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CLI Usage

Send emails directly from the terminal with the fluxmail command. Run fluxmail --help for full usage with formatted output.

Flags

Flag Required Default Description
--type Yes — Email protocol: smtp or outlook
--host Yes — SMTP relay hostname (e.g. smtp.gmail.com) or relay:domain pair (e.g. smtp.gmail.com:gmail.com)
--subject Yes — Email subject line
--recipients Yes — Recipient address. Repeat flag for multiple.
--body No* — Email body — plain text or HTML string
--body-file No* — Path to a file to use as the email body. Mutually exclusive with --body.
--sender No username (if valid email) Sender address (SMTP only)
--cc No — CC address. Repeat flag for multiple.
--bcc No — BCC address. Repeat flag for multiple.
--reply-to No — Reply-To address (SMTP only)
--attachments No — File path to attach. Repeat flag for multiple.
--html / --no-html No --no-html Treat body as HTML
--dry-run No off Preview the email without sending
--port No 25 SMTP port. Use 587 for STARTTLS.
--username No $FLUXMAIL_USERNAME SMTP login username. When this is a valid email it also sets the default sender.
--password No $FLUXMAIL_PASSWORD SMTP login password (hidden in prompts)
--tls / --no-tls No --no-tls Enable STARTTLS (port 587). Mutually exclusive with --ssl.
--ssl / --no-ssl No --no-ssl Use implicit TLS (port 465). Mutually exclusive with --tls.
--timeout No 30 SMTP connection timeout in seconds
--max-retries No 0 Number of send retries on failure
--retry-delay No 1.0 Seconds to wait between retries
--version No — Print version and exit

*Exactly one of --body or --body-file is required.

Examples

Bash
export FLUXMAIL_USERNAME=me@gmail.com
export FLUXMAIL_PASSWORD=secret

fluxmail --type smtp --host smtp.gmail.com --port 587 --tls \
  --subject "Hello" \
  --recipients friend@example.com \
  --body "Hi from the CLI!"
Bash
export FLUXMAIL_USERNAME=apikey
export FLUXMAIL_PASSWORD=SG.xxxx

fluxmail --type smtp --host smtp.sendgrid.net --port 587 --tls \
  --subject "Notification" \
  --recipients user@example.com \
  --sender noreply@myapp.com \
  --body "Your order has shipped."
Bash
fluxmail --type smtp --host smtp.gmail.com --port 587 --tls \
  --subject "Q1 Summary" \
  --recipients alice@example.com \
  --recipients bob@example.com \
  --cc manager@example.com \
  --body "Q1 summary is attached." \
  --attachments /path/to/q1-summary.pdf \
  --username me@gmail.com
Bash
fluxmail --type smtp --host smtp.gmail.com --port 587 --tls \
  --subject "Report" \
  --recipients user@example.com \
  --body-file /path/to/report-body.html \
  --html \
  --username me@gmail.com
Bash
fluxmail --type smtp --host smtp.gmail.com --port 587 --tls \
  --subject "Test" \
  --recipients user@example.com \
  --body "Hello" \
  --username me@gmail.com \
  --dry-run

Some providers require implicit TLS on port 465 instead of STARTTLS on port 587. Use --ssl instead of --tls in that case:

Bash
fluxmail --type smtp --host smtp.example.com --port 465 --ssl \
  --subject "Hello" \
  --recipients user@example.com \
  --body "Hi!" \
  --username me@example.com

Automatically retry up to 3 times with a 2-second pause between attempts:

Bash
fluxmail --type smtp --host smtp.gmail.com --port 587 --tls \
  --subject "Report" \
  --recipients user@example.com \
  --body "See attached." \
  --username me@gmail.com \
  --max-retries 3 \
  --retry-delay 2

Credentials in shell history

Prefer FLUXMAIL_USERNAME / FLUXMAIL_PASSWORD environment variables over the --username / --password flags. Inline flags appear in shell history and ps output, making them unsuitable for shared or production systems.