IMAP MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI assistants to check email, process messages, and learn user preferences through interaction.

Overview

This project implements an MCP server that interfaces with IMAP email servers to provide the following capabilities:

Email browsing and searching
Email organization (moving, tagging, marking)
Email composition and replies
Interactive email processing and learning user preferences
Automated email summarization and categorization
Support for multiple IMAP providers

The IMAP MCP server is designed to work with Claude or any other MCP-compatible assistant, allowing them to act as intelligent email assistants that learn your preferences over time.

Features

Email Authentication: Secure access to IMAP servers with various authentication methods
Email Browsing: List folders and messages with filtering options
Email Content: Read message contents including text, HTML, and attachments
Email Actions: Move, delete, mark as read/unread, flag messages
Email Composition: Draft and save replies to messages with proper formatting
- Support for plain text and HTML replies
- Reply-all functionality with CC support
- Proper threading with In-Reply-To and References headers
- Save drafts to appropriate folders
Search: Basic search capabilities across folders
Interaction Patterns: Structured patterns for processing emails and learning preferences (planned)
Learning Layer: Record and analyze user decisions to predict future actions (planned)

Current Project Structure

The project is currently organized as follows:

.
├── examples/              # Example configurations
│   └── config.yaml.example
├── imap_mcp/              # Source code
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── config.py          # Configuration handling
│   ├── imap_client.py     # IMAP client implementation
│   ├── models.py          # Data models
│   ├── resources.py       # MCP resources implementation
│   ├── server.py          # Main server implementation
│   └── tools.py           # MCP tools implementation
├── tests/                 # Test suite
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── test_models.py
├── INSTALLATION.md        # Detailed installation guide
├── pyproject.toml         # Project configuration
└── README.md              # This file

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Python 3.8 or higher
An IMAP-enabled email account (Gmail recommended)
uv for package management and running Python scripts

Installation

Install uv if you haven't already:
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Clone and install the package:
git clone https://github.com/non-dirty/imap-mcp.git cd imap-mcp uv venv source .venv/bin/activate # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

Gmail Configuration

Create a config file:
cp config.sample.yaml config.yaml
Set up Gmail OAuth2 credentials:
- Go to Google Cloud Console
- Create a new project or select existing one
- Enable the Gmail API
- Create OAuth2 credentials (Desktop Application type)
- Download the client configuration
Update config.yaml with your Gmail settings:
imap: host: imap.gmail.com port: 993 username: your-email@gmail.com use_ssl: true oauth2: client_id: YOUR_CLIENT_ID client_secret: YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET refresh_token: YOUR_REFRESH_TOKEN

Usage

Checking Email

To list emails in your inbox:

uv run list_inbox.py --config config.yaml --folder INBOX --limit 10

Available options:

--folder: Specify which folder to check (default: INBOX)
--limit: Maximum number of emails to display (default: 10)
--verbose: Enable detailed logging output

Starting the MCP Server

To start the IMAP MCP server:

uv run imap_mcp.server --config config.yaml

For development mode with debugging:

uv run imap_mcp.server --dev

Managing OAuth2 Tokens

To refresh your OAuth2 token:

uv run imap_mcp.auth_setup refresh-token --config config.yaml

To generate a new OAuth2 token:

uv run imap_mcp.auth_setup generate-token --config config.yaml

Development

Setting Up Development Environment

# Set up virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install development dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Running Tests

pytest

Security Considerations

This MCP server requires access to your email account, which contains sensitive personal information. Please be aware of the following security considerations:

Store email credentials securely using environment variables or secure credential storage
Consider using app-specific passwords instead of your main account password
Limit folder access to only what's necessary for your use case
Review the permissions granted to the server in your email provider's settings

Project Roadmap

Project initialization and repository setup
Basic IMAP integration
Email resource implementation
Email tool implementation
Email reply and draft functionality
User preference learning implementation
Advanced search capabilities
Multi-account support
Integration with major email providers

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Model Context Protocol for providing the framework
Anthropic for developing Claude
Various Python IMAP libraries that make this project possible

Integrations