This page collects scripts and strategies for organizing mail using
notmuch and doing automated initial tagging.
-Here's a very general and ad-hoc approach to initial message tagging.
The `[new]` config section allows you to control which tags new messages
-receive. This sets all new messages to get the *new* tag:
+receive. By default, `notmuch config` will use the tags *inbox* and *unread*.
+
+If `maildir.synchronize_flags` is true (which is the default), Maildir flags
+have precedence over the initial tags. Thus an already read mail gets its
+initial *unread* tag correctly removed.
+
+## The *new* tag approach
+
+Here's another very general and ad-hoc approach to initial message tagging,
+which sets all new messages to get the *new* tag:
[new]
tags=new;
# finally, retag all "new" messages "inbox" and "unread"
notmuch tag +inbox +unread -new -- tag:new
+Note that the command above will mark a new but already-read mail as unread.
+
Since the post-processing is only acting on a few messages, it is
generally extremely fast.