# mailgun/flanker

Python email address and Mime parsing library

Repository: https://github.com/mailgun/flanker
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/flanker
Homepage: http://www.mailgun.com
Language: Python
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-04-08T18:49:25+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 70/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 76, release rhythm 46, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4676, "days_push": 147, "days_rel": 147, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1650, forks 213 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:16.828701+00:00)

## What it is
Flanker is a Python library by Mailgun for parsing email addresses and MIME messages. It provides robust address parsing (single addresses and lists, with display names) and MIME message parsing used in Mailgun's production systems.

## Use cases
- parse email addresses with display names in python
- validate and parse email address lists
- parse mime email messages
- extract addr-spec from email headers
- handle unparsable portions of address lists

## When to choose
- you need battle-tested email address parsing in Python
- you must parse MIME messages reliably
- you want a library proven at Mailgun production scale

## When to avoid
- you need guaranteed Python 3 support - it was built for Python 2.7 and Python 3 support is best-effort
- you need active feature development
- you need email sending or validation APIs rather than parsing

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: parser, email, serialization
- domain: email, parsers, developer-tools
- platform: python, cross-platform
- tags: email-address-parsing, mime-parsing, mailgun

## Member repositories
- mailgun/flanker (main) score 70

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:16.828701+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:45:05.524752+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mailgun/flanker (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:16.828701+00:00, sha 1385632fa3f4)
  - homepage: http://www.mailgun.com (fetched 2026-08-29T11:18:23.656864+00:00, sha 689b2a4f4fc5)
  - site_page: https://www.mailgun.com/features/email-validation-api (fetched 2026-08-29T11:18:23.678252+00:00, sha 9e8fd0423747)
  - site_page: https://www.mailgun.com/about (fetched 2026-08-29T11:18:23.666002+00:00, sha f5ab9f7f8e1c)
  - site_page: https://www.mailgun.com/about/jobs (fetched 2026-08-29T11:18:23.667749+00:00, sha e609a6ca9627)
  - site_page: https://documentation.mailgun.com/ (fetched 2026-08-29T11:18:23.669339+00:00, sha fffbeab9e6e9)
  - site_page: https://documentation.mailgun.com/docs/mailgun/sdk/introduction (fetched 2026-08-29T11:18:23.670846+00:00, sha 963ce26541df)
  - site_page: https://www.mailgun.com/features/email-api (fetched 2026-08-29T11:18:23.674607+00:00, sha d7028b429361)
  - site_page: https://www.mailgun.com/features/smtp-server (fetched 2026-08-29T11:18:23.676502+00:00, sha be1d6886d594)
  - site_page: https://www.mailgun.com/pricing (fetched 2026-08-29T11:18:23.672501+00:00, sha 241806e67008)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.