Apple Mail MCP
The JXA Mail MCP server provides fast programmatic access to Apple Mail on macOS through 7 tools, enabling email management, search, and automation via the Model Context Protocol.
Core Capabilities:
Account & Mailbox Management - List all configured email accounts and their mailboxes with unread counts
Email Retrieval - Fetch emails with standard properties (ID, subject, sender, date, read/flagged status) with filters for all emails, today's emails, unread emails, or flagged emails from specific accounts/mailboxes
Search & Discovery - Search emails by query string across subject and sender fields (case-insensitive), with optional FTS5 full-text search index for body content searches
Performance Optimizations:
87x faster email retrieval using JXA batch property fetching vs. traditional per-message iteration
700-3500x faster body search (~2ms vs ~7s) with optional SQLite FTS5 search index
Real-time index updates via
--watchflag for automatic synchronization when new emails arriveFast startup times (<5s) using disk-first sync approach
Configuration & Security:
Customizable via environment variables for default accounts, mailboxes, index location, and email limits
Built-in protections against SQL injection, JXA injection, XSS, DoS attacks, and path traversal
Works with Claude Desktop and other MCP-compatible tools through natural conversation
Enables programmatic interaction with Apple Mail on macOS, allowing for listing accounts and mailboxes, fetching recent, unread, or flagged emails, and searching for messages by sender or subject.
Allows for managing and retrieving email content from iCloud accounts configured within the Apple Mail application.
Click on "Install Server".
Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state.
In the chat, type
@followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@Apple Mail MCPShow me my unread emails from today"
That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed.
Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.
Apple Mail MCP
The only Apple Mail MCP server with full-coverage body search — reliable on large mailboxes where AppleScript-based servers timeout. 8 tools for reading, searching, and extracting email content.
Read the docs for the full guide.
Quick Start
pipx install apple-mail-mcpAdd to your MCP client:
{
"mcpServers": {
"mail": {
"command": "apple-mail-mcp"
}
}
}Build the Search Index (Recommended)
# Requires Full Disk Access for Terminal
# System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access → Add Terminal
apple-mail-mcp index --verboseConfigure (Optional)
apple-mail-mcp init # writes ~/.apple-mail-mcp/config.tomlWrites a commented config file you can edit to set defaults like your
primary account or mailbox. Every key has a matching APPLE_MAIL_* env
var if you prefer environment-based config. See
Configuration
for the full schema and precedence rules.
Related MCP server: mail-mcp
Tools
Tool | Purpose |
| List email accounts |
| List mailboxes |
| Get emails — all, unread, flagged, today, last_7_days |
| Get single email with full content + attachments |
| Search — all, subject, sender, body, attachments |
| Extract links from an email |
| Extract attachment content |
| Deprecated — use |
Performance
Tested against 6 other Apple Mail MCP servers on a real ~73K-message mailbox:
Only server with full-coverage body search. Most competitors don't support body search at all; the one that does (BastianZim) live-scans only the 5000 most recent messages — silent miss on anything older. Our FTS5 index covers the entire mailbox.
~3ms single email fetch via disk-first
.emlxreading (no JXA round-trip).~1ms
list_accountsand ~5ms 50-email listing via direct Envelope-Index SQLite reads (0.4+) — same path BastianZim/rusty/pl-lyfx use, with JXA as the correctness fallback.~7ms subject search via FTS5 — competitive with native Rust on the same operation.
Reliable across all 6 benchmarked operations on a 73K mailbox; AppleScript-based servers timeout, throw syntax errors, or skip operations they don't support.
Configuration
Apple Mail MCP works out of the box. To customize defaults, run
apple-mail-mcp init to generate a config.toml template — or use
the matching APPLE_MAIL_* environment variables. See the
Configuration docs
for the full schema and the CLI > env > file > default precedence.
Per-client env overrides via the MCP client's launch config also work:
{
"mcpServers": {
"mail": {
"command": "apple-mail-mcp",
"args": ["--watch"],
"env": {
"APPLE_MAIL_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT": "Work"
}
}
}
}CLI Usage
All tools are also available as standalone CLI commands (no MCP server needed):
apple-mail-mcp search "quarterly report" --scope subject
apple-mail-mcp search "invoice" --after 2026-01-01 --limit 10
apple-mail-mcp read 12345
apple-mail-mcp emails --filter unread --limit 10
apple-mail-mcp accounts
apple-mail-mcp mailboxes --account Work
apple-mail-mcp extract 12345 invoice.pdfAll commands output JSON. Generate a Claude Code skill for CLI-based access:
apple-mail-mcp integrate claude > ~/.claude/skills/apple-mail.mdDevelopment
git clone https://github.com/imdinu/apple-mail-mcp
cd apple-mail-mcp
uv sync
uv run ruff check src/
uv run pytestLicense
GPL-3.0-or-later
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