User Guide

Browsing the Archive

Front Page

The front page shows all available mailing list domains and their lists with message counts. Click a domain to expand, then click a list name to view its archive.

List View

Once you select a list, you see the current month's emails. The sidebar shows:

• Calendar — click any month to browse historical archives
• Participants — top contributors for the selected period
• Word Cloud — common terms (if enabled by the administrator)

Display Modes

Three display modes are available (toggle in the header):

Mode	Description
Threaded	Groups emails by conversation thread. Click a thread to expand.
Flat	Shows all emails in chronological order.
Tree	Hierarchical indented view showing reply relationships.

Reading an Email

Click any email subject to open it. The view shows:

• Full message body (with quoted text collapsed by default)
• Sender, date, and list information
• Attachments (downloadable)
• Navigation: “Find parent email” link, permalink

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Searching

Use the search box at the top of any page. Supports:

• Free text: budget meeting
• Required terms: +budget
• Excluded terms: -spam
• Exact phrases: "quarterly review"

For full search syntax including date ranges and header filters, see search.md.

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Authentication

Logging In

Click the profile icon (top right) to log in via OAuth. Available providers depend on the deployment (commonly Google, GitHub, or a custom provider like ASF OAuth).

What Login Enables

Feature	Anonymous	Logged In (authoritative)	Admin
Browse public lists	✓	✓	✓
Browse private lists	✗	✓	✓
Compose replies	✗	✓	✓
Management console	✗	✗	✓

“Authoritative” means the OAuth provider is listed in the server's authoritative_domains configuration.

Logging Out

Click the profile icon again and select “Log out”. Your session cookie is invalidated.

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Composing Replies

When logged in via an authoritative OAuth provider:

1. Open an email you want to reply to
2. Click the Reply button below the message
3. Compose your reply in the text box
4. Click Send

Restrictions:

• You can only reply to lists whose domain matches the server's sender_domains configuration
• The email is sent from your OAuth-verified email address
• The In-Reply-To and References headers are set automatically

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Permalinks

Every email has a stable permalink URL of the form:

https://your-instance/thread/{permalink_id}

Use the “Permalink” link in the email view to copy it. These URLs are stable and suitable for sharing.

Note: If an email requires authentication (private list), visitors who are not logged in will see an error. They must log in first via the profile icon.

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Mbox Download

You can download a month's archive in mbox format by clicking the download icon in the list view header. This produces a standard mbox file suitable for import into other mail clients or tools.