This is a submission for the Postmark Challenge: Inbox Innovators.

🛠️ What I Built

Ritsu-Pi EmailOps is a lightweight homelab automation system that lets you control Docker containers and monitor system health entirely via email.

You can send natural language commands like:

Subject: Check system metrics
Body: Check how much disk space is left on /mnt/data

And Ritsu-Pi will execute the request, send a structured reply, and leave a secure audit trail — all powered by Postmark’s Inbound Webhook API and an agentic AI using Semantic Kernel.

It’s designed for privacy-minded or remote homelab users who want a secure, script-free ops layer that works over a protocol they already trust: email.

🧪 Demo

Real time demo sending and receiving email. The receive part is a bit slower because I used ProtonMail Bridge and Thunderbird.

Below is some examples of emails sent via Postmark.

You can send emails asking about:

• Listing all available docker containers
• Start/stop/restart docker containers
• Get current system resource status
• Get historical CPU/memory usage

The web API running in a Docker container viewed from Portainer:

💻 Code Repository

🧩 How I Built It

Ritsu-Pi EmailOps was built as an extension of my homelab automation system, Ritsu-Pi, with the goal of enabling reliable, low-friction system control using just email.

The core idea: let users manage Docker containers and monitor system health through natural language requests sent via email, with secure execution and auditable replies — no custom apps or SSH needed.

🏗️ Architecture Overview

The app is built using ASP.NET Core Web API along with the integration of Postmark API and Gemini API for agentic AI support with Semantic Kernel.

🧠 Challenges Solved

• No mobile app or SSH required: I can trigger server actions securely via email from anywhere.
• Audit trail built-in: Every command and response is recorded in the inbox and logs.
• Natural language flexibility: Thanks to the agentic layer, I don’t need to remember CLI syntax.

📨 Postmark Integration Challenges

One small challenge was that Postmark requires the From address to match a verified domain. Since I used kodesiana.com, I couldn’t send emails from other domains during testing. I had to adjust the flow to always use a verified sender identity.

🎯 Conclusion

Ritsu-Pi EmailOps reimagines system administration through the lens of simplicity, security, and accessibility — all powered by email.

By combining the universality of email, the reliability of Postmark, and the flexibility of agentic AI, I’ve built a minimal yet powerful platform for homelab control that doesn’t depend on dashboards, SSH, or vendor lock-in.

Whether you're restarting a container on the go, checking disk usage from a smartwatch, or just want your server to answer with a human-readable reply — this project shows that EmailOps can be both practical and surprisingly elegant.

Looking ahead, the next evolution of this project is to turn it into a full-fledged platform engineering tool — enabling teams to manage infrastructure, request deployments, approve changes, and resolve incidents using natural language over email. A lightweight, inbox-native control plane for DevOps and SRE workflows.

Thanks to Postmark and DEV for the opportunity — and to everyone who still believes email is the ultimate universal interface.