Mailrise: Turn Plain Emails Into Push Notifications via Apprise

TL;DR

• Mailrise is a small SMTP server that turns the plain emails it receives into push notifications, relaying them through Apprise to services like Discord, Telegram, Pushover, and Matrix.
• It is an independent open-source project (MIT licensed) by Ryan Young at github.com/YoRyan/mailrise, NOT built by Navanem. This page is a community spotlight.
• How it works: you define named Apprise targets in a YAML config, then a device addresses its email to that name (for example discord@mailrise.xyz) and Mailrise forwards it as a notification.
• How to run it: pull the official yoryan/mailrise Docker image and bind mount a config file, or install it from PyPI (Python 3.8+) and run it as a systemd service.

What is Mailrise?

Mailrise is an SMTP server that converts the emails it receives into Apprise notifications. The README describes the intended use as an email relay for a home lab or network. By accepting ordinary email, it lets Linux servers, Internet of Things devices, surveillance systems, and outdated software reach the 60+ notification services Apprise supports, from Matrix to Nextcloud to your phone.

The appeal is that a lot of hardware only speaks SMTP. NAS boxes, printers, UPS units, and legacy apps can send email but cannot post to Discord or Telegram. Mailrise sits in front of those services, so you never copy a real mailbox password onto each box. As the author notes, that is more secure than a conventional mail setup.

A note on this page: Mailrise is an independent open-source project created and maintained by Ryan Young, NOT by Navanem. We are spotlighting it because it is a genuinely useful self-hosting tool for sysadmins and home-lab owners who need a clean bridge from SMTP to modern notification services. All credit for the software goes to its author. If it helps you, please star and support the project on GitHub.

How does Mailrise route emails to Apprise?

A Mailrise daemon is configured with a list of Apprise configurations. Senders encode the name of the desired configuration into the recipient address, and Mailrise builds the notification from it. A minimal setup might define a single pushover config, addressed simply by emailing pushover@mailrise.xyz.

The <name> can be a username (the mailrise.xyz domain is added automatically) or a full address such as notify@mydomain.com. Mailrise also accepts fnmatch wildcards like awesome*@mycooldomain.com or a catch-all *@*, evaluated top to bottom with the first match winning. Append .<type> to the username, for example discord.failure@mailrise.xyz, to set the Apprise notification type (info, success, warning, or failure). Attachments pass through where the target service supports them.

Which notification services can it reach?

Mailrise does not implement the integrations itself; it hands off to Apprise, which supports more than 60 services. The sample config shows targets including Pushover (pover://), Telegram (tgram://), Discord (discord://), and Home Assistant (hassio://). You can list several URLs under one config so a single email fans out to multiple destinations, and you can customize the title and body with Python template strings using variables such as subject, from, body, and type.

How do you run Mailrise?

There is an official Docker image at yoryan/mailrise on Docker Hub. You bind mount your config to /etc/mailrise.conf; the README stresses this mount must be a file, not a directory. It also documents NAS gotchas: Unraid can only pass through directories, and TrueNAS SCALE runs containers as root, which breaks Mailrise because it is designed to run non-root as user and group 999.

You can also install it from PyPI (minimum Python 3.8) and run it as a systemd service that calls mailrise /etc/mailrise.conf.

How does it handle TLS and SMTP authentication?

TLS is set under tls.mode, which accepts off, onconnect, starttls, or starttlsrequire, with PEM certfile and keyfile paths. Because Let's Encrypt renewals are awkward to wire in directly, the author suggests running Mailrise in plaintext and terminating TLS with an ACME client like Traefik in front. SMTP auth uses smtp.auth.basic, a static username-to-password map; the README warns those credentials are plaintext unless TLS is on. Advanced users can replace the routing and auth logic with their own Python via import_code.

Why feature Mailrise?

A reliable bridge from SMTP to modern push notifications solves a recurring problem for anyone running infrastructure at home or in a small shop. Plenty of appliances only know how to email, and standing up a full mail server just to get an alert into Discord is overkill and a security risk. Mailrise does one job cleanly, runs as a hardened non-root container, and inherits the large integration catalog Apprise already maintains.

FAQ

Is Mailrise made by Navanem?

No. Mailrise is an independent open-source project created and maintained by Ryan Young. It is MIT licensed and lives at github.com/YoRyan/mailrise. Navanem did not build it; this page is an editorial spotlight, and all credit goes to its author.

What is the difference between Mailrise and Apprise?

Apprise is the library that delivers to 60+ services. Mailrise is the SMTP front end that accepts ordinary email and translates it into Apprise notifications, so devices that only send email can use Apprise without its API.

Does Mailrise need a real email account?

No. Mailrise is itself the SMTP server your devices send to. That is the point: you avoid putting a mailbox password on each machine, and messages convert locally and push out through Apprise.

Can one email trigger more than one notification?

Yes. A single config can list multiple URLs, so one email fans out to every listed service, such as Telegram and Discord together.

Where do I get it?

Mailrise is on GitHub and PyPI, with an official Docker image at yoryan/mailrise on Docker Hub. Project docs are at mailrise.xyz.