Build your own Gmail with Claude Code

An email client: inbox with threads, labels and search, compose with rich text and attachments, archive, star and snooze and more.

1–2 weeksMore screens, accounts and a backend

The Claude Code prompt

Build my own take on Gmail: an email client. Give it an original name, logo, colours and copy, and do not use Gmail's name, branding or assets.

Version one should have:
- Inbox with threads, labels and search
- Compose with rich text and attachments
- Archive, star and snooze
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Connect real accounts over IMAP or the Gmail API

The hard part: Running a mail server is the hard way. Build a client on top of an existing provider API instead.

How to build it:
1. Read this folder first. If it is empty, set up Next.js (App Router, TypeScript, Tailwind) with Postgres through Prisma or Supabase, and Supabase Auth or Auth.js for sign-in. Write a short PLAN.md with the data model, screens, third-party services and what you are leaving out of version one.
2. Build the core loop end to end before anything else: inbox with threads, labels and search, working with real data saved to the database.
3. Add the rest of the features one at a time, and seed realistic demo data so every screen looks alive.
4. Keep API keys in environment variables, and put any paid service behind a small interface with a local stub, so the app runs on a fresh machine without accounts.
5. Run it, click through every screen on desktop and mobile widths, fix what breaks, and finish with a summary of what works, what is stubbed and how to deploy it.

Paste it into Claude Code in an empty folder. It plans first, so read PLAN.md and steer before it starts building.

Version one

  • Inbox with threads, labels and search
  • Compose with rich text and attachments
  • Archive, star and snooze
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Connect real accounts over IMAP or the Gmail API

The hard part

Running a mail server is the hard way. Build a client on top of an existing provider API instead.

Make it yours: a niche Gmail ignores, an original name and brand, and one feature it does badly done well.

More to build

More in Messaging · Every build idea