Glide

AI-Powered Email Assistant for Microsoft Outlook

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Glide is an open-source Outlook add-in that brings the power of Google Gemini AI directly into your inbox. Draft emails, generate replies, summarize threads, improve writing, extract action items, and translate — all without leaving Outlook.

✨ Features

Feature	Description
📝 Draft Email	Generate professional emails from a brief description and desired tone
↩️ Reply	Craft context-aware replies based on the original email thread
📋 Summarize	Condense long email threads into bullet points, paragraphs, or TL;DR
✍️ Improve Writing	Polish grammar, tone, clarity, and professionalism of any text
✅ Extract Actions	Pull out action items, deadlines, and tasks from emails
🌐 Translate	Translate email content into 20+ languages

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18 or higher
• A Google Gemini API key (free tier available)
• Microsoft Outlook (desktop, web, or Microsoft 365)

Installation

Option A — Install from GitHub Pages (recommended)

1. Download the production manifest: manifest.xml (right-click → Save As)
2. Visit aka.ms/olksideload — this opens Outlook on the web and the Add-Ins dialog
3. In the "Custom Addins" section at the bottom, click Add a custom add-in → Add from File
4. Select the downloaded manifest.xml and click Install
5. Open any email → click the Glide button in the ribbon
6. Enter your Gemini API key in Settings (gear icon)

Tip: In classic Outlook on Windows, you can also access this via File → Info → Manage Add-ins.

Option B — Install the Dev/Nightly build

For early access to the latest features:

1. Download the dev manifest: manifest.xml (right-click → Save As)
2. Follow the same steps as Option A using aka.ms/olksideload
3. The dev build appears as "Glide (Dev)" in Outlook so it won't conflict with the production version

Option C — Organization-wide deployment (M365 Admin)

1. Go to admin.microsoft.com → Settings → Integrated Apps
2. Click Upload custom apps → Provide link to manifest file
3. Enter: https://rizonesoft.github.io/Glide/manifest.xml
4. Assign to users or groups → Deploy

Note: Updates are automatic — when we deploy new code to GitHub Pages, the add-in updates for all users on the next load. No reinstallation needed.

🛠️ Development

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/rizonesoft/Glide.git
cd Glide

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Create a .env file with your Gemini API key
echo "GEMINI_API_KEY=your-key-here" > .env

# Start the development server
npm run dev-server

Sideload for Development

1. Start the dev server (npm run dev-server) — runs on https://localhost:3000
2. Open Outlook on the web
3. Get Add-ins → My add-ins → Add a custom add-in → Add from file
4. Upload manifest.xml from the project root
5. The add-in will hot-reload as you make changes

Build

# Production build (outputs to dist/)
npm run build

# Run linting
npm run lint

Project Structure

Glide/
├── src/
│   ├── features/          # Feature modules (draft, reply, summarize, etc.)
│   ├── services/          # Gemini API client, Outlook service
│   ├── prompts/           # Prompt templates and builder
│   ├── taskpane/          # Main UI (HTML, TypeScript, CSS)
│   └── commands/          # Outlook ribbon command handlers
├── assets/
│   └── icons/             # Lucide SVG icons
├── manifest.xml           # Local development manifest (localhost)
├── manifest.dev.xml       # Dev/Nightly manifest (GitHub Pages /dev/)
├── manifest.prod.xml      # Production manifest (GitHub Pages root)
└── .github/workflows/     # CI/CD deployment workflows

🔄 Deployment

Glide uses a dual-environment deployment strategy on GitHub Pages:

Environment	URL	Trigger	Manifest
Dev	rizonesoft.github.io/Glide/dev/	Auto on every push to main	Dev manifest
Production	rizonesoft.github.io/Glide/	Manual trigger in GitHub Actions	Production manifest

Promoting Dev to Production

1. Test the dev build by sideloading the dev manifest
2. When satisfied, go to GitHub Actions → Deploy Production → Run workflow
3. Production users will receive the update automatically on their next add-in load

⚙️ Settings

Access settings via the gear icon in the add-in:

• API Key — Your Google Gemini API key (stored locally in your browser)
• Model — Choose between Gemini 3 Flash/Pro (latest) or Gemini 2.5 Flash/Pro (stable)
• Default Tone — Set the default writing tone (Professional, Formal, Friendly, Casual)
• Summary Style — Default format for summaries (Bullets, Paragraph, TL;DR)
• Language — Default translation target language

🔒 Privacy

• Your API key is stored locally in your browser's localStorage — it never leaves your device
• Email content is sent directly to the Google Gemini API for processing
• No data is stored on our servers — Glide is entirely client-side
• The add-in only requests ReadWriteItem permissions (the minimum needed)

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'feat: add my feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

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Made with ❤️ by Rizonesoft