How to use Protonmail Bridge in GitHub actions or Docker!

Using Protonmail Bridge in automation pipelines can be useful for sending emails etc using their SMPT service.

It took a bit to figure out, but in the end it is fairly simple.

You may be interested in more configuration options from Protonbridge CLI docs.

∞ Install some package

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y pass gnupg wget libqt5gui5 libqt5core5a libqt5widgets5 libqt5qml5 libqt5network5 libqt5svg5 libpulse-mainloop-glib0 fonts-dejavu libsecret-1-0

∞ Setup a password manager

This is the trickiest step.

gpg --batch --passphrase '' --quick-gen-key 'ProtonMail Bridge' default default never
pass init "ProtonMail Bridge"

∞ Install Protonmail Bridge

mkdir protonmail-bridge && cd protonmail-bridge
wget https://proton.me/download/bridge/protonmail-bridge_2.3.0-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

∞ Login to the Bridge

Here, substitute $LOGIN_EMAIL and $LOGIN_PASSWORD for your actual credentials.

protonmail-bridge --cli << EOT
login
$LOGIN_EMAIL
$LOGIN_PASSWORD
EOT

∞ Change the secutiry method for SMPT

This is optional. Change the SMTP security from TTL to SSL if needed for your sender.

protonmail-bridge --cli << EOT
change smtp-security ssl
yes
EOT
sleep 5 # just in case we need to wait for bridge to restart.

∞ Get the SMTP connection info from the bridge

Next we can get the login info from the bridge.

CONNECTION=$(protonmail-bridge --cli << EOT
info 0
EOT
)
EMAIL_RELAY_PASSWORD=$(echo $CONNECTION | grep -Po 'Password: \K[^ ]+' | head -1)

Hostname will be localhost.
Port will be 1143 but can be changed with another cli command.
Username will be your login email address.

∞ Start Protonmail Bridge as a headless process

nohup protonmail-bridge --noninteractive > bridge_log.txt 2>&1 & disown
sleep 1

Thats about it!

You can now send emails using the config we have found:

hostname="localhost"
port=1143
use_ssl=True
username=<your proton email address>
password=$EMAIL_RELAY_PASSWORD

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