README

AI assistant for Roundcube webmail: write and rewrite messages, summarize conversations, suggest quick replies and proofread your mail before sending it.

Works with any OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions API: OpenAI, OpenRouter, Mistral, Ollama, vLLM, LocalAI...

Features

Writing assistant in the compose screen: a free prompt or one of the predefined prompts (more formal, shorter, fix spelling, translate...), applied to the selected text or to the whole message. The answer can be edited, then inserted at the cursor or used to replace the text.
Conversation summary from the message list (hover menu or message menu) and from the message being read. The whole thread is collected, including the replies stored in the Sent folder, which Roundcube threads never show together. Summaries are cached until a new message arrives in the thread.
Quick replies: the AI suggests up to 4 replies suited to the last message ("accept", "ask for a delay", "decline politely"...). One click opens the reply and writes it, in the language of the conversation.
Review before sending (optional): spelling, tone, missing subject, an attachment announced but missing, and - when replying - any figure or commitment that contradicts the exchange. Only a warning, never a block.
Per user budget with a monthly counter, a progress bar in the settings (no amount shown to users) and a command line report for administrators.
12 languages for the AI answers, set globally and overridable per user.

Requirements

Roundcube 1.6 or later, Elastic skin (only tested with 1.7.4)
PHP 8.0 or later
league/commonmark (shipped with Roundcube 1.7) to render the answers
An API key for the AI provider of your choice

Installation

composer require cymdeveloppement/roundcube-ai

Then copy and edit the configuration file:

cp plugins/roundcube_ai/config.inc.php.dist plugins/roundcube_ai/config.inc.php

Add the plugin to your Roundcube configuration:

$config['plugins'] = ['roundcube_ai'];

Quick start with OpenRouter

$config['roundcube_ai_api_url'] = 'https://openrouter.ai/api/v1';
$config['roundcube_ai_api_key'] = 'sk-or-...';
$config['roundcube_ai_model'] = 'google/gemini-2.5-flash';

// Reasoning models are slower and their thinking tokens count in max_tokens
$config['roundcube_ai_extra_params'] = ['reasoning' => ['enabled' => false]];

A summary of a 5 message conversation costs about $0.0015 with this model, a rewrite about $0.0002.

Trying it without an API key

$config['roundcube_ai_mock_response'] = 'OK';

The plugin then answers with this text and the current date, without calling any provider. Useful to check the interface, and to develop.

Configuration

The plugin uses an OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions API (OpenAI, Mistral, Ollama, vLLM...). See docs/openai-api.md for the request and response format.

Provider

Option	Type	Default	Description
`roundcube_ai_api_url`	string	`'https://api.openai.com/v1'`	Base URL of the API, without `/chat/completions`
`roundcube_ai_api_key`	string	`''`	API key (Bearer token). Blank if not required
`roundcube_ai_model`	string	`'gpt-4o-mini'`	Model name

Generation

Option	Type	Default	Description
`roundcube_ai_temperature`	float	`0.3`	Sampling temperature (0 to 2)
`roundcube_ai_max_tokens`	int	`1024`	Maximum tokens per answer
`roundcube_ai_general_prompt`	string	`''`	General prompt sent first in every request (company, products, tone...)
`roundcube_ai_system_prompt`	string	see dist file	System prompt sent before every request
`roundcube_ai_language`	string	`'en'`	Global AI language, used unless the user chooses another one in Settings > AI assistant (en, fr, de, es, it, pt, nl, pl, ru, zh, ja, ar)
`roundcube_ai_summary_prompt`	string	see dist file	Prompt to summarize a conversation from the message list. The conversation and "Answer in: " are always appended
`roundcube_ai_extra_params`	array	`array()`	Extra request fields for provider specific options (e.g. OpenRouter `reasoning`)
`roundcube_ai_suggestions`	int	`4`	Number of quick replies suggested in the summary dialog (0: disabled)
`roundcube_ai_suggestions_prompt`	string	see dist file	Prompt asking for the quick replies, in JSON, with the summary
`roundcube_ai_reply_prompt`	string	see dist file	Prompt of the "Reply" button of the summary dialog: opens a reply and generates its text from the conversation
`roundcube_ai_prompts`	array	see dist file	Predefined prompts listed in the dialog: `array('title' => ..., 'prompt' => ...)`

Review before send

Option	Type	Default	Description
`roundcube_ai_review_on_send`	bool	`false`	Proofread the message when the user clicks Send (warning only, never blocks)
`roundcube_ai_review_conversation`	bool	`true`	When replying, send the last 3 messages of the conversation with the review (spots contradictions, about 3x the cost)
`roundcube_ai_review_prompt`	string	see dist file	Prompt of the review. `{language}` and `{attachments}` are replaced. The answer must be JSON

Budget

Option	Type	Default	Description
`roundcube_ai_budget`	float	`0`	Monthly budget per user, in the currency of the provider (0: unlimited)
`roundcube_ai_budgets`	array	`array()`	Budgets of specific users, by Roundcube login or identity email
`roundcube_ai_price_input`	float	`0`	Price per million input tokens, when the provider does not return the cost
`roundcube_ai_price_output`	float	`0`	Price per million output tokens, when the provider does not return the cost

Usage is counted per calendar month in the Roundcube preferences of each user. Users see a progress bar in Settings > AI assistant, without any amount. Administrators get the figures with bin/usage.php.

HTTP

Option	Type	Default	Description
`roundcube_ai_extra_headers`	array	`array()`	Extra HTTP headers (e.g. OpenRouter `HTTP-Referer`, `X-Title`)
`roundcube_ai_timeout`	int	`60`	Request timeout in seconds
`roundcube_ai_verify_ssl`	bool	`true`	Verify the TLS certificate of the API
`roundcube_ai_debug`	bool	`false`	Log full requests and responses to the `roundcube_ai` log (API key masked). Contains email contents
`roundcube_ai_mock_response`	string	`''`	Development mode: returned as the AI answer without calling the provider. Blank to disable

Usage report

$ plugins/roundcube_ai/bin/usage.php
USER                                     PERIOD    REQUESTS     TOKENS       COST
alice@example.com                        2026-09         42      38104     0.0374
TOTAL (1 users)                                          42      38104     0.0374

--period=YYYY-MM filters on a month, --csv writes CSV.

Privacy

The text of the emails handled by the plugin (the message being written, or the whole conversation for a summary or a reply) is sent to the configured provider. Check that your provider and its data region match your obligations, and tell your users. roundcube_ai_debug also writes the email contents to the Roundcube log: use it only to diagnose a problem.

Notes

Only the Elastic skin is supported (the only skin shipped with Roundcube 1.7).
On touch devices the AI action is in the message menu, the hover menu of the list being unavailable there.
The AI answers are converted from Markdown to HTML server side, with the HTML they may contain escaped.

Credits

Maintained by Yann Challet (CymDeveloppement).

License

MIT - see LICENSE.

cymdeveloppement / roundcube-ai

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