lib/PublicInbox/LeiRediff.pm | 2 +-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiRm.pm     | 2 +-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiTag.pm    | 4 ++--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiRediff.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiRediff.pm
index f0521bcc6b623ae54963809754a9e0ae9f67aeca..c312d90fbfe90eff46ff7da552e38b13fc1b2383 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiRediff.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiRediff.pm
@@ -256,7 +256,7 @@ 		$lei->fail('--drq and --dequote-only are mutually exclusive');
 	($lei->{opt}->{drq} && !$lei->{opt}->{verbose}) and
 		$lei->{opt}->{quiet} //= 1;
 	$lei->_lei_store(1)->write_prepare($lei);
-	$lei->{opt}->{'in-format'} //= 'eml';
+	$lei->{opt}->{'in-format'} //= 'eml' if $lei->{opt}->{stdin};
 	# maybe it's a non-email (code) blob from a coderepo
 	my $git_dirs = $lei->{opt}->{'git-dir'} //= [];
 	if ($lei->{opt}->{cwd} // 1) {
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiRm.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiRm.pm
index 62423ac9828e7c2ec851f36de0161c08cd2fbaf3..00b124852e7443fb76eda91aed14d26c7c64d3ca 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiRm.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiRm.pm
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 sub lei_rm {
 	my ($lei, @inputs) = @_;
 	$lei->_lei_store(1)->write_prepare($lei);
-	$lei->{opt}->{'in-format'} //= 'eml';
+	$lei->{opt}->{'in-format'} //= 'eml' if $lei->{opt}->{stdin};
 	my $self = bless {}, __PACKAGE__;
 	$self->prepare_inputs($lei, \@inputs) or return;
 	$lei->{-err_type} = 'non-fatal';
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiTag.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiTag.pm
index 2dc59f7023cac20d158a90880b8aa7d22c6620c8..8ce96a102a8013b8280bf608ed2b5311d37cf546 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiTag.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiTag.pm
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ }
 
 sub lei_tag { # the "lei tag" method
 	my ($lei, @argv) = @_;
-	my $sto = $lei->_lei_store(1);
-	$sto->write_prepare($lei);
+	$lei->{opt}->{'in-format'} //= 'eml' if $lei->{opt}->{stdin};
+	my $sto = $lei->_lei_store(1)->write_prepare($lei);
 	my $self = bless {}, __PACKAGE__;
 	$lei->ale; # refresh and prepare
 	my $vmd_mod = $self->vmd_mod_extract(\@argv);