Vortex

A local-first inbox and live OTP companion for Windows

Download · Features · Usage · Installation · Privacy

_{All releases}

Vortex merges multiple email accounts, RSS feeds, and messaging relays into one unified desktop stream. When a message arrives, it extracts verification codes in under 2 milliseconds and surfaces a floating always-on-top OTP card for one-click copying, while categorizing mail, scoring phishing risk, and indexing everything locally with SQLite FTS5.

Free and open source forever.

Vortex is an independent project.
If you use it regularly, you can support development via PayPal.

Live OTP overlay Extracts 4 to 8 digit verification codes in under 2 ms and displays a floating card at the corner of your screen for one-click copy.	Multi-account & bulk sync Connect Gmail with one-click Google sign-in, or batch-import dozens of Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo, and custom IMAP accounts in parallel.
Smart categories & auto-sort Automatically routes messages into OTP, Billing, Orders, Security, Work, and Promotions, with optional priority sorting for unread codes.	Phishing & link guard Flags suspicious senders and deceptive verification links before you click, and surfaces direct one-click verification and unsubscribe buttons.
Paper-Ink & Dark themes Custom borderless native window with tactile 3D controls, smooth circular view transitions, and adaptive HTML email contrast normalization.	Hardware-aware budgets Scales automatically from headless single-core boards (under 15 MB RSS) to full desktop workstations with instant SQLite FTS5 prefix search.
Optional AI assistant Opt in per mailbox for message summaries, priority sorting, and reversible auto-hiding of confirmed promotions. Download optional local model presets through Ollama, connect llama.cpp, or use OpenAI / Anthropic. Disabled by default, with no bundled model or new runtime dependency.

Usage

Action	Result
Click floating OTP card	Copy verification code to clipboard and auto-clear after expiry
Click × on OTP card	Dismiss current code overlay
Drag top bar	Move the borderless native window
Double-click top bar	Toggle maximize / restore window
Add mailbox -> Sign in with Google	Connect a Gmail account without generating an App Password
Add mailbox -> Bulk add accounts	Import multiple email|app_password lines and sync in parallel
Click category pill	Filter stream by All, OTP, Billing, Orders, Security, Work, or Promotions
Click Auto-sort	Pin active OTP codes and unread messages to the top of the stream
Click AI	Enable the optional assistant, choose a provider/model, and select allowed mailboxes
AI → Ollama → local model download	Download Qwen2.5 0.5B (~398 MB) or 1.5B (~986 MB), with progress and cancel; requires installed, running Ollama
Click Summarize with AI	Analyze an existing message; new arrivals in opted-in mailboxes are analyzed automatically
Enable Auto-hide promotions	Locally archive promotions only when the classifier and model agree with high confidence
Open Hidden by AI → Restore message	Restore the message and exempt it from future automatic hiding
Click speaker / theme / language	Toggle tactile audio feedback, Light / Dark theme, or Vietnamese / English UI

Local presets use general multilingual models with Vortex's mail-classification prompt. Downloads remain optional and do not enable AI or grant mailbox access. Model file sizes exclude runtime and RAM requirements; see AI Privacy for model sources and setup.

CLI commands

Command	Result
vortex or vortex daemon	Launch the native desktop app and background sync daemon
vortex status	Show detected hardware tier, RAM, CPU cores, and item counts
vortex account list	List connected mailboxes
vortex account add <email> <host> <port> <secret>	Save credentials in the OS keyring and register an account
vortex sync	Trigger an immediate sync across all connected accounts
vortex codes	Print active OTP codes and remaining expiration times
vortex inbox --q "<query>"	Search local messages via SQLite FTS5
vortex action <archive|delete|read|pin> <id>	Apply a quick action to a message by ID
vortex rule add <name> "<dsl>"	Add a custom classification rule
vortex install-service <dir>	Generate an OS startup manifest (Windows, systemd, or launchd)

Device tiers and budgets

Vortex probes hardware resources at startup (RAM, CPU cores, arch, battery/AC, headless) and selects a runtime policy automatically. You can override this in vortex.toml with profile = "auto" | "lite" | "standard" | "full".

Tier	Target hardware	Binary budget	Idle RSS budget	Runtime defaults
lite	Raspberry Pi, NAS, small VPS (<= 1 GB RAM or 1 core)	< 6 MB	< 15 MB	Single-thread runtime, CLI + native notifications, 7-day body retention, AI off
standard	Laptop or desktop	< 6 MB	< 25 MB	Multi-thread runtime, native WebView2 UI (< 150 KB bundle), FTS5 prefix search, 30-day retention
full	Workstation (>= 16 GB RAM, >= 8 cores on AC)	< 12 MB	< 50 MB	Everything in standard plus optional local AI (Ollama / llama.cpp) and 90-day retention

Installation

Vortex runs on 64-bit Windows 10 or Windows 11 and uses the built-in Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime for its native window and floating OTP overlay.

1. Download vortex.exe from Releases.
2. Run vortex.exe to open the desktop app.
3. Click Add mailbox to sign in with Google or paste your IMAP app passwords.

Build from source

# Quick build and launch on Windows
.\r.ps1

# Or build the stripped release binary directly with Cargo
cargo build --release -p vortex-cli

The release binary is produced at target/release/vortex.exe.

Privacy

Vortex runs locally on your machine and does not collect telemetry, analytics, or usage tracking.

• OS keyring storage: IMAP passwords and secrets are stored in Windows Credential Manager, macOS Keychain, or Linux Secret Service, and are never written in plain text to vortex.toml.
• Sandboxed email rendering: HTML emails render inside an isolated iframe with scripts stripped and remote tracking pixels blocked by default.
• Local database: Messages, extracted OTP hashes, and FTS5 search indexes live in a local SQLite database (vortex.db) on your disk.
• Optional AI: Only opted-in mailboxes use the configured provider. Requests use bounded, redacted excerpts; OTP processing remains independent. Saved assistant settings persist in SQLite and take precedence over TOML. See AI Privacy for provider setup, auto-hide safeguards, and validation limits.

Threat Model · AI Privacy · Connectors · Contributing

Other projects by w0otdev

If you like Vortex, check out other free and open-source Windows utilities by w0otdev:

• V-Notch - Desktop status, media controls, synced lyrics, and Dynamic Island companion for Windows.
• Vertex - Minimalist radial wheel file converter for Windows (built with Rust).
• Scroll-V - Smooth scrolling experience for all Windows applications (built with C#).

License

Vortex is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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