# Build brief — a focused alternative to Shortwave

> **Verdict:** Partly, if you narrow it · **Buildability:** 49/100 · **Category:** Email
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/shortwave
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Shortwave. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**Shortwave** — Group Gmail conversations, add bundles and todos, and index mail locally. It currently costs $8.5/mo.

The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a substantially larger project. For Shortwave, group Gmail conversations, add bundles and todos, and index mail locally. The hard boundary is deep gmail semantics, cloud search, ai, team features, and mobile sync, plus mail infrastructure, integrations, and client polish.

This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of Shortwave that is genuinely reproducible. It is deliberately narrower than the product it replaces, and it says so in writing. Build the useful core; do not pretend to have rebuilt the rest.

## What you are building

Connect an existing Gmail mailbox, group conversations into bundles with todos, index messages locally, provide a fast focused inbox, and send through the account's normal SMTP service.

- Build a focused single-user workflow with real persistence, search, and export.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- Local disk space.

### Data and integrations

- Existing IMAP and SMTP mailbox.
- OAuth client credentials where required.
- Desktop keychain access.

Each of these needs a real account, credential, or quota. Set them up before writing feature code.

### Non-functional

- Accessibility: semantic markup, labelled controls, visible focus, and reduced-motion support.
- Security: server-side secrets, validated input, and no credentials in the client bundle.
- Reliability: retries with backoff on external calls, and a clear failure state when a provider is down.
- Portability: the operator can export their data and leave without losing it.

## Implementation brief

Build a personal replacement for Shortwave in an empty repository.
Use Tauri 2, React, TypeScript, SQLite, IMAP, SMTP, and OAuth where available; do not offer alternative stacks.
The core loop is: connect an existing Gmail mailbox, group conversations into bundles with todos, index messages locally, provide a fast focused inbox, and send through the account's normal SMTP service.
Make the first run work locally with one documented command.
Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward.
Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials.
Support one IMAP and SMTP account with credentials stored only in the OS keychain.
Index headers and message bodies locally with resumable sync and a visible status page.
Implement standards-based threading, folders, labels, archive, snooze, drafts, and search.
Render HTML email in a locked-down sandbox and block remote images by default.
Send multipart messages with attachments and preserve a local copy of every draft.
Add export, local cache reset, account reconnect, diagnostics, and safe logging.
Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states.
Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs.
Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path.
Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps.
Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane.
Deliberately leave out running a public mail server.
Deliberately leave out shared team inboxes and sales workflows.
Deliberately leave out mobile push services and provider-scale spam filtering.
Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used.

## Delivery standard

- Inspect the repository first, then write a short implementation plan before writing code.
- Deliver the smallest complete end-to-end workflow first; every primary control must work against persisted data.
- Use real validation and storage; never substitute fake dashboards, decorative controls, hard-coded success states, or mock integrations.
- Include responsive layouts plus genuine empty, loading, success, validation, and failure states.
- Keep secrets server-side in environment variables, provide .env.example, and never commit credentials or user data.
- Add structured logs around every external call and return actionable errors without leaking sensitive details.
- Write unit tests for the core logic and one automated test of the main user journey.
- Finish with a README covering setup, architecture, data location, backups, tests, deployment, and known limitations.

## Acceptance criteria

- [ ] A clean install starts the app using only the README and .env.example.
- [ ] The primary journey works from first visit through saved result, reload, edit, export, and deletion where applicable.
- [ ] Invalid input, missing configuration, provider failure, and an empty database each have a usable state.
- [ ] The interface works at 390px and 1440px, is keyboard navigable, and shows visible focus on every control.
- [ ] Tests, type checking, linting, and a production build all pass with no ignored failures.
- [ ] No part of the interface implies a live integration, security guarantee, or scale capability that was not actually built and verified.

## Non-goals

Do not build these, and do not claim to have replaced them:

- Deep Gmail semantics, cloud search, AI, team features, and mobile sync.
- Mail hosting and deliverability.
- Push on every platform.
- Advanced team collaboration.
- Reliability at the vendor's scale is an operations problem, not a prompt.
- Connectors, OAuth flows, and vendor API changes require constant upkeep.

## What you still own after launch

- Secure credentials, rotate secrets, and handle provider rate limits.
- Run migrations, backups, restores, and dependency updates.
- Test the critical journey after every model, API, or hosting change.
- Monitor failures and fix the edge cases a first prompt will miss.
- Maintain every third-party integration as APIs and OAuth rules change.

## Risk

**Operational risk.** The code is achievable; dependable data, integrations, and ongoing operations are the real cost.

Editorial confidence in this assessment: medium. No independent one-shot implementation is linked yet.

## Prior art

Working open-source software you can read, fork, or borrow from before starting:

- [mailcow](https://github.com/mailcow/mailcow-dockerized) — Popular open-source mail-server suite that demonstrates the operational complexity of hosted mail

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Generated by [Can It Be Vibe Coded?](https://www.canitbevibecoded.com) · Full report: https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/shortwave