MCP Mail Server

Language: English | 中文

A Model Context Protocol server for IMAP/SMTP email operations with Claude, Cursor, and other AI assistants.

Features

• IMAP Operations: Search, read, and manage emails across mailboxes
• SMTP Support: Send emails with HTML/text content and attachments
• Attachment Management: View attachment metadata and save attachments to local files
• Secure Configuration: Environment-based setup with TLS/SSL support
• AI-Friendly: Natural language commands for email operations
• Auto Connection Management: Automatic IMAP/SMTP connection handling
• Multi-Mailbox Support: Access INBOX, Sent, and custom folders

Quick Start

1. Install: npm install -g mcp-mail-server
2. Configure environment variables (see Configuration)
3. Add to your MCP client configuration
4. Use natural language: "Show me unread emails from today"

Installation

<details> <summary>Claude Desktop</summary>

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-mail-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-mail-server"],
      "env": {
        "IMAP_HOST": "your-imap-server.com",
        "IMAP_PORT": "993",
        "IMAP_SECURE": "true",
        "SMTP_HOST": "your-smtp-server.com",
        "SMTP_PORT": "465",
        "SMTP_SECURE": "true",
        "EMAIL_USER": "[email protected]",
        "EMAIL_PASS": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

</details> <details> <summary>Cursor</summary>

Add to your Cursor MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-mail-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-mail-server"],
      "env": {
        "IMAP_HOST": "your-imap-server.com",
        "IMAP_PORT": "993",
        "IMAP_SECURE": "true",
        "SMTP_HOST": "your-smtp-server.com",
        "SMTP_PORT": "465",
        "SMTP_SECURE": "true",
        "EMAIL_USER": "[email protected]",
        "EMAIL_PASS": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

</details> <details> <summary>Claude Code</summary>

Add using the claude mcp add command:

claude mcp add mcp-mail-server \
  -e IMAP_HOST=your-imap-server.com \
  -e IMAP_PORT=993 \
  -e IMAP_SECURE=true \
  -e SMTP_HOST=your-smtp-server.com \
  -e SMTP_PORT=465 \
  -e SMTP_SECURE=true \
  -e [email protected] \
  -e EMAIL_PASS=your-password \
  -- npx -y mcp-mail-server

Or manually add to .claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-mail-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-mail-server"],
      "env": {
        "IMAP_HOST": "your-imap-server.com",
        "IMAP_PORT": "993",
        "IMAP_SECURE": "true",
        "SMTP_HOST": "your-smtp-server.com",
        "SMTP_PORT": "465",
        "SMTP_SECURE": "true",
        "EMAIL_USER": "[email protected]",
        "EMAIL_PASS": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

</details> <details> <summary>OpenAI Codex</summary>

Add to codex.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-mail-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-mail-server"],
      "env": {
        "IMAP_HOST": "your-imap-server.com",
        "IMAP_PORT": "993",
        "IMAP_SECURE": "true",
        "SMTP_HOST": "your-smtp-server.com",
        "SMTP_PORT": "465",
        "SMTP_SECURE": "true",
        "EMAIL_USER": "[email protected]",
        "EMAIL_PASS": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

</details> <details> <summary>Other MCP Clients</summary>

Other MCP clients can be configured similarly. The core configuration is:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-mail-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-mail-server"],
      "env": {
        "IMAP_HOST": "your-imap-server.com",
        "IMAP_PORT": "993",
        "IMAP_SECURE": "true",
        "SMTP_HOST": "your-smtp-server.com",
        "SMTP_PORT": "465",
        "SMTP_SECURE": "true",
        "EMAIL_USER": "[email protected]",
        "EMAIL_PASS": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Refer to your specific client's documentation for the appropriate configuration file location.

</details>

Available Tools

<details> <summary>Detailed Tool Parameters</summary>

Connection Management

• connect_all: No parameters required
• get_connection_status: No parameters required
• disconnect_all: No parameters required

Mailbox Operations

• open_mailbox: mailboxName (string, default: "INBOX"), readOnly (boolean)
• list_mailboxes: No parameters required

Search Operations

• search_by_sender: sender (string, email address), startDate (string, optional), endDate (string, optional)
• search_by_subject: subject (string, keywords), startDate (string, optional), endDate (string, optional)
• search_by_recipient: recipient (string, email address), startDate (string, optional), endDate (string, optional)
• search_by_body: text (string, search text), startDate (string, optional), endDate (string, optional)
• search_since_date: date (string, date format)
• search_unread_from_sender: sender (string, email address), startDate (string, optional), endDate (string, optional)
• search_unreplied_from_sender: sender (string, email address), startDate (string, optional), endDate (string, optional), limit (number, optional)
• search_with_keyword: keyword (string, keyword), startDate (string, optional), endDate (string, optional)
• search_all_messages: startDate (string, optional), endDate (string, optional), limit (number, optional, default: 50)

Message Operations

• get_message_count: No parameters required
• get_unseen_messages: No parameters required
• get_recent_messages: No parameters required
• get_message: uid (number), markSeen (boolean, optional)
• get_messages: uids (array), markSeen (boolean, optional)
• delete_message: uid (number)

Email Sending

• send_email: to (string), subject (string), text (string, optional), html (string, optional), cc (string, optional), bcc (string, optional), attachments (string[], optional, absolute file paths)
• reply_to_email: originalUid (number), text (string), html (string, optional), replyToAll (boolean, optional), includeOriginal (boolean, optional)

Attachment Operations

• get_attachments: uid (number) — Returns metadata: filename, contentType, size, index
• save_attachment: uid (number), savePath (string, absolute path), attachmentIndex (number, optional, 0-based), returnBase64 (boolean, optional, default: false)

</details>

Usage Examples

Use natural language commands with your AI assistant:

Basic Operations

• "Connect to my email servers"
• "Show me all unread emails"
• "Search for emails from [email protected]"
• "Send an email to [email protected] about the meeting"
• "Reply to email with UID 123"

Advanced Searches

• "Find emails with 'urgent' in the subject from last week"
• "Show me unreplied emails from [email protected]"
• "Search emails sent to [email protected]"
• "Get all emails from the Sales folder"
• "Show unread emails from [email protected]"
• "Show me all emails from the last 7 days"
• "List all messages, limit to 20"

Email Management

• "Delete the email with UID 123"
• "Mark recent emails as read"
• "List all my email folders"

Attachment Operations

• "Show me the attachments of email UID 456"
• "Save all attachments from email UID 456 to D:/Downloads"
• "Download the first attachment from email UID 789"
• "Send an email to [email protected] with attachment D:/report.pdf"

Configuration

Environment Variables

⚠️ All variables are required

Common Email Providers

<details> <summary>Gmail Configuration</

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