for replying to a patch mail from lore.kernel.org or composing a brand-new plain-text patch mail without manually rebuilding the draft each time.

It uses b4 to fetch one target message when you are replying, or starts an empty draft when you are composing a fresh mail, then saves that draft under /tmp/lore-reply/drafts/ and either shows a ready-to-run git send-email command or sends it directly from the page.

Features

• Single Go binary
• Local-only web UI by default on 127.0.0.1:9110
• b4 integration with startup validation
• Browser opens automatically on startup
• Optional startup URL with automatic auto-load
• Plain-text editor with monospace fonts and a 72-column ruler
• Full-screen body editor for long replies
• New Mail flow for composing a fresh message without loading lore first
• Editable From, To, Cc, Subject, and Body
• To defaults to the original sender, with the remaining audience moved to Cc
• Draggable recipients between To and Cc
• Structured recipient add dialog with optional name and required email
• Stable draft path generated from Message-ID and subject
• Existing saved drafts are restored when you load the same lore URL again
• Reload discards the current saved draft state and fetches a fresh draft from lore
• Load Another returns to the URL input so you can switch to a different mail
• Send dialog with direct send, 30-second delayed send, and command copy actions
• Delayed-send progress bar with cancel support in both the main view and the full-screen body editor
• Direct-send result output from git send-email shown in the UI
• From Name and From Email are saved in local browser storage after a successful save
• Optional idle-exit mode driven by page heartbeat
• Automatic draft save every 5 seconds while there are unsaved changes
• Inbox view for syncing related lore threads from a mailing list
• Inbox filters for mailing list, your email addresses, time range, and match mode
• Thread-first inbox browser with per-message thread tree and jump back into the reply composer
• Collapsible inbox thread list for reading long message bodies

Scope

Current scope is intentionally small:

• one composer draft at a time
• one local inbox cache snapshot at a time
• no server-side user accounts or shared state
• no historical inbox merge yet; each sync replaces the previous inbox cache snapshot

Requirements

• Go 1.24 or newer
• b4 available in PATH, or an explicit path passed with --b4
• git send-email installed if you want to send the saved draft or send directly from the web UI

Build

make build

This produces:

./lore-reply

Run tests with:

make test

Run without building first:

make run

Run

./lore-reply

Defaults:

• --from-name=nobody
• --from-email=nobody@kernel.org
• --listen=127.0.0.1:9110

Available flags:

--b4
--from-name
--from-email
--listen
--url
--exit-on-idle

Example:

./lore-reply \
  --b4 /path/to/b4 \
  --from-name "Your Name" \
  --from-email "you@example.com" \
  --listen 127.0.0.1:9110 \
  --url "https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/..." \
  --exit-on-idle

Then open:

http://127.0.0.1:9110

lore-reply opens the browser on startup. If --url is provided, it also automatically runs the page Load step for that URL.

If --exit-on-idle is also provided, the page sends a heartbeat every 5 seconds and the server shuts down automatically after the heartbeat disappears for 10 minutes.

Direct Reply Workflow

1. Paste a lore.kernel.org message URL into the page.
2. Click Load.
3. lore-reply calls b4 mbox --single-message and builds an editable reply draft.
4. Edit From, recipients, subject, and body.
5. Dirty drafts are auto-saved every 5 seconds.
6. Click Send Mail to save the draft and open the send dialog.
7. Choose Send in 30s, Send Now, or Copy Command.
8. Delayed sends stay visible in the top progress bar and can be canceled before they fire.
9. The draft is written under /tmp/lore-reply/drafts/ before sending.

With --url, steps 1 and 2 are performed automatically after startup.

If you load the same lore URL again later, lore-reply restores the saved draft from /tmp/lore-reply/drafts/ instead of overwriting it.

Use Reload in the top-right corner if you want to discard the current saved draft state and fetch a fresh copy from lore.

New Mail Workflow

1. Open the Composer view.
2. Click New Mail.
3. Fill in To, optional Cc, Subject, and Body.
4. Dirty drafts are auto-saved every 5 seconds after a subject is present.
5. Click Send Mail to save the draft and open the send dialog.
6. Choose Send in 30s, Send Now, or Copy Command.

Fresh mails are saved under /tmp/lore-reply/drafts/ with a generated compose-... filename and sent without --in-reply-to.

Inbox Workflow

1. Open the Inbox view.
2. Set the mailing list URL, your email addresses, range, and match mode.
3. Click Sync.
4. lore-reply searches lore/public-inbox for matching messages, expands them into full threads with b4, and stores a local inbox cache.
5. Browse the left-hand thread list, inspect the selected message at the top-right, and use the thread tree below it to move through replies.
6. Click Reply In Composer on any message to jump back into the existing direct-reply editor.

Inbox Cache

Inbox sync state is stored locally at:

/tmp/lore-reply/inbox-state.json

Current behavior is replace-on-sync, not merge-on-sync. A successful new sync overwrites the previous inbox cache snapshot.

Draft Output

Saved drafts are plain-text mail files. The generated send command includes:

• --from
• --in-reply-to for reply drafts
• one --to per To recipient
• one --cc per Cc recipient
• the absolute draft path

The same loaded draft overwrites the same file on repeated saves.

Each saved draft also writes a small metadata sidecar so custom To and Cc changes can be restored together with the saved body.

Direct sends use git send-email --confirm=never, so they do not stop on the interactive Send this email? prompt. The command output is returned to the UI whether the send succeeds or fails.

Notes

• The UI is designed for kernel-style plain-text mail replies.
• The quoted original mail is part of the editable body.
• b4 errors are shown directly in the page without extra translation.
• The app binds to localhost by default and is meant to be used as a local tool.
• When a loaded draft is dirty, the page auto-saves it to disk every 5 seconds.
• Auto-save reduces accidental loss, but the most recent unsaved keystrokes can still be lost if the browser exits before the next save window.
• Direct sending is non-interactive. If your git send-email setup still requires terminal prompts for SMTP credentials or other input, the send will fail and the raw output is shown in the page.
• Inbox sync uses a local JSON cache today, not SQLite.