briefli 🇨🇭

Swiss letter management CLI using Typst. Create properly formatted letters for Swiss C5 envelopes (A4 folded once) with left or right address windows.

Features

• 📬 Swiss standard letter format (SN 010130)
• 📍 Address positioning for left or right-side envelope windows
• 👤 Multiple sender profiles (private/work)
• 🔤 Typst-based templates for beautiful typography
• 📦 Simple CLI for letter management

Installation

From crates.io

cargo install briefli

From source

git clone https://github.com/samvdst/briefli
cd briefli
cargo install --path .

Prerequisites

• Typst must be installed and in your PATH

Quick Start

1. Initialize your letters directory:

mkdir my-letters && cd my-letters
briefli init

2. Configure your sender info in defaults.toml:

location = "Zürich"
lang = "de"
address-position = "left"  # or "right"

[sender.private]
name = "Your Name"
address = "Street 123, 8000 Zürich"

[sender.work]
name = "Your Name"
address = "Company AG, Street 456, 8001 Zürich"

3. Create a new letter:

briefli new "Kündigung Mietvertrag"
# Creates: 2024-01-15 Kündigung Mietvertrag.typ

4. Edit the .typ file, then compile:

briefli build

Usage

briefli new <subject>           # Create letter with private address (default)
briefli new -w <subject>        # Create letter with work address
briefli new --work <subject>    # Same as above

briefli build                   # Compile all .typ files to PDF
briefli list                    # List all letters and their status
briefli init                    # Initialize a new letters directory
briefli help                    # Show help

Swiss Letter Format

For C5 envelopes (A4 folded once), the template uses these measurements:

Use address-position = "left" (default) or "right" depending on your envelope's window position.

File Structure

my-letters/
├── defaults.toml              # Your sender configuration
├── ch-letter-template.typ     # Swiss letter template
├── 2024-01-15 Letter.typ      # Letter source
└── 2024-01-15 Letter.pdf      # Compiled PDF

Template Customization

The ch-letter-template.typ can be customized. Available parameters:

#show: ch-letter.with(
  sender: (
    name: "Your Name",
    address: "Street, ZIP City",
    extra: "phone/email",          // optional
  ),
  recipient: "Name, Company, Street, ZIP City",
  location: "Zürich",
  date: "15.01.2024",
  subject: "Letter Subject",
  footer: [Optional footer],       // optional
  font: "Arial",                   // optional, default: Arial
  address-position: "left",        // optional, "left" or "right"
)

License

Licensed under either of:

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

Contributing

I'm building this for my personal use case, but if you have a cool feature idea, I'm open to hear all about it. PRs always welcome!