Your first account

One command, a handful of questions, and Antiphon starts pulling your mail. No files to write, nothing to look up beyond what your provider already gave you.

Run the wizard

antiphon setup

It asks, in order:

1. Your e-mail address. Type it as the world knows it.
2. IMAP server. Where mail is read from, e.g. imap.example.com. If your provider gave you nothing fancier, it is usually imap. in front of your domain.
3. SMTP server. Where mail is sent through, usually smtp. in front of the same domain.
4. Your password, once. On macOS it goes straight into the Keychain; elsewhere you give a command that prints it (pass show mail/personal if you use pass). Antiphon never writes a password into a file, and asks your keeper for it only at the moment of use.

The wizard writes one small account file, creates the mail store, and starts the daemon on the first sync.

Gmail, Outlook and friends

Big providers often want an app password (or OAuth) for IMAP. If your normal password is refused, create an app password in your provider's security settings and give the wizard that. Full OAuth (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace) is configured in files rather than the wizard; the accounts page walks it.

Watch it check itself

antiphon doctor

Doctor prints one line per thing that matters: the config it found, the store, the daemon, the index, PGP if you use it. Everything says ok? You will never need doctor again until something surprises you.

Open it

antiphon

The first sync of a big mailbox takes a few minutes; the status line shows progress, folders appear in the sidebar as they arrive, and the list fills live. You can read whatever has landed while the rest streams in — nothing here waits for anything.

While it syncs, learn exactly one key: ?. It shows every binding, generated from your actual configuration, and any other key closes it again.

Next: use the interface.