Sender identities

A sender identity is an address the CLI may use in the From field for the selected Mail account.

Every account starts with its primary email address. Add aliases or other addresses you already control when you want to compose from them.

List identities

icloud mail identities list

Add an alias

icloud mail identities add \
  --address alias@icloud.com \
  --kind icloud_alias

You can also add a display name or label; check icloud mail identities add --help for the available fields.

Adding an identity tells the CLI about an address. It does not create the alias in your Apple Account.

Choose the default sender

icloud mail identities default alias@icloud.com

You can also use the stable mid_… ID:

icloud mail identities default mid_…

Use a sender for one message

icloud mail send \
  --from alias@icloud.com \
  --to client@example.com \
  --subject Hello \
  --body 'Hi there' \
  --dry-run

The same --from option is available on replies, forwards, and drafts.

Enable or disable an identity

icloud mail identities disable alias@icloud.com
icloud mail identities enable alias@icloud.com

Disabled identities cannot be selected for new outbound mail.

Update metadata

icloud mail identities update alias@icloud.com \
  --display-name 'Ashray'

For all editable fields:

icloud mail identities update --help

Remove an identity

icloud mail identities remove alias@icloud.com

The account’s protected primary identity cannot be removed as though it were an optional alias.

Existing mail after adding a new self address

If you add an address that already appears in older synchronized mail, the CLI can update historical direction classification in bounded passes:

icloud mail identities reclassify

This is useful when older messages sent from the newly configured alias should be recognized as your outbound mail.

Signatures and S/MIME

Signatures can be tied to a particular sender identity. See Signatures.

S/MIME signing/decryption identities are configured separately on top of Mail identities. See S/MIME.