TabMail Native FTS Helper

Rust-based native messaging host for hybrid semantic + keyword search using bundled SQLite + FTS5 + sqlite-vec (single self-contained binary per OS). Generates sentence embeddings locally via candle (pure Rust) with all-MiniLM-L6-v2.

This is the native helper component for the TabMail Thunderbird Add-on.

Architecture

Thunderbird Extension (JavaScript)
    ↕ Native Messaging API (stdin/stdout)
Rust Native Host Binary (`fts_helper`)
    ↕ Direct SQLite access
FTS Database (per-profile)

Installation

For end users: Use the TabMail installer (macOS .pkg, Windows .exe) or the curl/PowerShell install scripts. The native FTS helper is installed automatically and migrates to user-local on first run for auto-updates.

Quick install (no admin required):

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TabMail/tabmail-native-fts/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TabMail/tabmail-native-fts/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

The install scripts live in this repo at scripts/install.sh and scripts/install.ps1 — read them before piping to a shell. Each downloads the prebuilt fts_helper binary for your platform from the CDN and registers it as a Thunderbird native-messaging host.

Building from Source

# Install Rust toolchain
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Build release binary
cd tabmail-native-fts
cargo build --release

# Binary is at: ./target/release/fts_helper

Testing

# Build the Rust binary first
cargo build --release

# Run all tests
python3 tests/run_tests.py

# Run Rust helper tests only
python3 tests/run_tests.py rust

# Run update mechanism tests only
python3 tests/run_tests.py update

# Verbose output
python3 tests/run_tests.py -v

Native Messaging Manifest

The native messaging manifest tells Thunderbird where to find the helper binary. Each platform's installer generates this dynamically with the correct path.

Manifest format:

{
  "name": "tabmail_fts",
  "description": "TabMail FTS Native Helper",
  "path": "/path/to/fts_helper",
  "type": "stdio",
  "allowed_extensions": ["thunderbird@tabmail.ai"]
}

Manifest locations:

Platform	User-local manifest path
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Mozilla/NativeMessagingHosts/tabmail_fts.json
Linux	~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/tabmail_fts.json
Windows	Registry: HKCU\Software\Mozilla\NativeMessagingHosts\tabmail_fts → path to JSON

Installation Paths

User-Local (auto-update enabled):

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/TabMail/native/fts_helper
• Linux: ~/.local/share/tabmail/native/fts_helper
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\TabMail\native\fts_helper.exe

System-Wide (installer location, fallback only):

• macOS: /Applications/TabMail.app/Contents/Resources/fts_helper
• Linux: /opt/tabmail/fts_helper
• Windows: C:\Program Files\TabMail\native\fts_helper.exe

Database Storage

The FTS databases are stored in the Thunderbird profile's extension data directory:

Email database (fts.db)

• macOS: ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<profile>/browser-extension-data/thunderbird@tabmail.ai/tabmail_fts/fts.db
• Linux: ~/.thunderbird/<profile>/browser-extension-data/thunderbird@tabmail.ai/tabmail_fts/fts.db
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\<profile>\browser-extension-data\thunderbird@tabmail.ai\tabmail_fts\fts.db

Memory database (memory.db)

A separate database stores chat history for the agent's memory features:

• macOS: ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<profile>/browser-extension-data/thunderbird@tabmail.ai/tabmail_fts/memory.db
• Linux: ~/.thunderbird/<profile>/browser-extension-data/thunderbird@tabmail.ai/tabmail_fts/memory.db
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\<profile>\browser-extension-data\thunderbird@tabmail.ai\tabmail_fts\memory.db

The memory database enables:

• Memory search — Find past conversations by keyword using FTS5 with stemming and synonyms
• Memory read — Retrieve full chat sessions by timestamp for context continuity

Each Thunderbird profile gets its own isolated FTS and memory databases.

Note: The helper automatically migrates databases from the old location (<profile>/tabmail_fts/) to the new location on first run.

Logs

Logs are written to: ~/.tabmail/logs/fts_helper.log

• Logs automatically rotate at 10MB
• Keeps 5 backup files
• Maximum disk usage: ~50MB

# View latest log
tail -f ~/.tabmail/logs/fts_helper.log

Self-Update Mechanism

The native helper can automatically update itself:

1. Version Negotiation — Extension sends hello, helper responds with version and capabilities
2. Update Check — Extension fetches update-manifest.json from CDN
3. Self-Update — Helper downloads new version, verifies Ed25519 signature + SHA256 hash, atomically swaps files
4. Auto-Migration — On first run from system location, helper copies itself to user-local for future auto-updates

Security:

• All downloads over HTTPS from cdn.tabmail.ai
• Ed25519 signature verification on update manifests
• SHA256 hash verification on downloaded binaries
• Backup created before update (auto-restored on failure)

Search Quality Features

Porter Stemmer

FTS5 uses Porter stemming for English:

• "running" matches "run", "runs", "runner"
• "emails" matches "email", "emailing"

Email-Specific Synonym Expansion

~100 curated synonym groups for common email terms:

Search Term	Also Matches
meeting	call, sync, standup, huddle, appointment
urgent	asap, immediately, priority, critical
invoice	bill, payment, receipt, statement
attachment	attached, file, document, enclosed

BM25 Column Weights

Search results are ranked with column-specific weights:

Column	Weight	Meaning
subject	5.0	Subject matches rank highest
from_	3.0	Sender matches are important
to_	2.0	Recipient matches are useful
body	1.0	Body matches are common

Performance Tuning

The helper uses conservative, safe defaults for SQLite:

PRAGMA journal_mode = WAL          -- Write-Ahead Logging
PRAGMA synchronous = NORMAL        -- Balance safety vs speed
PRAGMA cache_size = -64000         -- 64MB cache
PRAGMA mmap_size = 268435456       -- 256MB memory-mapped I/O
PRAGMA busy_timeout = 2000         -- 2s wait for locks

These defaults are fast for most users. For very large mailboxes (>100k messages), see the Rust source for tuning options.

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License

This project is open source under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL-2.0).

• Free to use, modify, and distribute — including commercially.
• MPL is a weak-copyleft license at file granularity: modifications to MPL-licensed files must stay open, but you may combine them with proprietary code in larger works.

Copyright © Lisem AI Ltd.

See:

• LICENSE
• THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md — Third-party model and library licenses

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Contributing

We welcome contributions! This project uses the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) — sign off every commit with git commit -s.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

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Trademarks

"TabMail" is a trademark of Lisem AI Ltd. This license does not grant permission to use the TabMail name or branding.

See TRADEMARKS.md.