How to Connect Outlook (Microsoft 365 Mail and Calendar) to Claude — via MCP

💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → Outlook (Microsoft 365 Mail and Calendar), paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key — done. No Docker, no git clone, no local server.

Outlook (Microsoft 365 Mail and Calendar) + Claude

Let your AI work in Outlook: search and read email, file messages in folders, draft, send and reply, check the calendar, create and move meetings, and find free time with colleagues. Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com through Microsoft Graph, signed in with your Microsoft account.

Prerequisites

See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:

MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID, MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET, MICROSOFT_TENANT_ID

Step 1 — Get credentials

1. Open the Microsoft Entra admin center (entra.microsoft.com) or the Azure portal and go to Applications → App registrations → New registration.

2. Name the app (for example "AnythingMCP Outlook") and choose the Supported account types. The choice decides what goes into MICROSOFT_TENANT_ID:

   • Accounts in this organizational directory only (single tenant): only users of your organisation can sign in. Use the Directory (tenant) ID from the app's Overview page (a GUID) or your domain, such as contoso.onmicrosoft.com.
   • Accounts in any organizational directory (multi-tenant): use organizations.
   • Accounts in any organizational directory and personal Microsoft accounts: use common (work, school and Outlook.com accounts) or consumers (Outlook.com only).

   If the value does not match the account type, Microsoft refuses the sign-in (AADSTS50194 or AADSTS50020).

3. Under Redirect URI, pick the platform Web and enter https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/api/mcp-oauth/callback. If you host AnythingMCP yourself, enter https://your-anythingmcp-host/api/mcp-oauth/callback instead. The URI must match character for character, otherwise Microsoft answers AADSTS50011.

4. Open API permissions → Add a permission → Microsoft Graph → Delegated permissions and add offline_access, User.Read, Mail.ReadWrite, Mail.Send and Calendars.ReadWrite. Do not add them as Application permissions: application permissions would give the app access to every mailbox in your tenant without anyone signing in. The connector does not need them, it works as the user who signs in. offline_access is what makes Microsoft issue a refresh token; without it the connector stops an hour after you authorize it.

5. Open Certificates & secrets → New client secret. Copy the secret Value, not the Secret ID; it is shown only once. Note the expiry date: when the secret expires, the connector stops working until you create a new one and paste it in.

6. Paste the Application (client) ID from the Overview page into MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID, the secret value into MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET and the tenant value from step 2 into MICROSOFT_TENANT_ID, then install the connector.

7. On the connector page, click Authorize with Provider and sign in with the mailbox the AI should work with. The refresh token is stored encrypted, and access tokens (valid for about an hour) are renewed automatically.

8. Start with outlook_get_me: it shows which mailbox the connector is signed in to.

Admin consent: these delegated permissions normally do not need an administrator, but many organisations turn off user consent. If the sign-in shows "Need admin approval" (AADSTS65001 or AADSTS90094), a tenant administrator (for example a Global Administrator or Cloud Application Administrator) opens the app registration once and clicks API permissions → Grant admin consent for the organisation. After that every user can authorize. A connector authorized by an administrator still reads only the administrator's own mailbox: each connector works for the account that signed in.

Read-only setup: replace the scopes in the connector's OAuth settings with offline_access User.Read Mail.Read Calendars.Read, authorize again and disable the tools that send or write.

Common errors: 401 InvalidAuthenticationToken means the authorization was revoked or the client secret expired; paste a new secret if needed and click Authorize with Provider again. 403 ErrorAccessDenied means a permission from step 4 is missing or was not consented. MailboxNotEnabledForRESTAPI means the account has no Exchange Online mailbox (for example an on-premises mailbox or a user without a licence). outlook_get_free_busy does not work with personal Outlook.com accounts.

The connector does not delete mail or events and does not handle attachments, contacts, mailbox rules or other users' and shared mailboxes.

Step 2 — Install the adapter

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

Step 3 — Add the connector in Claude

Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide shows YOUR_SERVER_ID.

Recommended path — works on claude.ai web without editing any config file.

1. In Claude, open Customize → Connectors.
2. Click +, then Add custom connector.
3. Enter a name, e.g. Outlook (Microsoft 365 Mail and Calendar), and the remote MCP server URL https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID, then click Add.
4. Click Connect and sign in to AnythingMCP (OAuth) to allow access.

All tools below appear in your chat — start typing prompts.

Available tools

FAQ

Does it work with Claude Code as well as Claude Desktop? Yes — point both at https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID.

Next steps

• Connector landing page
• Connect to ChatGPT