Sortana

Sortana is an experimental Thunderbird add-on that integrates an AI-powered filter rule. It allows you to classify email messages by sending their contents to a configurable HTTP endpoint. The endpoint should respond with JSON indicating whether the message meets a specified criterion.

Features

• AI classification rule – adds the "AI classification" term with matches and doesn't match operators.
• Configurable endpoint – set the classification service URL on the options page.
• Prompt templates – choose between several model formats or provide your own custom template.
• Custom system prompts – tailor the instructions sent to the model for more precise results.
• Filter editor integration – patches Thunderbird's filter editor to accept text criteria for AI classification.
• Persistent result caching – classification results are saved to disk so messages aren't re-evaluated across restarts.
• Advanced parameters – tune generation settings like temperature, top‑p and more from the options page.
• Debug logging – optional colorized logs help troubleshoot interactions with the AI service.
• Packaging script – build-xpi.ps1 builds an XPI ready for installation.

Architecture Overview

The extension relies on both WebExtension scripts and Thunderbird's experiment APIs:

• background.js loads the saved endpoint, registers the UI patching script, and listens for test messages.
• experiment/api.js exposes the aiFilter namespace. It loads modules/ExpressionSearchFilter.jsm which implements the custom filter term and performs the HTTP request.
• experiment/DomContentScript/ registers content scripts for Thunderbird windows; content/filterEditor.js modifies the filter editor UI.
• options/ contains the HTML and JavaScript for the options page.
• _locales/ holds localized strings used throughout the UI.

Key Files

Path	Purpose
manifest.json	Extension manifest and entry points.
background.js	Startup tasks and message handling.
modules/ExpressionSearchFilter.jsm	Custom filter term and AI request logic.
experiment/api.js	Bridges WebExtension code with privileged APIs.
content/filterEditor.js	Patches the filter editor interface.
options/options.html and options.js	Endpoint configuration UI.
logger.js and modules/logger.jsm	Colorized logging with optional debug mode.

Building

1. Ensure PowerShell is available (for Windows) or adapt the script for other environments.
2. Run powershell ./build-xpi.ps1 from the repository root. The script reads the version from manifest.json and creates an XPI in the release folder.
3. Install the generated XPI in Thunderbird via the Add-ons Manager. During development you can also load the directory as a temporary add-on.

Usage

1. Open the add-on's options and set the URL of your classification service.
2. Create or edit a filter in Thunderbird and choose the AI classification term. Enter the desired criterion (for example, a short description of the messages you want to match).
3. When the filter runs, the add-on sends the message text to the service and checks the JSON response for a match.

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3. See LICENSE for the full text.

Acknowledgments

Sortana builds upon knowledge gained from open-source projects. In particular, FiltaQuilla and Expression-Search-NG clarified how Thunderbird's WebExtension and experiment APIs can be extended. Their code provided invaluable guidance during development.