inboxmcp

inboxmcp

Your email. Your agent. Your priorities.

Connect your existing mailboxes to your own AI assistant, with built-in processing progress and optional owner-confirmed replies.

Website · Dashboard · Quick start · Setup guides · Claude directory · Discord community

Hosted service 0.4.0 · documentation updated 13 October 2026 · limited public beta. See what's new and feature status. This public repository contains documentation and registry metadata, not the hosted server's source code. A service release or registry entry does not mean a platform has approved its directory listing or tested every new capability.

What's new

Deployed between 10 and 13 October 2026. Full notes and the status of work in progress are in the changelog.

• Per-permission consent: any client may request reading, progress, decisions and sending, and the owner ticks exactly what to grant. The earlier read-only ceiling for new third-party registrations is retired.
• Connect-time sign-in: a new connection now receives the OAuth challenge that Cursor, Grok Bot and Claude use to start sign-in. Grok Bot works as a custom MCP server (verified 10 October).
• Fewer duplicates: copies of one message in other folders or Gmail labels no longer create new events. A new list_consumer_receipts tool shows what this connection has completed.
• Large emails: messages over 1 MiB, such as invoices with attachments, now reach your AI with their text instead of headers only.
• Deferrals never block new mail, and the dashboard shows email that needs your review.
• Pro plan (US$10/month, unlimited mailboxes under fair use) and the Discord community.
• 13 October: Claude connections can be offered sending at connect (unticked by default). Directory health checks are answered again, and Glama is healthy with 14 tools. Two MCP prompts, set_up_email_monitoring and check_new_email, are available. A newly added mailbox now starts collection and is ready to send by default, using the login you entered for receiving after a verified SMTP sign-in; existing mailboxes get one-click buttons.

In progress: the updated Claude directory listing (in Anthropic's review), OpenAI directory review, native Gmail sign-in (built, not enabled yet), Muse review and the Cursor Marketplace review. See the status table.

What it does

InboxMCP collects new mail from the mailboxes you connect and makes authorized messages available to your AI together with your saved preferences. For example: "skip routine promotions and verification codes; flag customer requests that need a reply."

Your AI decides what matters and whether to notify you. InboxMCP handles collection, authorization and independent processing progress; it does not run an email classifier or a user-notification engine.

• Independent collection. Collection works without a Grok account, webhook or external state service. Grok delivery is a separate optional setting.
• Read-only incoming access. Reading does not send, delete, move or mark source messages read. Optional outgoing mail has separate controls described below.
• Existing mailboxes. Use a supported provider preset or a publicly reachable IMAP server with certificate-verified TLS on port 993. An app password or provider-specific client password may be required. Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and Microsoft 365 connect with Microsoft sign-in instead (Connect Outlook / Microsoft 365 in the dashboard); a work account may need its administrator's approval.
• Mailbox-scoped authorization. Choose the mailboxes each AI connection may access through OAuth with PKCE. New mailboxes are not added to old grants automatically.
• Built-in progress for each connection. With consumer-state:write granted at consent, each AI connection has its own checkpoint and batch acknowledgements in InboxMCP. No Notion page or external state file is needed. Completed events are tracked; unfinished events remain pending. A failure between analysis and acknowledgement can still cause repeated processing.
• Useful context. Batch results include saved preferences and an InboxMCP view link for each mail record. Incomplete or unavailable messages are identified rather than presented as complete.
• Optional replies. The AI prepares a plain-text draft; the signed-in owner reviews the exact recipients and content and confirms sending in InboxMCP.
• Protected stored data. Mailbox credentials, webhook keys, bodies, drafts and saved preferences are encrypted at rest. This is not end-to-end encryption; the service decrypts data to perform authorized work. Mail retention defaults to 30 days.

Get your first successful check

1. Create or sign in to your account, add one mailbox through the current IMAP setup and verify its connection. Native provider authorization is an option only where the dashboard enables it.
2. Automatic collection starts by default when you save the mailbox; untick it before saving if you want to start later. A connected mailbox and an enabled collection switch are different settings; check that synchronization succeeds.
3. In your compatible AI client, connect the MCP endpoint, sign in and authorize only the intended mailboxes. For ongoing processing, authorize reading and built-in progress. If the processing-progress selector appears, choose independent progress for a new task/different AI, or resume the existing progress for the same AI task. Do not select Claude's progress when adding Dot as a separate monitor. The first progress-enabled connection creates progress automatically; a read-only connection has no progress selector. If no selector appears, continue normal authorization rather than treating its absence as an error.
4. Use the dashboard's Let your AI finish setup request or the AI-readable setup guide. Have the AI check the connection and configure its supported event subscription or scheduled task. Installation alone does not create an automatic check.
5. After setup, send yourself a harmless test email with a clear action. Have the AI process it, check its original-email link and verify that a second check does not repeat the completed event. Verify any desired device notification separately.

Collection starts from a saved new-mail baseline; earlier email is not automatically imported. If a test was sent before the connection's baseline was established, send a new one after setup.

You choose each permission at consent. Any dynamically registered client may request email:read, consumer-state:write, decisions:write and email:send. The consent page shows a checkbox for each requested permission, and the grant is exactly what you leave ticked. email:read is required. Progress starts ticked; sending starts unticked and needs an extra confirmation. The token response states the actual scope. Existing grants and refresh tokens never widen, including grants issued under the earlier read-only policy: to add a permission, reconnect deliberately and approve it.

Follow the step-by-step quick start, or choose your platform:

Optional outgoing email

Sending has three separate requirements. Only the mailbox setup is on by default, and your AI cannot send without the other two:

1. Mailbox setup: on by default for a newly added IMAP mailbox. InboxMCP derives the provider's SMTP server from its IMAP server (for example imap.gmail.com → smtp.gmail.com, TLS on port 465), signs in once with the login you entered for receiving, and stores it encrypted for sending. Untick Also enable sending with this password before saving to skip this. For a mailbox added earlier, choose Use this mailbox’s receiving password or Enable sending for all my mailboxes in Sending settings, or enter separate SMTP settings using TLS on port 465 or STARTTLS on port 587. If the provider refuses the receiving password for sending, nothing is stored. Native provider sending requires separate provider consent where available.
2. AI permission: explicitly grant email:send for the selected mailboxes; it starts unticked on the consent page. Existing read grants and refresh tokens do not gain sending automatically.
3. Exact draft confirmation: open the returned draft-review link, check From, To, Cc, Bcc, subject and the entire plain-text body, then choose Confirm and send. Preparing or opening a draft does not send it, and the AI cannot approve its own draft.

The normal confirmation page submits the message directly. Provider acceptance does not prove recipient delivery. An uncertain result is never automatically retried; check with the provider before preparing another copy.

Existing grants never gain email:send automatically, and refreshing an old token will not add it. Reconnect deliberately with sending requested, then tick the permission and its confirmation on the consent page. Preserve the existing monitoring task's progress during an authorization upgrade.

Platforms and automation

Availability depends on the platform, account and configuration. The table distinguishes connection support from automatic execution and device notification.

| Platform | Connection and ex