Sora is a simple, minimalistic IMAP server built for composability.
It serves as a lightweight building block for larger infrastructure systems, with an emphasis on correctness, extensibility, and simplicity.
- Built around the go-imap library
- Standards-compliant IMAP4rev1 server
- S3-compatible object storage for message bodies
- PostgreSQL for metadata and indexing
- Minimal dependencies and clean, understandable codebase
- Can be embedded as a Go module or deployed as a standalone daemon
- Fast startup and efficient resource usage
- LMTP support for message delivery
- POP3 support
- ManageSIEVE
- SIEVE scripts support
Sora is for:
- Custom cloud-native email infrastructure
- Research and experimentation
- Integrating with modern storage and indexing backends
- Self-hosted environments with external authentication and delivery pipelines
Sora is functional, but not yet production-ready.
Cross-client compatibility is still being tested. Some clients may misbehave or fail to operate correctly.
Use in test environments only. Patches and pull requests are welcome.
- Go 1.20+
- PostgreSQL compatible database
- S3-compatible object storage (e.g. MinIO, AWS S3)
- Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/yourname/sora.git
cd sora- Create and edit your configuration file:
Copy the example configuration and then edit
config.tomlwith your specific settings (database credentials, S3 details, server preferences, etc.).
cp config.toml.example config.toml
nano config.toml # Or your preferred editorRefer to the comments within config.toml.example for guidance on each option.
- Run Sora: Point to your configuration file when running the application:
go run main.go -config config.toml