Hands-On with nylas email mark-read: Mark an email as read

Mark an email as read. Works across Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, Yahoo, iCloud, and IMAP.

The nylas email mark-read command sets the read/seen flag on a message. Combine with nylas email list --unread and a shell loop to mark all unread messages as read in one pass.

Syntax

nylas email mark-read --id MESSAGE_ID

How It Works

The Nylas CLI abstracts away the differences between Gmail's API, Microsoft Graph, Exchange Web Services, and raw IMAP. You write one command; it works across all providers. This matters for automation — your cron job or CI pipeline doesn't need provider-specific logic.

Examples

Mark a single email as read:

nylas email mark-read --id msg_abc123

Mark all unread emails as read:

nylas email list --unread --json | jq -r '.[].id' | while read id; do nylas email mark-read --id "$id"; done

Common Issues

Email marked read but still shows unread in provider
Some providers take a few seconds to sync. Wait and refresh your webmail client.

Message ID not found
Run nylas email list --unread --json to get valid unread message IDs.

Tips

Pipe to jq: nylas email mark-read --json | jq '.' gives you structured data you can filter and transform.

Combine with other commands: Chain nylas email mark-read with other Nylas CLI commands using shell pipes and variables for complex workflows.

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Full docs: nylas email mark-read reference — all flags, advanced examples, and troubleshooting.

All commands: Nylas CLI Command Reference

Get started: brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas — other install methods