Better Email

mcp-name: io.github.n24q02m/better-email-mcp

IMAP/SMTP email for AI agents -- read, send, organize folders, and manage attachments across multiple accounts, with auto-discovery.

CI codecov npm Docker License: MIT

TypeScript Node.js IMAP/SMTP semantic-release Renovate

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Table of contents

• Features
• Install
• CLI
• Smithery
• Documentation
• Tools
• Comparison
• Remote (HTTP Mode)
• Outlook OAuth Device Code (HTTP mode)
• Configuration
• Security
• Build from Source
• Deploy to Cloudflare
• Trust Model
• License

Features

• Multi-account support -- manage 6+ email accounts (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, Zoho, ProtonMail, custom IMAP)
• App Passwords -- no OAuth2 setup required for most providers; clone and run in 1 minute
• 5 composite tools with 21 actions (plus help + config__open_relay) -- search, read, send, reply, forward, organize, and credential setup in single calls
• Auto-discovery -- provider settings detected from email address, custom IMAP host supported
• Thread-aware -- reply/forward maintains In-Reply-To and References headers
• Tiered token optimization -- compressed descriptions + on-demand help tool + MCP Resources

Install

The server runs in two modes: stdio (default, single-user, credentials from env vars) and HTTP (opt-in, multi-user with OAuth 2.1). For stdio, add it to your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "better-email": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["--yes", "@n24q02m/better-email-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "EMAIL_CREDENTIALS": "[email protected]:app-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Multiple accounts are comma-separated: [email protected]:pass1,[email protected]:pass2. See Configuration for all env vars, and Remote (HTTP Mode) to run a hosted multi-user server.

Most providers use an App Password (no OAuth setup); Outlook/Hotmail/Live use a bundled OAuth device-code flow in HTTP mode. Settings (IMAP/SMTP host, port) are auto-discovered from the email domain.

CLI

The package ships one binary, better-email-mcp (run via npx @n24q02m/better-email-mcp). With no arguments it starts the MCP server over stdio; it also accepts one flag and one subcommand:

Invocation	Description
better-email-mcp	Start the MCP server over stdio (default). Reads credentials from EMAIL_CREDENTIALS, or from EMAIL_USER + EMAIL_APP_PASSWORD
better-email-mcp --http	Start the server in HTTP (multi-user, OAuth 2.1) mode. Equivalent to MCP_TRANSPORT=http or TRANSPORT_MODE=http
better-email-mcp auth [outlook] <email> [--client-id=<id>]	Authenticate an Outlook/Hotmail/Live account via OAuth2 Device Code flow. Tokens are saved to ~/.better-email-mcp/tokens.json. The outlook provider positional is optional (email has a single OAuth2 provider); --client-id overrides OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID for a self-hosted Azure AD app
better-email-mcp logout [<email>]	Clear the locally stored Outlook token(s). Omit <email> to clear every stored token

# stdio server (normally launched by your MCP client, not by hand)
EMAIL_CREDENTIALS="[email protected]:app-password" npx @n24q02m/better-email-mcp

# HTTP multi-user server
npx @n24q02m/better-email-mcp --http

# One-off Outlook OAuth device-code sign-in
npx @n24q02m/better-email-mcp auth [email protected]

# Sign out of a single account (or omit the email to clear all)
npx @n24q02m/better-email-mcp logout [email protected]

auth/logout are only for Outlook/Hotmail/Live addresses -- other providers use an App Password in EMAIL_CREDENTIALS. See Remote (HTTP Mode) for the HTTP config.

Smithery

Published with a Smithery config (smithery.yaml). Smithery runs the server over stdio with no build config required; credentials are supplied at runtime through the server's own setup flow (see Configuration). The start command is:

startCommand:
  type: stdio
  commandFunction: |-
    (config) => ({ command: 'npx', args: ['-y', '@n24q02m/better-email-mcp'] })

Documentation

Full docs at mcp.n24q02m.com/servers/better-email-mcp/setup/:

• Setup -- install methods for Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, Windsurf, mcp.json
• Modes overview -- stdio (default) and HTTP (opt-in, multi-user with OAuth 2.1)
• Multi-user setup -- per-JWT-sub credential model

Install with AI agent -- paste this to your AI coding agent:

Install MCP server better-email-mcp following the steps at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/n24q02m/claude-plugins/main/plugins/better-email-mcp/setup-with-agent.md

Tools

Tool	Actions	Description
messages	search, read, mark_read, mark_unread, flag, unflag, move, archive, trash	Search, read, and organize emails
folders	list	List mailbox folders
attachments	list, download	List and download email attachments
send	new, reply, forward	Compose, reply, and forward emails
config	status, setup_status, setup_start, setup_reset, setup_complete, set, cache_clear	Credential setup via browser relay, status check, reset, re-resolve, cache clear
config__open_relay	-	Open the relay configuration form in the browser and return the relay URL
help	-	Get full documentation for any tool

