harn eml

harn eml [options] <file>

Turn a Gmail .eml export into a clean markdown thread. Gmail saves a conversation as a single .eml where older replies are nested inside quote blocks; this command unpacks that structure and re-orders the messages oldest to newest, stripping HTML, signatures, and quote cruft along the way. When HTML isn’t present it falls back to parsing the plain-text > quote markers and On ... wrote: attribution lines.

The rendered markdown opens with a header (subject, participants, date range, message count) and then one ## N. <sender> - <date> section per message.

Options

Flag	Description
-o, --output <path>	Write to a file instead of stdout.
--format <type>	markdown (default) or json.
--headers	Include the source message’s full email headers (a Gmail thread export is one .eml, so there is a single header set).
--attachments	List attachment filenames and sizes in the header block.

Examples

# Parsed thread to stdout as markdown
harn eml thread.eml

# Write the markdown to a file
harn eml thread.eml -o thread.md

# Structured JSON instead of markdown
harn eml thread.eml --format json

# Include the attachment manifest
harn eml thread.eml --attachments

Output

In markdown mode the output is the rendered thread described above. In json mode it’s an array of message rows, each { index, from, date, body } with date as an ISO string (or null when unparseable). With -o, either format is written to the given path and a file-written event is emitted instead of printing.

Notes

Message timestamps in the markdown are rendered as human-readable local times. Signature blocks (the -- delimiter, “Sent from my …” footers) are trimmed only when they fall in the latter part of a message, so a short reply that happens to start with a dash isn’t mistaken for a signature.