---
id: quotequail
version: "0.5.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# quotequail — A library that identifies quoted text in plain text and HTML email messages.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 118.1K/mo

## What it is and what it does

quotequail is a Python library for parsing email message structure, specifically identifying quoted text in both plain text and HTML formats. It provides four main functions: quote() and quote_html() to separate original text from quoted sections (returning tuples indicating whether each section should be expanded by default), and unwrap() and unwrap_html() to extract forwarded messages or replies by parsing headers and separating top/bottom text from the wrapped content.

The library is designed for email processing workflows where you need to distinguish between a user's original message and quoted or forwarded content. It has one runtime dependency (typing_extensions) and optionally requires libxml for HTML parsing. The package is actively maintained, supports Python 3.10 through 3.12, and carries no known security vulnerabilities.

Use it for:

- Email client or web mail interface that needs to hide quoted text by default and show only new replies.
- Email parsing pipeline that extracts forwarded message headers and original content for storage or analysis.
- Conversation threading system that separates user-written content from quoted context in threaded replies.
- Email archival or search system that indexes only original content, excluding quoted sections.
- Automated email response system that needs to identify and extract the actual user message from a reply.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Identifies and separates quoted text from original content in plain text and HTML email messages, and unwraps forwarded messages or replies to extract headers and body text.

Yes, with conditions. The library is actively maintained, has no security vulnerabilities, and solves a specific email parsing problem well. However, high install friction (source-only distribution) may cause deployment friction in some environments. Install it if you need robust email quote detection and can tolerate building from source; skip it if your deployment pipeline requires pre-built wheels.

## Install

pip install quotequail
uv add quotequail
poetry add quotequail

## Installing quotequail

Before you install: High install friction due to source distribution only (no wheels). Actively maintained with a recent release (78 days ago) and steady repository activity. Single lightweight runtime dependency (typing_extensions) keeps the footprint minimal.

License in practice: MIT license is permissive and places no restrictions on use, modification, or distribution in commercial or private projects.

Quickstart:

pip install quotequail

import quotequail

result = quotequail.quote("Hello\n\n> Quoted text")
print(result)  # [(True, 'Hello'), (False, '\n> Quoted text')]

HTML methods require libxml to be installed on the system; plain text methods work without it.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the high install friction (source-only distribution) is due to platform-specific compilation needs or simply lack of wheel publishing.
- Performance characteristics when processing large email messages or bulk operations.
- Accuracy rates for different email client quote formats and edge cases.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: high
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 118.1K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

email quote detection, parse quoted text email, unwrap forwarded messages, extract email headers, email message parsing, identify quoted sections, email reply unwrapping, email-parsing, text-processing

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