A poster on macOSXHints has written an AppleScript that allows you to control your Mac remotely, performing a variety of tasks that you can trigger using an email in Mail.app.

Unable to connect to his Mac at home via VNC or SSH due to a firewall, he developed a script. When added to a rule in Mail.app, it is triggered by keywords in an email that send to your Mac at home.

The script can get a file to post back to you, launch an application, perform a shell script or save an attachment to a certain location.

If you are not worried about the security implications of this, you can also check out two other apps, Commander and RCMail, which offer the same “remote control” functions via Mail.app and AppleScript.applescript, remote control, remote access, rules, mail.app, apple mail, helpful apps, plugins

commander is a collection of AppleScripts that allows you to request information from your Mac remotely by sending it emails.

It is similar to RCMail, another collection of AppleScripts that unlocks remote access to your Mac.

I find the idea a bit spooky. But the developer thinks it’s great and describes how he uses it:

I find it useful, e.g., when I’m on hollidays and suddenly I need some info from my desk. I look for a computer, send an email to commander, and get back that document I need or an address in my address book, or info about something I keep in a database.

I also use it as an Information Center, where users in a network or company can request info or execute actions simply sending emails to a mail address (eg, create PDF given a document or add an entry to a TODO list).

It comes with a series of scripts or “modules” that can be activated by an email, returning to you a document, information from Address Book, execute a Force Quit or a variety of other things.

It is designed to allow people to extends its ability easily by writing their own additional scripts.

You can download it from the developer’s web site.