Gmail Unsubscribe

Gmail Unsubscribe

Systematically identify and remove newsletter/marketing email subscriptions.

Prerequisites

• himalaya configured (see gmail-multi-account)
• Contact CSVs with category tags

Workflow

Step 1: Identify newsletter senders

# Get recent emails, look for bulk senders
himalaya --account personal envelope list --page-size 200 --output json | \
  python3 -c "
import json, sys, collections
msgs = json.load(sys.stdin)
senders = collections.Counter(m.get('from','unknown') for m in msgs)
for sender, count in senders.most_common(50):
    if count >= 3:
        print(f'{count:4d}  {sender}')
"

Step 2: Check List-Unsubscribe headers

# Export raw MIME to check headers
himalaya --account personal message export MESSAGE_ID --full | \
  grep -i "list-unsubscribe"

Step 3: Classify unsubscribe candidates

Criteria for unsubscribe:

• Sender appears 3+ times in last 200 emails
• Sender NOT in VIP/client/personal contacts
• Has List-Unsubscribe header
• Content is marketing/promotional/newsletter

DO NOT unsubscribe from:

• Transactional emails (receipts, shipping, account security)
• Industry newsletters user values (check with user)
• Government/financial institution communications

Step 4: Execute unsubscribe

For mailto: unsubscribe links:

cat << 'EOF' | himalaya --account personal template send
From: achantav@gmail.com
To: unsubscribe-address@sender.com
Subject: Unsubscribe

Unsubscribe
EOF

For URL unsubscribe links:

• Present URL to user to click manually (security — don't auto-click links)

Step 5: Clean up

After unsubscribe confirmation:

# Move old newsletters to trash
himalaya --account personal message delete MESSAGE_ID

Account-Specific Aggressiveness

ace — Conservative

• Keep: industry digests (SPE, OTC, offshore), technical newsletters
• Unsubscribe: vendor marketing, recruiter spam
• Ask user about: LinkedIn notifications, conference promos

personal — Aggressive

• Unsubscribe: social media notifications, shopping promos, app notifications
• Keep: banking alerts, subscription receipts, family-related
• Ask user about: news digests, hobby newsletters

skestates — Moderate

• Unsubscribe: real estate marketing, property listing emails
• Keep: insurance, tax, legal, property management
• Ask user about: CRE investment newsletters

Safety Rules

1. NEVER auto-unsubscribe without user approval — show candidate list first
2. NEVER click unsubscribe URLs programmatically — present to user
3. Log all unsubscribe actions to ~/.hermes/email-logs/unsubscribe-log.csv
4. Batch limit: max 20 unsubscribes per session
5. Wait 24h after unsubscribe before deleting old messages (in case user reconsiders)

Automation

Monthly sweep cron:

# First Monday of each month at 8 AM CT
0 8 1-7 * 1 hermes "Load gmail-unsubscribe. Scan personal account for new unsubscribe candidates. Report only — do not act."