MCP Resources

URI	Description
email://docs/messages	Message operations reference
email://docs/folders	Folder operations reference
email://docs/attachments	Attachment operations reference
email://docs/send	Send/compose reference
email://docs/config	Credential setup and runtime configuration reference
email://docs/help	Full documentation

Comparison

How better-email-mcp stacks up against direct competitors in each pillar:

Capability	better-email-mcp	email-mcp	Gmail-MCP-Server	mcp-mail-server
IMAP/SMTP (provider-agnostic)	Yes	Yes	No (Gmail API only)	Yes
Multi-account	Yes (comma-separated creds)	Yes	No (single global credential)	No (single account per instance)
App Passwords	Yes (no OAuth setup)	Yes	No (OAuth2 only)	Yes
Auto-discovery from email address	Yes	Yes (8 providers)	n/a (Gmail only)	No (manual host/port)
Bundled Outlook OAuth (no user Azure app)	Yes (device-code, Thunderbird-pattern client)	partial (OAuth2 XOAUTH2, experimental)	No (user-supplied Google OAuth)	No
Attachments (list + download)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
HTTP multi-user mode (per-JWT-sub)	Yes (OAuth 2.1, self-hostable)	No (stdio only)	No (stdio only)	No (stdio only)

Remote (HTTP Mode)

Run as a multi-user HTTP server with OAuth 2.1 authentication:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "better-email": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://<your-host>/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Self-Hosting (HTTP Mode)

Single multi-user mode (relay form for App-Password providers + bundled Outlook OAuth device-code):

docker run -p 8080:8080 \
  -e PORT=8080 \
  -e PUBLIC_URL=https://your-domain.com \
  n24q02m/better-email-mcp:latest

Users provide their own email credentials through the OAuth flow / paste form. No server-side EMAIL_CREDENTIALS needed. With the default Docker self-host, per-user credentials are held in an in-memory store (cleared on restart); users re-submit after a restart. Outlook OAuth uses the bundled public Azure client (d56f8c71-9f7c-43f4-9934-be29cb6e77b0, Thunderbird-pattern) -- no user-side Azure app registration needed.

Cloudflare serverless mode (KV-only)

Self-hostable as a per-user serverless instance on Cloudflare Workers + Containers: each JWT sub gets its own Container Durable Object, and all credentials AND Outlook OAuth tokens are AES-256-GCM encrypted into Workers KV (one subs/<sub>/config blob per user) so they survive scale-to-zero / container recreate with no re-auth. The JWT signing key is derived deterministically from CREDENTIAL_SECRET (EdDSA), so the user's identity is stable across recreate. Required secrets: CREDENTIAL_SECRET (per-sub vault + EdDSA), MCP_RELAY_PASSWORD (form gate), MCP_DCR_SERVER_SECRET (intentional multi-user deploy). See wrangler.jsonc.

Keying Outlook tokens by JWT sub (in the per-sub KV blob) resolves the former email-keyed tokens.json ambiguity (CLAUDE.md Known Bug #4): two users' Outlook accounts can no longer collide.

Caveat: localhost IMAP accounts (email:pass:localhost:1993) are valid for local / VM deployments but CANNOT work on Cloudflare — there is no co-located IMAP proxy inside the container. Use a publicly-reachable IMAP host on CF.

Outlook OAuth Device Code (HTTP mode)

In HTTP mode, Outlook/Hotmail/Live accounts use OAuth2 device-code automatically. On first use:

1. The server prints a device code and a Microsoft login URL
2. Open the URL in a browser and enter the code
3. Sign in and authorize the app
4. Tokens are persisted per JWT sub — in the encrypted Cloudflare KV credential blob (subs/<sub>/config) on the serverless deploy, or in ~/.better-email-mcp/tokens.json for single-user / stdio

OAuth uses the bundled public Azure client (d56f8c71-9f7c-43f4-9934-be29cb6e77b0, Thunderbird-pattern) -- no user-side Azure registration needed.

In stdio mode, Outlook accounts use an App Password instead (Outlook Account Settings → Security → Advanced security options → App passwords).

