email-to-papra

Forwards emails and attachments from an IMAP inbox to Papra, routing by recipient address.

When run, it checks your inbox for unread emails and for each one:

1. Converts the email body to a PDF and uploads it to Papra
2. Uploads any attachments directly to Papra
3. Optionally moves the email to trash after a successful import

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• An IMAP-enabled email account
• A Papra account with an API token

Setup

1. Install dependencies

npm install

2. Configure environment variables

Copy the example env file and fill in your values:

cp .env.example .env

Variable	Required	Description
IMAP_USER	Yes	Your email address
IMAP_PASSWORD	Yes	Your email password or app password
IMAP_HOST	Yes	IMAP server hostname (e.g. imap.gmail.com)
IMAP_PORT	No	IMAP port, defaults to 993
PAPRA_API_TOKEN	Yes	Your Papra API token
PAPRA_DEFAULT_ORG_ID	Yes	Fallback Papra organization ID
PAPRA_BASE_URL	No	Papra API base URL, defaults to https://api.papra.app
EMAIL_TO_ORG_MAP	No	JSON map of recipient email → Papra org ID (see below)
TRASH_AFTER_IMPORT	No	Move email to trash after successful import, defaults to false
TRASH_FOLDER	No	Trash folder name, defaults to Trash (see below)

3. Run

node index.js

Routing emails to different Papra organizations

You can forward emails to different Papra organizations based on the recipient address using EMAIL_TO_ORG_MAP. Set it as a JSON string in your .env:

EMAIL_TO_ORG_MAP={"receipts@yourdomain.com":"org_abc123","invoices@yourdomain.com":"org_def456"}

If the recipient address doesn't match any entry in the map, the email is routed to PAPRA_DEFAULT_ORG_ID.

Skipping the email body PDF

If you only want to import attachments and skip generating a PDF of the email body, include the following text anywhere in the email body:

{{papra_attachments_only}}

Trash folder names by provider

If TRASH_AFTER_IMPORT=true, set TRASH_FOLDER to match your provider:

Provider	Folder name
Gmail	[Gmail]/Trash
Outlook / Hotmail	Deleted Items
Apple iCloud	Deleted Messages
Most others	Trash

Running with Docker

Option 1: Use the pre-built image

docker run --env-file .env jesscarlos/email-to-papra:latest

Option 2: Build it yourself

Build the image:

docker build -t email-to-papra .

Run with your .env file:

docker run --env-file .env email-to-papra

Running on a schedule

The script processes unread emails and exits. To run it on a recurring schedule, use a cron job or a process scheduler.

cron example (every 15 minutes):

*/15 * * * * docker run --env-file /path/to/.env email-to-papra

License

This project is licensed under the AGPL-3.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details.