Refmsgvault

msgvault

msgvault

Archive a lifetime of email and chat. Offline search, analytics, and AI query over your full message history. Powered by DuckDB.

Overview

Local-first email and chat archive system built by Wes McKinney (creator of pandas, Apache Arrow).

Key Features:

  • Archive Gmail, chat messages locally
  • Lightning-fast search powered by DuckDB
  • Terminal UI for browsing
  • MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for AI agent integration
  • Single Go binary (easy deployment)
  • Open source (MIT License)

Tech Stack:

  • Language: Go
  • Database: DuckDB (analytical queries)
  • Interface: Terminal UI
  • AI Integration: MCP server

Scale:

  • Handles 2M+ emails
  • 150K+ attachments
  • 20 years of Gmail history

Why Interesting

  1. Local-first philosophy - Own your data, no vendor lock-in
  2. DuckDB for email - Analytical database enables complex queries on structured email data
  3. MCP integration - AI agents can query email archives directly
  4. Built by data infrastructure expert - Wes McKinney has deep experience with pandas, Arrow
  5. Single binary - No complex setup, just download and run

Context

Posted: February 2, 2026
Engagement: 705 stars (as of Feb 4), 4.3K likes, 350K+ views

Quote from announcement:

"I've used Gmail for 20 years. Almost 2M emails, 150K attachments. Rather than let Google hold my data hostage, I built msgvault: local-first email archive with a terminal UI and MCP server, powered by DuckDB. Open source, single Go binary."

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