Heathrow

Where all your messages connect.

A unified TUI for all your communication. Like Heathrow Airport, every message routes through one hub. Replace mutt, newsboat, weechat, and a dozen chat apps with one terminal interface.

The Problem

"Dad, I sent you a message." Which app? Email? WhatsApp? Discord? Telegram? SMS? Nobody should have to chase 4-5 apps to find a message from their kid.

The Solution

All sources in one place. Create your custom views. Full keyboard control.

Background

In 2007 I had the idea of One Communication Hub to rule them all. Now, with Claude Code, it was efficient to realize that idea. It has now replaced mutt that I've been using since 2003, my RSS readers (newsboat of late) and many other apps. Heathrow now functions as my communication hub :)

Features

Sources (two-way read + reply):

Email via Maildir (works with offlineimap, mbsync, fetchmail, gmail_fetch)
IRC/Slack via WeeChat relay
Discord, Telegram, Instagram DMs, Messenger
Reddit

Sources (read-only):

RSS/Atom feeds
Web page change monitoring

Core:

Threaded, flat, and folder-grouped view modes
10+ custom filtered views with AND/OR logic
Compose, reply, forward with address book aliases (mutt-style)
Postpone/recall drafts
Dynamic message loading with jump-to-date
Hidden HTML link extraction (SharePoint, OneDrive, etc.)
Full-text search via notmuch
Per-source colors, per-view threading, tag/star highlighting
RTFM file picker for attachments
Configurable editor args, SMTP, OAuth2
AI assistant integration (Claude Code)
First-time onboarding wizard

Installation

Requirements

Ruby >= 2.7
rcurses gem
sqlite3 gem

From RubyGems

gem install heathrow

From Source

git clone https://github.com/isene/heathrow.git
cd heathrow
gem install rcurses sqlite3
./bin/heathrow

Quick Start

Run heathrow
The onboarding wizard guides you through adding your first source
Or press S to manage sources, a to add one

Key Bindings

Press ? for full help. Here are the essentials:

Navigation

Key	Action
`j`/`k` or arrows	Move up/down
`Enter`	Open message
`PgDn`/`PgUp`	Page through messages
`Home`/`End`	First/last message
`J`	Jump to date (yyyy-mm-dd)
`n`/`p`	Next/previous unread

Views

Key	Action
`A`	All messages
`N`	New (unread)
`S`	Sources management
`0-9`, `F1-F12`	Custom filtered views
`G`	Cycle view mode (flat/threaded/folders)
`B`	Browse all folders
`F`	Browse favorite folders

Message Actions

Key	Action
`r`	Reply
`e`	Reply with editor
`g`	Reply all
`f`	Forward
`m`	Compose new
`E`	Edit message as new
`R`	Toggle read/unread
`M`	Mark all in view as read
`*`	Toggle star
`t`/`T`	Tag message / tag all
`d`	Mark for deletion
`<`	Purge deleted
`x`	Open in browser
`v`	View attachments
`Y`/`Ctrl-y`	Copy right pane to clipboard
`y`	Copy message ID to clipboard
`@`	Address book (a=add sender, e=edit)

Compose Prompt

Key	Action
`Enter`	Send
`e`	Edit (re-open editor)
`a`	Attach files (via RTFM picker)
`p`	Postpone (save as draft)
`ESC`	Cancel

UI

Key	Action
`w`	Cycle pane width
`Ctrl-b`	Cycle border style
`D`	Cycle date format
`o`	Cycle sort order (Latest, A-Z, Sender, From, Conversation, Unread, Source)
`Z`	Open calendar invite in Timely
`P`	Preferences popup
`?`	Help (press again for extended)
`q`	Quit

Sort Orders

Order	Description
Latest	Newest messages first (default)
A-Z	Alphabetical by subject
Sender	Alphabetical by sender
From	Group by sender, most recently active sender first
Conversation	Group by thread/conversation
Unread	Unread messages first
Source	Group by source type

Configuration

All settings live in ~/.heathrow/heathrowrc (Ruby syntax):

# UI
set :color_theme,   'Mutt'
set :date_format,   '%b %-d'
set :sort_order,    'latest'
set :pane_width,    3
set :border_style,  1

# SMTP / OAuth2
set :default_email,   'you@example.com'
set :smtp_command,    '~/bin/gmail_smtp'
set :safe_dir,        '~/.heathrow/mail'
set :oauth2_script,   '~/bin/oauth2.py'
set :oauth2_domains,  %w[gmail.com]

# Identities (auto-selected by folder)
identity 'default',
  from:      'You <you@example.com>',
  signature: '~/.signature',
  smtp:      '~/bin/gmail_smtp'

# Custom views
view '1', 'Personal', folder: 'Personal'
view '2', 'Work',     folder: 'Work'
view '9', 'RSS',      source_type: 'rss'

# Favorite folders
set :favorite_folders, %w[Personal Work Archive]

Most settings are also available via the P preferences popup.

Architecture

+-- Heathrow
    +-- rcurses TUI (panes, input, rendering)
    +-- SQLite database (messages, sources, views, settings)
    +-- Source plugins (maildir, rss, weechat, discord, ...)
    +-- Message organizer (threading, grouping, sorting)
    +-- Background poller (per-source sync intervals)
    +-- Composer (editor integration, address book, SMTP)

Each source is a self-contained plugin. Sources crash independently without affecting the core. Filters default to "show all" on failure.

Credits

Created by Geir Isene with Claude Code
Built on rcurses TUI library
Inspired by RTFM file manager

Timely Integration

Heathrow works with Timely, a terminal calendar app:

Z key: On a calendar invite email, press Z to open it in Timely (extracts the event date from ICS data and copies the ICS for import)
Wezterm mailto: Click any email address in wezterm to compose in Heathrow
From sort: The "From" sort order groups messages by sender with the most recently active person at the top, perfect for family or team views

License

Unlicense - released into the public domain.

heathrow

Runtime