rwzreader

Parse Outlook Rules Wizard (.rwz) files and convert them to JSON.

Quick Start

# No install needed — just run it
npx rwzreader input.rwz output.json

Install

npm install -g rwzreader
rwzreader input.rwz output.json

CLI Usage

rwzreader <input.rwz> [output.json]

• input.rwz — path to the Outlook .rwz rules file (required)
• output.json — path for JSON output (default: outlook-rules.json)

Library API

import { parseRwzFile } from 'rwzreader';
import * as fs from 'fs';

const buffer = fs.readFileSync('rules.rwz');
const rulesFile = parseRwzFile(buffer);

console.log(`Version: ${rulesFile.header?.version}`);
console.log(`Rules: ${rulesFile.rules.length}`);

for (const rule of rulesFile.rules) {
  console.log(`  ${rule.header?.name} (${rule.elements.length} elements)`);
}

Exports

Export	Description
parseRwzFile(buf)	Parse a Buffer into a RulesFile
StreamBuffer	Low-level binary reader
RulesFile	Parsed file (header + rules + footer)
RulesHeader	File header with version detection
Rule	Single rule (header + elements)
RuleElement	Condition, action, or exception element

Supported Versions

Outlook 98, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, and 2019.

Supported Rule Elements

96 element types across three categories:

• Conditions — 30 types (name in To/CC, from sender, subject/body words, importance, sensitivity, categories, attachments, size range, date span, form type, RSS, etc.)
• Actions — 28 types (move/copy to folder, delete, forward, reply, flag, play sound, mark importance/sensitivity, Cc, redirect, print, run script, desktop alert, retention policy, etc.)
• Exceptions — 24 types (mirrors of conditions for exception handling)

Based on the OutlookRulesReader specification by @hughbe.

Project Structure

src/
  index.ts              # CLI entrypoint + library re-exports
  stream-buffer.ts      # Binary buffer reader (LE integers, strings)
  errors.ts             # OutlookRulesReadError + softAssert
  oxcdata.ts            # MS-OXCDATA property types + PropertyValueArray
  rule-element-data.ts  # 20+ data type classes for rule element payloads
  rule-element.ts       # Element ID → description + data class dispatch
  rwz-parser.ts         # RulesHeader, RulesFooter, RuleHeader, Rule, RulesFile

Development

npm install
npm run build    # TypeScript → bin/
npm test         # vitest (42 tests)

License

MIT