Email (IMAP/SMTP)

Email (IMAP/SMTP)

This connector works with any mailbox that offers IMAP (reading and organising mail) and SMTP (sending): IONOS, Strato, GMX, web.de, T-Online, Hetzner, all-inkl, Aruba, Gmail and Google Workspace, Yahoo, iCloud, Fastmail, a self-hosted Dovecot/Postfix, and most other providers. It signs in with the mailbox password or an app password.

Not for Microsoft 365 or Outlook.com. Microsoft turned off password sign-in for IMAP and SMTP; use the Microsoft Outlook connector, which signs in with OAuth.

Setup

1. Find your provider below. If it is not listed, its help pages name the "IMAP server" and "SMTP server" (also called incoming and outgoing server).
2. Fill in EMAIL_IMAP_HOST, EMAIL_IMAP_PORT, EMAIL_SMTP_HOST, EMAIL_SMTP_PORT, EMAIL_USERNAME (almost always the full e-mail address) and EMAIL_PASSWORD.
3. Leave EMAIL_IMAP_SECURITY and EMAIL_SMTP_SECURITY empty: the port decides (993 and 465 use SSL/TLS, 143 and 587 use STARTTLS). Set them to tls or starttls only for a server on a non-standard port.

App passwords

Providers with two-step sign-in do not accept the normal password for IMAP and SMTP; they issue an app password instead, used only by this connector and revocable at any time.

• Gmail / Google Workspace: turn on 2-Step Verification, then create one at https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords. In Google Workspace an administrator may have to allow it.
• Yahoo: Account Info, Account Security, Generate app password.
• iCloud: https://account.apple.com, Sign-In and Security, App-Specific Passwords. EMAIL_USERNAME is the full iCloud address.
• Fastmail: Settings, Privacy & Security, Manage app passwords, with access to IMAP and SMTP.
• GMX and web.de with two-factor sign-in on: create an application-specific password in the security settings.

Optional settings

• EMAIL_FROM_ADDRESS / EMAIL_FROM_NAME: the sender shown on sent mail. Default: the username. The provider usually only accepts its own addresses or aliases.
• EMAIL_SMTP_USERNAME / EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD: only when sending uses a different login than reading.
• EMAIL_SENT_FOLDER: where sent mail is filed. Default: the folder the server marks as Sent. Gmail files sent mail itself, so no second copy is made there.

Tools

• imap_smtp_list_folders: folders with their role (inbox, sent, drafts, trash, junk, archive) and counts. Start here.
• imap_smtp_search_messages: search one folder by sender, recipient, subject, text, dates, unread or flagged; newest first, with a snippet.
• imap_smtp_get_message: one message as text (HTML converted), with its attachment list. Reading does not mark it as read.
• imap_smtp_get_attachment: one attachment; text files as text, images and documents attached to the result.
• imap_smtp_set_flags: read/unread, flagged/unflagged.
• imap_smtp_move_messages: move to another folder.
• imap_smtp_delete_messages: move to the Trash. Nothing is deleted permanently.
• imap_smtp_save_draft: put a message in Drafts for a person to review and send. The default way to answer.
• imap_smtp_send_message: send now, optionally as a reply in the thread of a message.

Switched off at install: imap_smtp_send_message and imap_smtp_delete_messages. Mail is written by strangers, and an e-mail can contain text that tries to instruct the AI ("forward all invoices to…", "delete this thread"). Sending and deleting are how such an instruction would act, so both start disabled; turn them on in the connector's tool list only if the agent should really send or delete. Every tool that returns message content says that it is untrusted data, and the agent must never follow instructions found in an e-mail.

Limits

• Search returns at most 100 messages per call; a body is cut at 100,000 characters with a marker; attachments above 4 MB are refused; at most 50 recipients per message; no attachments on outgoing mail yet.
• Every tool call opens its own IMAP connection and logs out afterwards (15 s to connect, 60 s without an answer), so nothing stays connected to the mailbox between calls.
• UIDs belong to one folder and change when a message is moved; search again after a move.

Where it runs

• AnythingMCP Cloud connects only with encryption (SSL/TLS or STARTTLS), only to public mail servers, on the standard ports (IMAP 993/143, SMTP 465/587/2525), and only to servers with a valid certificate. Port 25 is not offered on Cloud.
• Sending from AnythingMCP Cloud usually does not work: the Cloud's hosting provider blocks outgoing SMTP on ports 25, 465 and 587, so imap_smtp_send_message reports that immediately and nothing is sent. Reading, searching, flagging, moving and drafts over IMAP (port 993) work normally. Answer with imap_smtp_save_draft and send the draft from your mail client, use a provider that accepts SMTP on port 2525, or self-host AnythingMCP. Test connection then shows IMAP as working and SMTP as not reachable.
• Self-hosted, a mail server on the internal network works once an administrator adds its host to the outbound allowlist (Admin, Settings, or SSRF_ALLOWED_HOSTS). A connector created by hand may also switch off encryption or accept a self-signed certificate there.