quartz/content/10-19 LIFE/13 TECH SETUP/13.11 APPS/aerc.md

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publish	permalink	title	created	modified	tags	cssclasses
true	/10-19 LIFE/13 TECH SETUP/13.11 APPS/aerc.md	aerc	2026-01-30T08:09:11.034-07:00	2026-02-05T09:11:56.234-07:00	email terminal

aerc is a terminal email client with vim-like keybindings. It's lightweight, fast, and highly configurable. Works well with 10-19 LIFE/13 TECH SETUP/13.11 APPS/isync for offline IMAP sync.

Installation

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S aerc

Dependencies for full functionality:

# HTML rendering
sudo pacman -S w3m
# or: dante (for socksify), pandoc (markdown)

Configuration

Config files live in ~/.config/aerc/:

accounts.conf

[Proton]
source = maildir://~/.local/share/mail/proton
outgoing = smtp+plain://127.0.0.1:1025
default = INBOX
from = Your Name <you@proton.me>
copy-to = Sent

aerc.conf

[ui]
index-columns = date<20,name<25,flags>4,subject<*
timestamp-format = 2006-01-02 15:04
this-day-time-format = 15:04
this-year-time-format = Jan 02

[compose]
editor = nvim
reply-to-self = false

[filters]
text/plain = colorize
text/html = w3m -T text/html -cols $(tput cols) -dump -o display_image=false

binds.conf

[messages]
q = :quit<Enter>
j = :next<Enter>
k = :prev<Enter>
Enter = :view<Enter>
c = :compose<Enter>
r = :reply<Enter>
R = :reply -a<Enter>
d = :move Trash<Enter>

Usage

Navigation

Key	Action
j/k	Next/prev message
J/K	Next/prev folder
Enter	Open message
q	Back/quit
/	Search

Composing

Key	Action
c	Compose new
r	Reply
R	Reply all
f	Forward
Ctrl+x	Send (in editor)

Actions

Key	Action
d	Delete/move to trash
m	Move to folder
C	Copy to folder
A	Archive

Tips

• Run :help or :help tutorial for built-in documentation
• Use with 10-19 LIFE/13 TECH SETUP/13.11 APPS/isync for offline access and faster sync
• Pipe messages through scripts with :pipe