email_add_account
Add a new IMAP or iCloud email account (Gmail and Outlook require the setup wizard for OAuth)
LABSCO SUMMARY
It handles the mailbox-sized jobs — bulk cleanup, cross-account moves — not just reading one message at a time.
Two decisions carry it. Search returns compact results and only pulls bodies when you ask, so scanning an inbox does not fill the context window. And email_transfer moves messages between accounts by their raw MIME, which is why sender, date and threading survive a consolidation that would otherwise rewrite every header.
What it is
A multi-account email server that uses each provider's native API where one exists — Gmail's REST API, Microsoft Graph — and falls back to IMAP and SMTP everywhere else.
What you get
- Accounts as first-class objects: add, remove, test and list them with their connection status, several at once and across providers
- Search with filters on sender, recipient, subject, body, date range, unread, starred and attachments — compact by default, with returnBody=true when you want the full text
- Reading: one message by ID, a whole thread by thread ID, folder listings, and an attachment fetched by ID as base64
- Writing: send with cc and bcc, reply with reply-all and threading preserved, forward to new recipients, and create and list drafts
- Organising: move a message, delete to trash or permanently, mark read, starred or flagged, create folders, and manage Gmail labels or read Outlook categories
- Batch versions of delete, move and mark for whole swathes of a mailbox at once — up to 1000 messages for Gmail, batches of 20 for Outlook, UID ranges for IMAP, all with a sequential fallback
- email_transfer moves or copies messages between accounts as raw MIME, keeping sender, date and threading intact, and with deleteAfter it only trashes the source once the import is confirmed
Requirements
One setup pass per mailbox, through the wizard: npx @marlinjai/email-mcp setup. Gmail and Outlook go through a browser OAuth flow using built-in PKCE credentials, so there is nothing to register unless you want your own app — a Desktop OAuth client with the Gmail API enabled, or an Azure app with Mail.ReadWrite, Mail.Send and offline_access. iCloud takes an app-specific password from appleid.apple.com; a generic IMAP account takes host, port and credentials, plus SMTP details for sending. Credentials are stored encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM under machine-derived keys. The server itself runs over stdio via npx @marlinjai/email-mcp.
Setup effort
Follow the published steps
USE CASES
01
Finding the thread you only half remember
Search on sender and a date range, then pull the whole conversation once you have the ID.
02
Replying without leaving what you were doing
Read the message in full, then reply with threading preserved and reply-all if it needs it.
03
Clearing a few hundred newsletters out of the inbox
Search for them, then move or delete the whole set in one batch call.
04
Consolidating an old mailbox into your main one
Transfer the messages as raw MIME so headers and threading survive, trashing the source only after the import lands.
05
Getting the attachment out of a message
Read the message for its attachment metadata, then fetch the file by ID.
06
Adding another mailbox and checking it works
Add the IMAP or iCloud account, test the connection, then list its folders.
25 tools
Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.
email_batch_delete
Delete multiple emails at once. Much faster than individual deletes.
email_batch_mark
Mark multiple emails at once (read/unread, starred, flagged). Much faster than individual marks.
email_batch_move
Move multiple emails to a folder at once. Much faster than individual moves.
email_delete
Delete an email (moves to trash by default, or permanently deletes)
email_draft_create
Create a new email draft
email_draft_list
List email drafts
email_folder_create
Create a new email folder
email_forward
Forward an email to new recipients
email_get
Get a single email by ID
email_get_attachment
Get an email attachment by ID, returns base64 encoded data
email_get_categories
List all categories for an email account (Outlook only)
email_get_labels
List all labels for an email account (Gmail only)
email_get_thread
Get an email thread by thread ID
email_label
Add or remove labels on an email (Gmail only)
email_list_accounts
List all configured email accounts and their connection status
email_list_folders
List all email folders for an account
email_mark
Mark an email as read/unread, starred, or flagged
email_move
Move an email to a different folder
email_remove_account
Remove an email account
email_reply
Reply to an existing email
email_search
Search emails with filters. By default returns compact results without full body content to save context. Set returnBody=true to include full email bodies.
email_send
Send a new email
email_test_account
Test an email account connection
email_transfer
Move or copy emails BETWEEN accounts, preserving the original message intact (sender, date, threading) by transferring the raw MIME. Fetches each message from the source account and imports it into the target account. With deleteAfter=true the source copy is sent to trash only after a confirmed import, making this a safe cross-account move.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
25 tools when we connected.
Requires
npx on PATH
Where it runs
The documented client runs the server on your machine.
CONTEXT COST
Light Standing cost
Rated by the size of the 25 tool definitions that ride along on every turn, not by how many there are
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
npm install -g @marlinjai/email-mcp
npx @marlinjai/email-mcp setupMCP Clients
Claude Code
CLAUDE CODE · JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"email": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"@marlinjai/email-mcp"
]
}
}
}
