Install himalaya with Homebrew, apk, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• himalaya

Project history

The public repository begins on 2020-12-24 with commits that initialized the project and its TOML configuration parser. Within the first days of development, the repository added IMAP connection handling, email listing, command-line parsing, mailbox listing, text and HTML previews, SMTP setup, and message writing, showing that the initial scope was already a full read-write email client rather than only a message viewer.

The first tagged release, v0.1.0, appeared on 2021-01-17. Through the 0.x series, the project expanded around mailbox, envelope, flag, message, and attachment operations. A v1 series followed, with v1.0.0 tagged in 2024 and v1.2.0 tagged in 2026.

The Pimalaya site describes the larger effort as Rust libraries and applications for personal information management, including email, contacts, calendars, tasks, and timers. Himalaya's later v2 migration notes place the CLI inside that broader architecture: protocol logic moved toward I/O-free libraries, OAuth moved into ortie, keyring handling moved into mimosa, message composition moved into mml, and session reuse moved into syrup.

Adoption history

Himalaya reached several package ecosystems because it solves a concrete terminal-user problem: email automation without a graphical client. The README documents installation through Homebrew, Arch Linux, Scoop, Fedora/CentOS/RHEL COPR, Nix flakes, Cargo, pre-built GitHub binaries, and source builds.

Its adoption story is strongest among users who want mail in editor, shell, and script workflows. Pimalaya also lists companion interfaces such as himalaya-tui, and the Himalaya README notes that the CLI and TUI share the same account configuration blocks. That makes the package useful both as a direct CLI and as a backend for richer terminal interfaces.

How it is used

Himalaya loads persistent account configuration from XDG and legacy Unix paths, supports a configuration wizard, and uses TOML account blocks. The README documents provider-oriented examples for Proton Mail, Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud Mail, including command-backed secrets and OAuth token helpers.

The CLI exposes a shared API for common mail concepts and protocol-specific APIs for native backend capabilities. It can emit JSON, so package users can compose it with jq, fzf, editor commands, notification scripts, and other terminal automation.

Why package nerds care

For package nerds, Himalaya is interesting because it turns email into a scriptable Rust CLI while still respecting the complexity of real email providers. It carries the usual package-manager virtues: a single executable, documented config locations, multiple install channels, and well-scoped optional build features.

The v2 migration is also a useful case study in CLI maintainability. The maintainers explicitly removed over-broad backend abstraction from the CLI and pushed protocol, auth, composition, keyring, and session-reuse concerns into smaller tools and libraries. That kind of decomposition matters to downstream packagers because it clarifies what the packaged binary is responsible for.

Timeline

• 2020-12-24: Public repository history begins with project initialization and TOML config parsing.
• 2021-01-17: v0.1.0 is tagged.
• 2021: Early releases add mailbox, envelope, IMAP, SMTP, and message-management functionality.
• 2022: Pimalaya is described as an organized PIM effort around Rust libraries and applications.
• 2024: v1.0.0 is tagged.
• 2026: v1.2.0 is tagged, and v2 migration notes document a split into smaller Pimalaya libraries and helper tools.

Related projects

• Pimalaya is the umbrella project for the Rust PIM libraries and applications around Himalaya.
• himalaya-tui is a terminal interface that shares Himalaya account configuration.
• ortie, mimosa, mml, and syrup are Pimalaya tools or libraries referenced by the migration guide for OAuth, password access, message composition, and session reuse.
• Traditional adjacent tools include mutt/neomutt, mbsync/isync, OfflineIMAP, notmuch, and maildir-based workflows, although Himalaya's official docs emphasize its own protocol backends rather than positioning it as a clone of any one of them.

Sources

• Official Git repository tags and commits for timeline dates.
• Official Himalaya migration guide for v1-to-v2 architectural evolution.
• Official Himalaya repository README for feature, install, configuration, and backend details.
• Official Pimalaya website for project scope and founding context.