imail-mcp

🇷🇺 Документация на русском: README.ru.md

An MCP server that connects Claude (Cowork / Claude Code / Claude Desktop) to your email account so it can read, search, send, and organize your mail — directly from a conversation.

iCloud Mail is the first supported provider. The internals are written against a provider-agnostic interface, so Gmail / Microsoft 365 adapters can be added later without touching a single tool.

Highlights

• 📥 Read & search — list folders, search by sender/subject/text/date, read full messages and whole threads, download attachments.

• ✉️ Send & reply — compose, reply, reply-all, and forward with correct threading headers set automatically.

• 🗂️ Organize — move, archive, delete, and mark messages read/unread or flagged.

• 🔒 Credentials stay local — stored in the macOS Keychain, never in a plaintext file or env var.

• 🛑 Never sends silently — Claude is instructed to always preview an email and get your explicit approval before anything leaves your outbox.

Related MCP server: mcp-imap-server

Why a one-time setup (and no "Sign in with Apple" button)

Apple does not offer an OAuth / consent flow for third-party access to iCloud Mail. The only supported path is standard IMAP + SMTP with an app-specific password (required because every iCloud account uses 2FA).

So setup is a one-time step: generate that password once, hand it to the server, done. It is verified with a live IMAP login and then stored in your macOS Keychain — not on disk, not in your shell profile.

Platform note: credential storage uses the built-in macOS security CLI, so the server currently targets macOS. (A different keystore backend is all that's needed to support Linux/Windows.)

Install & connect

Requires Node.js ≥ 18.

git clone git@github.com:nurked/icloud-mail-mcp.git
cd icloud-mail-mcp
npm install
npm run build
npm run setup          # or: node dist/bin/setup.js

setup opens a local page at http://127.0.0.1:4577 (bound to localhost only — never exposed off your machine). The page:

1. Links you to Apple's app-specific password page.

2. Takes your iCloud address + the 16-character password you generate.

3. Does a live IMAP test login to verify it works.

4. Saves the credentials to your Keychain.

Generating the app-specific password

1. Open appleid.apple.com → Sign-In and Security → App-Specific Passwords.

2. Click Generate an app-specific password, name it imail-mcp.

3. Copy the 16-character password and paste it into the setup page.

Wire it into Claude

Add the server to your MCP config (Claude Desktop / Cowork / Claude Code mcpServers):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "imail": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/icloud-mail-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

If you install the package globally (npm link or npm i -g), you can use "command": "imail-mcp" with no args instead.

Restart Claude and the imail tools become available.

Tools

Sending is never silent

The server ships an instruction telling Claude to always show you a compose_preview and get your explicit go-ahead before calling send_email (or reply / forward). If you'd rather send it yourself, ask Claude to save_draft instead and the message lands in your Drafts folder.

How it works

Claude  ──stdio──▶  imail-mcp  ──IMAP (imap.mail.me.com:993)──▶  iCloud
                       │        └─SMTP (smtp.mail.me.com:587)──▶  iCloud
                       └─ credentials ◀── macOS Keychain

• IMAP (imapflow) handles reading and organizing; SMTP (nodemailer) handles sending; bodies are parsed with mailparser.

• The provider connects lazily on the first tool call, so adding the server to Claude doesn't touch your mailbox until you actually use it.

• The MCP stdio transport owns stdout, so all logging goes to stderr to keep the protocol stream clean.

Project layout

src/
  index.ts              MCP server + tool definitions
  bin/setup.ts          `imail-mcp-setup` entry point
  auth/
    setup-server.ts     local connect page + live IMAP verification
    keychain.ts         macOS Keychain storage (via `security` CLI)
  providers/
    types.ts            provider-agnostic MailProvider contract
    icloud.ts           iCloud IMAP/SMTP implementation

Adding another provider

The tools only ever talk to the MailProvider interface, so a new backend is one new file:

1. Implement MailProvider (see src/providers/types.ts) in a new file under src/providers/.

2. Select it in src/index.ts.

The tools stay unchanged.

Troubleshooting

• "No iCloud credentials found" — run npm run setup first; the server reads from the Keychain on first tool use.

• "Login failed" during setup — make sure you used an app-specific password, not your normal Apple ID password.

• Re-connecting / changing accounts — just run npm run setup again; it overwrites the stored credentials (-U update) after a fresh verification.

License

PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 — this is source-available, not OSI open source.

• ✅ Free for any noncommercial purpose — personal use, study, research, hobby projects, and use by nonprofits, schools, and government bodies.

• ✅ You may read, modify, and redistribute it; the copyright notice must stay intact, so your work is always credited.

• 💼 Commercial use requires a separate license. If you want to use imail-mcp to make money — in a product, a paid service, or inside a for-profit company — contact Investment Fidelity Company at ceo@investmentfidelity.company to arrange a commercial license.

See LICENSE.md for the full terms.