CLI Reference

ExMailer ships with a command-line interface that lets you send emails and calendar invites without writing any Python.

exmailer [OPTIONS]
# or
python -m exmailer [OPTIONS]

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General Options

Flag	Type	Required	Default	Description
--config PATH	string	No	—	Path to a JSON or YAML configuration file
--verbose	flag	No	off	Enable verbose logging output
--log-file PATH	string	No	exchange_debug.log	Destination for verbose debug output (only written when --verbose is set)

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Email Content

Flag	Type	Required	Default	Description
--subject TEXT	string	Yes	—	Email subject line
--body TEXT	string	No	""	Email body. Prefix with @ to read from a file (e.g. @body.html). A warning is printed if the body is empty.
--to EMAIL [EMAIL ...]	list	Yes	—	One or more recipient addresses
--cc EMAIL [EMAIL ...]	list	No	[]	CC recipients
--bcc EMAIL [EMAIL ...]	list	No	[]	BCC recipients (email only — ignored with a warning when --meeting is used)
--attachments FILE [FILE ...]	list	No	[]	Files to attach (email only — ignored with a warning when --meeting is used). Exits with an error if all specified files are missing.
--importance {Low,Normal,High}	choice	No	Normal	Email priority level (ignored for meeting invites)

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Template Options

--template and --template-file are mutually exclusive — you may only use one at a time.

Flag	Type	Required	Default	Description
--template {persian,english,minimal,plain,none}	choice	No	english	Built-in template. persian = RTL layout; english = LTR layout
--template-file PATH	string	No	—	Path to a custom HTML file. Must contain a {body} placeholder
--template-vars JSON	JSON string	No	{}	Extra variables to interpolate into the body, e.g. '{"date": "1404/11/18"}'. Must be a JSON object ({...}); arrays or bare values are rejected.

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Meeting Options

Pass --meeting to send a Calendar invite instead of a plain email. --start and --end are required whenever --meeting is used.

Flag	Type	Required	Default	Description
--meeting	flag	No	off	Send as a Calendar Meeting Invite
--start "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"	string	With --meeting	—	Meeting start time
--end "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"	string	With --meeting	—	Meeting end time
--location TEXT	string	No	""	Meeting location
--no-rsvp	flag	No	off	Suppress RSVP requests to attendees

Note: --to recipients become required attendees; --cc recipients become optional attendees for meeting invites.

Validation: --start must be strictly before --end — this is checked locally (exit code 1) before any Exchange connection is opened. A malformed date format is rejected by argparse itself (exit code 2).

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Examples

1. Basic email

exmailer \
  --subject "Hello from ExMailer" \
  --body "This is a test email." \
  --to alice@example.com

1b. High-importance alert with custom log file

exmailer \
  --subject "CRITICAL: Database unreachable" \
  --body "The main DB is down. Investigating now." \
  --to oncall@example.com \
  --importance High \
  --verbose \
  --log-file /var/log/exmailer_debug.log

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2. Email with attachments and CC

exmailer \
  --subject "Q4 Report" \
  --body "Please find the attached report." \
  --to manager@example.com \
  --cc team@example.com \
  --attachments report.pdf summary.xlsx

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3. Email with a custom template file

Your template file must contain a {body} placeholder. Any literal { or } characters inside the HTML (e.g. in <style> blocks) must be escaped as {{ and }}.

exmailer \
  --subject "Newsletter" \
  --body "This month's highlights…" \
  --to subscribers@example.com \
  --template-file /path/to/newsletter.html

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4. Email with template variables

Pass a JSON object to --template-vars. Keys must match the placeholders used in your template.

exmailer \
  --subject "Automated Report" \
  --body "Report is ready." \
  --to ops@example.com \
  --template english \
  --template-vars '{"date": "1404/11/18", "department": "Engineering"}'

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5. Schedule a meeting invite

exmailer \
  --meeting \
  --subject "Sprint Planning" \
  --body "Agenda: backlog grooming and sprint goals." \
  --to dev1@example.com dev2@example.com \
  --cc product@example.com \
  --start "2025-02-10 10:00" \
  --end "2025-02-10 11:00" \
  --location "Conference Room A"

To send without an RSVP request, add --no-rsvp:

exmailer \
  --meeting \
  --subject "FYI: Team Sync" \
  --body "This is an informational invite." \
  --to team@example.com \
  --start "2025-02-10 14:00" \
  --end "2025-02-10 14:30" \
  --no-rsvp

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6. Reading the body from a file

Prefix the path with @ and ExMailer will read the file contents as the email body. This is useful for HTML bodies or long messages maintained in separate files.

exmailer \
  --subject "Maintenance Notification" \
  --body @/path/to/notification.html \
  --to all-staff@example.com \
  --template persian