MCP SERVER · OFFICIAL PROJECTRead, search, organise and send email over IMAP and SMTP, with an allowlist deciding who the agent is allowed to write to.
LABSCO SUMMARY
The allowlists are the design decision that matters: who the server may send to and whose mail it will read are set in a local UI, not negotiable by whatever is driving the model. Reading is metadata-first for the same reason it is cheaper — you fetch bodies for the handful of messages that turned out to matter.
An MCP server for real mailboxes over IMAP and SMTP, on Windows, macOS and Linux. Reading is deliberately two-stage — metadata first, bodies only for the ids you ask for — and the mailbox management surface covers flags, moves, archiving, deletion and attachments. Sending is gated by a recipient allowlist you configure outside the model. Accounts are set up through an authenticated local browser UI or the CLI; there is no MCP tool that adds an account, by design.
list_available_accountslist_emails_metadata, get_emails_contentsend_email, save_to_mailboxlist_allowed_recipients, list_allowed_sendersmark_emails_as_read, set_email_flags, move_emails, archive_emails, delete_emailslist_mailboxesdownload_attachmentPython 3.11 or later, IMAP credentials for reading and SMTP credentials if the account must send. Run uvx mcp-email-server@latest stdio from the client, and configure accounts first with the ui command: it binds to 127.0.0.1 on an ephemeral port and opens a one-time browser link. Credentials go into a private SQLite store on Linux and Windows, the system keyring on macOS, and never through the MCP connection or the chat. Two settings decide the blast radius: with no allowed recipients configured, sending is off; with no allowed senders, reading is unrestricted. Installations on PyPI 0.16.0 and earlier keep working in legacy mode, but they expose the older add_email_account tool that this version removes — drop it from prompts and allowlists before upgrading, and restart clients so they refresh the tool list.
One command plus credentials — uvx mcp-email-server@latest stdio, then supply credentials
USE CASES
List metadata for the recent window, pick out the ids worth opening, pull only those bodies, and mark the rest read.
Compose the message and save it into Drafts over IMAP instead of sending, then open it in your normal mail client and send it yourself.
Check which configured accounts can send, confirm the address is on the recipient allowlist, and send with reply threading so it lands in the existing conversation.
Find the messages by metadata, move them into the folder that actually exists on the server, or archive them to the account's detected Archive folder.
Locate the message by metadata, read its content to confirm it is the right one, and download the attachment — it lands under a safe randomized name in your Downloads/mcp-email-server folder, once enable_attachment_download is turned on.
Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.
archive_emailsArchive one or more emails by moving them to the account's Archive folder, auto-detected via the RFC 6154 \Archive flag (falling back to common names like Archive or [Gmail]/All Mail). Use list_emails_metadata first. Partial or ambiguous effects report per-ID succeeded/failed/unknown status and are not retried automatically.
delete_emailsDelete one or more emails by email_id using target-scoped UID EXPUNGE. Use list_emails_metadata first. Partial or ambiguous effects report per-ID succeeded/failed/unknown status and are not retried automatically.
download_attachmentDownload an email attachment. By default it is saved with a safe randomized name under the current user's Downloads/mcp-email-server directory; an explicit destination path remains supported. This feature must be explicitly enabled in settings (enable_attachment_download=true) due to security considerations.
get_emails_contentGet the full content (including body and reply-thread headers) of one or more emails by their email_id. Use list_emails_metadata first. This tool is non-read-only because mark_as_read=true changes remote flags.
list_allowed_recipientsList the configured recipient allowlist — the addresses that send_email is permitted to send to and save_to_mailbox is permitted to address. Returns an empty list when unrestricted.
list_allowed_sendersList the configured inbound sender allowlist — the address patterns whose mail the server will read or act on. When configured, only these senders' mail is visible to the read tools (list_emails_metadata, get_emails_content, download_attachment) and eligible for the mutation tools (delete_emails, set_email_flags, mark_emails_as_read, move_emails, archive_emails). Returns an empty list when unrestricted.
list_available_accountsList configured accounts as stable non-secret capability records. Use only accounts with can_receive=true for mail reads and can_send=true for send_email. If the result is empty, ask the user to run mcp-email-server ui or the user-operated CLI; never ask for credentials in chat.
list_emails_metadataList email metadata (email_id, subject, sender, recipients, date) without body content. Returns email_id for use with get_emails_content.
list_mailboxesList available mailboxes/folders for an email account. Returns folder names, hierarchy delimiters, and flags. Useful for discovering folder names before moving emails.
mark_emails_as_readMark one or more emails as read by email_id. This is the common-workflow equivalent of adding \Seen with set_email_flags. Use list_emails_metadata first. Partial or ambiguous effects report per-ID succeeded/failed/unknown status and are not retried automatically.
move_emailsMove one or more emails between IMAP folders by email_id. Use list_emails_metadata and list_mailboxes first. Partial or ambiguous effects report per-ID succeeded/failed/unknown status and are not retried.
save_to_mailboxCompose an email and save it to an IMAP folder (e.g., Drafts). Shares recipient, body, attachment, and threading parameters with send_email; adds mailbox and flags, and does not support reply_to. Default folder is Drafts with \Draft and \Seen flags. Pure IMAP operation — works without SMTP configuration. An ambiguous APPEND is reported as unknown and is not retried automatically.
send_emailSend one email using the specified account. Supports reply threading. Partial or ambiguous SMTP delivery reports per-recipient succeeded/failed/unknown status and reports the independent Sent-copy outcome separately; ambiguous effects are not retried automatically.
set_email_flagsAdd or remove approved IMAP flags on one or more emails by email_id. Supported flags are \Seen, \Flagged, \Answered, and \Draft; \Deleted and provider-specific keywords are not supported. Use list_emails_metadata first. Partial or ambiguous effects report per-ID succeeded/failed/unknown status and are not retried automatically.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
14 tools when we connected; the project documents 15. The documented tool missing from a connection is forward_email. add_email_account, present in PyPI 0.16.0 and earlier, has been removed.
uvx on PATH
Both documented clients run the server on your machine.
INSTALLATION
uvx mcp-email-server@latest stdio{
"mcpServers": {
"mcp-email-server": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"mcp-email-server@latest",
"stdio"
]
}
}
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