Apple Mail

FreeNot checked

A high-performance MCP server for Apple Mail that uses optimized JavaScript for Automation (JXA) to search and manage emails. It enables users to list accounts,

by imdinu

GitHub Embed

About

A high-performance MCP server for Apple Mail that uses optimized JavaScript for Automation (JXA) to search and manage emails. It enables users to list accounts, fetch mailboxes, and retrieve today's, unread, or flagged messages with significantly improved speed through batch property fetching.

README

Python 3.11+ License: GPL v3 macOS MCP Code style: ruff CI

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-mcp

Add 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 --verbose

Configure (Optional)

apple-mail-mcp init   # writes ~/.apple-mail-mcp/config.toml

Writes 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.

Tools

Tool	Purpose
`list_accounts()`	List email accounts
`list_mailboxes(account?)`	List mailboxes
`get_emails(filter?, limit?)`	Get emails — all, unread, flagged, today, last_7_days
`get_email(message_id)`	Get single email with full content + attachments
`search(query, scope?, before?, after?, highlight?)`	Search — all, subject, sender, body, attachments
`get_email_links(message_id)`	Extract links from an email
`get_email_attachment(message_id, filename)`	Extract attachment content
`get_attachment(message_id, filename)`	Deprecated — use `get_email_attachment()`

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 .emlx reading (no JXA round-trip).
~1ms list_accounts and ~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.pdf

All commands output JSON. Generate a Claude Code skill for CLI-based access:

apple-mail-mcp integrate claude > ~/.claude/skills/apple-mail.md

Development

git clone https://github.com/imdinu/apple-mail-mcp
cd apple-mail-mcp
uv sync
uv run ruff check src/
uv run pytest

License

GPL-3.0-or-later

from github.com/imdinu/apple-mail-mcp

Install Apple Mail in Claude Desktop, Claude Code & Cursor

Recommended · one command, every IDE

unyly install apple-mail-mcp

Installs into Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor & VS Code — handles npx, uvx and build-from-source repos for you.

First time? Get the CLI: curl -fsSL https://unyly.org/install | sh

Or configure manually

Run in your terminal:

claude mcp add apple-mail-mcp -- uvx apple-mail-mcp

Step-by-step: how to install Apple Mail

Install Apple Mail in Claude Desktop Install Apple Mail in Claude Code Install Apple Mail in Cursor Install Apple Mail in VS Code

FAQ

Is Apple Mail MCP free?

Yes, Apple Mail MCP is free — one-click install via Unyly at no cost.

Does Apple Mail need an API key?

No, Apple Mail runs without API keys or environment variables.

Is Apple Mail hosted or self-hosted?

Self-hosted: the server runs locally on your machine via the install command above.

How do I install Apple Mail in Claude Desktop, Claude Code or Cursor?

Open Apple Mail on unyly.org, pick your client tab (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor) and press Install — the config is generated automatically, no JSON editing.

Related MCPs

Gmail

Read, send and search emails from Claude

by Google

Slack

Send, search and summarize Slack messages

by Slack

Runbear

No-code MCP client for team chat platforms, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Discord.

by Community

Discord Server

A community discord server dedicated to MCP by [Frank Fiegel](https://github.com/punkpeye)