techtv-mail — a Cowork connector for pete@techtv.live

This is a small MCP server that lets Claude (Cowork) read and send email through your cPanel-hosted pete@techtv.live mailbox — the same way it already works with your Microsoft 365 and Gmail accounts, just built specifically for this mailbox since Anthropic doesn't have a pre-built connector for generic IMAP/cPanel mail.

It exposes four tools to Claude:

• list_folders — see what mail folders exist

• search_emails — search a folder by sender, subject, body text, or recency

• get_email — fetch the full text/html of one message

• send_email — send mail as pete@techtv.live

1. Deploy it somewhere that's always on

This needs to live on a small server that's reachable over the public internet 24/7 — it can't live on your own computer or in a Claude session, since both go offline. The cheapest, simplest options for something this small:

• Railway (railway.app) — free/cheap tier, deploys straight from a zip or a GitHub repo, sets PORT for you automatically.

• Render (render.com) — similar, has a free tier for small services (may sleep when idle on the free tier, which adds a few seconds' delay on the first request after a while).

• A small VPS you already have, if you'd rather run it yourself.

Whichever you pick, the steps are the same shape:

1. Upload this folder (or push it to a GitHub repo and connect that repo).

2. Set it to run npm install then npm start (or node server.js).

3. Set the environment variables below in that host's dashboard — never put real credentials in the code or commit them to git.

4. Once deployed, the host gives you a public URL, e.g. https://techtv-mail-production.up.railway.app.

Related MCP server: IMAP MCP Server

2. Environment variables to set on the host

To generate a good ACCESS_TOKEN, run this on any machine with Node or just use a password generator for something like 40+ random characters:

node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"

This token becomes part of the server's URL and is the only thing standing between the public internet and your mailbox, so treat it exactly like a password — long, random, never shared, never posted anywhere public.

3. Add it to Cowork as a custom connector

Once deployed, in the Claude app:

1. Go to Customize > Connectors (or click "+" / type "/" in a chat and choose "Manage connectors").

2. Click + to browse, then Add custom connector.

3. For the server URL, enter:

   https://<your-host-domain>/mcp/<ACCESS_TOKEN>

   (both pieces come from your deployment — the domain your host gave you, and the token you set as an environment variable).

4. Leave the OAuth Client ID/Secret fields blank — this server doesn't use OAuth, the token in the URL is the access control.

5. Save/Connect. Claude should now list list_folders, search_emails, get_email, and send_email as available tools whenever this connector is enabled in a chat.

Security notes

• The mailbox password only ever lives in the host's environment variables — it's never in this code, never typed into a chat with Claude.

• Anyone who obtains the full connector URL (including the token) could use these tools against the mailbox, so don't paste that URL anywhere public (a shared doc, a public repo, a Slack channel others can see).

• If you ever suspect the URL has leaked, generate a new ACCESS_TOKEN, update it on the host, and re-enter the new URL in Cowork's connector settings — the old URL stops working immediately.

• This mailbox's actual password should also just live in your password manager as normal; this server needs it once, at deploy time, as an environment variable.

Local test (optional, before deploying)

You can run it locally first to make sure your real credentials work:

npm install
MAIL_HOST=mail.techtv.live IMAP_PORT=993 SMTP_PORT=465 \
EMAIL_USER=pete@techtv.live EMAIL_PASS='<real password>' \
ACCESS_TOKEN=test123 PORT=3000 node server.js

Then in another terminal:

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:3000/mcp/test123 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"test","version":"1.0"}}}'

A successful response looks like a result block naming the server — if instead you get an authentication error, double check EMAIL_PASS and that IMAP/SMTP access isn't blocked for this mailbox in cPanel.