Show HN: Mocca – A Mac email client powered by local AI
Mocca is a private, AI-powered email client for Mac that uses on-device AI to sort, label, and manage email based on plain English rules, with no cloud servers or telemetry.
Mocca — Private, AI-powered email that runs on your Mac
Connects over IMAP No servers, no telemetry Open-weight model, runs locally
Your words are the rules
No filters, no regex, no conditions to wire up. You describe what you want in plain English — an AI on your Mac reads every email and carries it out.
The Inbox rule
Define your Inbox in one sentence. The AI reads every incoming email and keeps your Inbox to exactly that — everything else is sorted into All Mail, not lost. It judges the content, not a list of sender filters you have to maintain.
“Only people I actually know, plus my orders and bank alerts.”
Label rules that act
Define a label by what it means, in your own words — Mocca reads the content and applies it to any matching email, whoever sent it. Add an action and it does that too: trash, unsubscribe, mark read, mute.
“pitch — any email pitching a startup idea, whoever it's from.”
Ask — or chain actions in one line
“What did I buy from Amazon last month?” It reads the real emails and answers. Or tell it several things at once — “trash promotions and unsubscribe from newsletters” — and approve them together.
Set up in three steps
Connect your email, and Mocca sorts the rest — locally.
1
Connect your email
Sign in with an app password over IMAP. Guided setup for Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo and Fastmail.
2
It sorts your mail
The on-device AI reads your latest mail, separates the important from the noise, and applies your labels and rules.
3
You stay in control
Write rules in plain words, let Mocca auto-handle the junk, and ask questions across your whole inbox.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers — including the limits.
Which Macs does it run on?
macOS on Apple Silicon (M1 or later). Intel Macs and Windows aren't supported.
How capable is the on-device AI?
It's a small model running locally — great at sorting, labeling, and short tasks, but not deep reasoning like GPT-4. Mocca sticks to what it does reliably.
Does it work offline?
Reading already-downloaded mail and the on-device AI work offline. You need a connection to fetch new mail and to send.
Does it work with Outlook?
Not yet — Microsoft requires OAuth, which Mocca doesn't do. Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, and Fastmail connect over IMAP.
Where does my email go?
Nowhere. Mocca connects directly to your provider over IMAP — there are no Mocca servers, no telemetry, no account.
Email that stays on your machine.
A private inbox with a built-in AI. Connect your email and you're set — no cloud, no account.
Download for Mac
Requires macOS on Apple Silicon (M1 or later)