Himalaya

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Tasks that involve Transactional email

Example prompts

• “/himalaya”

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Himalaya CLI installed (himalaya --version to verify)
2. 2A configuration file at ~/.config/himalaya/config.toml
3. 3IMAP/SMTP credentials configured (password stored securely)

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit be46b39. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • curl
  • sh
  • brew
  • cargo

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

  • raw.githubusercontent.com

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Himalaya loads about 1.5k tokens when it runs, and up to ~3.5k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 56 tokens; SKILL.md has 356 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~56

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.5k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~3.5k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from RedWoodOG/Hermes-Desktop at commit be46b39, republished under its MIT licence (© RedWoodOG). 356 words, ~1,499 tokens.

name

himalaya

description

CLI to manage emails via IMAP/SMTP. Use himalaya to list, read, write, reply, forward, search, and organize emails from the terminal. Supports multiple accounts and message composition with MML (MIME Meta Language).

version

1.0.0

author

community

license

MIT

prerequisites.commands

himalaya

# Pre-built binary (Linux/macOS — recommended)
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pimalaya/himalaya/master/install.sh | PREFIX=~/.local sh

# macOS via Homebrew
brew install himalaya

# Or via cargo (any platform with Rust)
cargo install himalaya --locked

himalaya account configure

[accounts.personal]
email = "you@example.com"
display-name = "Your Name"
default = true

backend.type = "imap"
backend.host = "imap.example.com"
backend.port = 993
backend.encryption.type = "tls"
backend.login = "you@example.com"
backend.auth.type = "password"
backend.auth.cmd = "pass show email/imap"  # or use keyring

message.send.backend.type = "smtp"
message.send.backend.host = "smtp.example.com"
message.send.backend.port = 587
message.send.backend.encryption.type = "start-tls"
message.send.backend.login = "you@example.com"
message.send.backend.auth.type = "password"
message.send.backend.auth.cmd = "pass show email/smtp"

himalaya folder list

himalaya envelope list

himalaya envelope list --folder "Sent"

himalaya envelope list --page 1 --page-size 20

himalaya envelope list from john@example.com subject meeting

himalaya message read 42

himalaya message export 42 --full

# Get the reply template, edit it, and send
himalaya template reply 42 | sed 's/^$/\nYour reply text here\n/' | himalaya template send

cat << 'EOF' | himalaya template send
From: you@example.com
To: sender@example.com
Subject: Re: Original Subject
In-Reply-To: <original-message-id>

Your reply here.
EOF

himalaya message reply 42 --all

# Get forward template and pipe with modifications
himalaya template forward 42 | sed 's/^To:.*/To: newrecipient@example.com/' | himalaya template send

cat << 'EOF' | himalaya template send
From: you@example.com
To: recipient@example.com
Subject: Test Message

Hello from Himalaya!
EOF

himalaya message write -H "To:recipient@example.com" -H "Subject:Test" "Message body here"

himalaya message move 42 "Archive"

himalaya message copy 42 "Important"

himalaya message delete 42

himalaya flag add 42 --flag seen

himalaya flag remove 42 --flag seen

himalaya account list

himalaya --account work envelope list

himalaya attachment download 42

himalaya attachment download 42 --dir ~/Downloads

himalaya envelope list --output json
himalaya envelope list --output plain

RUST_LOG=debug himalaya envelope list

RUST_LOG=trace RUST_BACKTRACE=1 himalaya envelope list

© RedWoodOG, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files (references) in skills/email/himalaya of RedWoodOG/Hermes-Desktop.

• SKILL.md
• references/configuration.md
• references/message-composition.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit be46b39

Used in 3 other repositories

We found 4 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 3 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in RedWoodOG/Hermes-Desktop, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

• mateaix/mateclawmateclaw-server/src/main/resources/skills/himalaya
• Tommy-yw/RunbookHermesskills/email/himalaya
• ArgentAIOS/argentos-coreskills/hermes/email/himalayaskills/community/email/himalaya