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Skim
Free, open-source AI email client for Windows
Skim is a free, open-source (MIT) email client for Windows. ✂️ Minimal on purpose: no calendar, no rules engine, no bloat. Fewer buttons, less cognitive load. ⚡ Native Rust core (Tauri 2): ~5 MB installer, sub-second cold start, instant full-text search. 🔒 Local-first, offline-ready, zero telemetry. ✦ AI on your terms: bring your own Anthropic or OpenRouter key and Skim drafts replies in your voice and answers questions across your whole mailbox.
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Developer & User Discourse
[Redacted] • Jul 21, 2026
Hey Nikita, congrats!Any plans to release a Mac version?
[Redacted] • Jul 21, 2026
The Rust-backed cold start is genuinely instant, feels closer to opening a text editor than an email app. Glad the AI part is opt-in with your own key instead of some bundled subscription, keeps things lean.
[Redacted] • Jul 21, 2026
Curious how you handle Gmail OAuth secrets in a public repo though! Great launch, refreshing branding, and love every MIT license.
[Redacted] • Jul 21, 2026
I will take a look because anything has the be better than MS Outlook these days! Does it handle multiple email accounts?
[Redacted] • Jul 20, 2026
I built Skim because I wanted a Windows email client that doesn't suck that hard and couldn't find one. Now I wanna share it with you.
Skim is open source and MIT-licensed, free forever. No subscription, no telemetry. Join as a contributor plz! 🙏 https://github.com/nikserg/skim
Skim is small: a native Rust core (Tauri 2, no Electron), a ~5 MB installer, offline-first IMAP sync into local SQLite, instant full-text search, and a keyboard-first UI with a Ctrl+K palette.
✦ The AI part works on your terms: paste your own Anthropic or OpenRouter key to enable AI features:
✍️ it drafts replies in your voice (and can learn from your sent emails)
📥 summarizes your unread mail
🔍 answers questions across your whole mailbox, with cited sources
Pretty basic, huh? Right. That's all I need, and I believe there are people who need the same. Requests go straight from your machine to the provider: no middleman, no markup, no subscription.
Let me share a bit of the philosophy I try to follow while building Skim:
✂️ Minimalism. It's an email client and that's it. No integrations -> no bloat. Cognitive load matters!
🎯 Contextual actions. Skim tries to be the kind of software that thinks FOR you to save your cognitive resources. Buttons show up only when needed, the app always does the most obvious thing, and the defaults should be the best ones.
⚡ Resource efficiency. Skim is built to run in the background 24/7, so it stays as humble as possible and eats as few resources as it can. That's why the installer is under 5 MB 😄
So, with all that said: please, have fun with Skim! I'd love your feedback, especially from folks tired of heavy clients. What would make you switch? What's missing? How could I trick you into contributing? 🤘
Skim is open source and MIT-licensed, free forever. No subscription, no telemetry. Join as a contributor plz! 🙏 https://github.com/nikserg/skim
Skim is small: a native Rust core (Tauri 2, no Electron), a ~5 MB installer, offline-first IMAP sync into local SQLite, instant full-text search, and a keyboard-first UI with a Ctrl+K palette.
✦ The AI part works on your terms: paste your own Anthropic or OpenRouter key to enable AI features:
✍️ it drafts replies in your voice (and can learn from your sent emails)
📥 summarizes your unread mail
🔍 answers questions across your whole mailbox, with cited sources
Pretty basic, huh? Right. That's all I need, and I believe there are people who need the same. Requests go straight from your machine to the provider: no middleman, no markup, no subscription.
Let me share a bit of the philosophy I try to follow while building Skim:
✂️ Minimalism. It's an email client and that's it. No integrations -> no bloat. Cognitive load matters!
🎯 Contextual actions. Skim tries to be the kind of software that thinks FOR you to save your cognitive resources. Buttons show up only when needed, the app always does the most obvious thing, and the defaults should be the best ones.
⚡ Resource efficiency. Skim is built to run in the background 24/7, so it stays as humble as possible and eats as few resources as it can. That's why the installer is under 5 MB 😄
So, with all that said: please, have fun with Skim! I'd love your feedback, especially from folks tired of heavy clients. What would make you switch? What's missing? How could I trick you into contributing? 🤘