Configuration

Variable	Required	Default	Description
EMAIL_CREDENTIALS	Yes (stdio)	-	Email credentials, email:app-password per account, comma-separated for multi-account. Optional custom IMAP host/port: email:password:imap_host:imap_port
EMAIL_USER	Alternative (stdio, single-account)	-	Email address. Used with EMAIL_APP_PASSWORD as a per-field alternative to EMAIL_CREDENTIALS; merged into EMAIL_CREDENTIALS at boot
EMAIL_APP_PASSWORD	Alternative (stdio, single-account)	-	App password (Gmail/Yahoo/iCloud) or Outlook App Password; used with EMAIL_USER
PUBLIC_URL	No (http)	-	Server's public URL for relay / OAuth redirect links
PORT	No	0 (OS-assigned)	Server port (http mode); set explicitly (e.g. 8080) to bind a fixed port
HOST	No	-	Bind address (http mode)
MCP_AUTH_DISABLE	No (http)	-	Set to 1 to skip Bearer JWT verification when behind an external auth gateway
OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID	No	d56f8c71-9f7c-43f4-9934-be29cb6e77b0 (bundled public client)	Override the bundled Azure AD public client for self-hosted Outlook OAuth2 (or --client-id=<id> on auth, which overrides this env var)
OUTLOOK_EMAIL	No	-	Workaround when Microsoft device-code response omits the email field
OUTLOOK_TENANT	No	consumers (stdio/CLI), common (http device-code)	Microsoft directory to sign in against, used for both the device-code and the token-refresh endpoint. Set common for a work/school (Entra ID) mailbox, or a tenant GUID / verified domain to pin one directory
OUTLOOK_SCOPES	No	https://outlook.office.com/IMAP.AccessAsUser.All https://outlook.office.com/SMTP.Send offline_access	Space-separated scope list. Narrow it (e.g. drop SMTP.Send) for a read-only deployment — a grant consented with fewer scopes cannot be refreshed against the full list
OUTLOOK_EXTRA_DOMAINS	No	-	Comma-separated domains routed to OAuth in addition to outlook.com/hotmail.com/live.com. Needed for a Microsoft 365 mailbox on your own domain, which otherwise looks like a password account

Multiple Accounts

[email protected]:pass1,[email protected]:pass2,[email protected]:pass3

Custom IMAP Host

# Custom hostname (default port 993, implicit TLS)
[email protected]:password:imap.custom.com

# Custom hostname with a custom port
[email protected]:password:imap.custom.com:1993

# Local IMAP proxy -- "localhost" is accepted as a host, even without a dot
[email protected]:password:localhost:1993

Each account can use its own host and port. A non-993 port is treated as plaintext/STARTTLS -- the usual shape for a local IMAP proxy (for example email-oauth2-proxy).

Microsoft 365 work/school accounts

A mailbox in a Microsoft 365 organisation -- including one on your own domain -- signs in through Entra ID rather than the consumer directory, and Microsoft disabled basic auth for Exchange Online in 2024, so an App Password is not an option. Two settings make it work:

# Sign in against the directory that owns the mailbox
OUTLOOK_TENANT=common                      # or a tenant GUID / verified domain

# Route your own domain to OAuth instead of asking for a password
OUTLOOK_EXTRA_DOMAINS=company.com

OUTLOOK_TENANT applies to the token refresh as well as the initial sign-in -- refreshing a work/school token against the consumer directory fails with AADSTS7000012: The grant was obtained for a different tenant.

If the mailbox was consented with a narrower grant (say IMAP but no SMTP), match it with OUTLOOK_SCOPES so the refresh does not ask for more than was granted.

Search Query Language

Query	Description
UNREAD	Unread emails
FLAGGED	Starred emails
SINCE 2024-01-01	Emails after date
FROM [email protected]	Emails from sender
SUBJECT meeting	Emails matching subject
UNREAD SINCE 2024-06-01	Compound filter

Supported Providers

Provider	Auth	Save-to-Sent
Gmail	App Password	Auto (skipped)
Yahoo	App Password	Auto (skipped)
iCloud/Me.com	App-Specific Password	Auto (skipped)
Outlook/Hotmail/Live	OAuth2 (Device Code)	IMAP APPEND
Zoho	App Password	IMAP APPEND
ProtonMail	ProtonMail Bridge	IMAP APPEND
Custom	Via email:pass:imap.host	IMAP APPEND

Security

• Credential sanitization -- Passwords never leaked in error messages
• App Passwords -- Uses app-specific passwords, not regular passwords
• Token storage -- Outlook OAuth tokens saved with 600 permissions
• IMAP validation -- Search queries validated before execution

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/n24q02m/better-email-mcp.git
cd better-email-mcp
bun install
bun run dev

Deploy to Cloudflare

Deploy to Cloudflare

Run your own multi-user better-email instance serverless on Cloudflare (Containers + KV). Each JWT sub gets its own Container Durable Object, and every user's email credentials and Outlook OAuth tokens are AES-256-GCM encrypted into a single Workers KV blob per user, so they survive scale-to-zero / container recreate with no re-auth.

Prerequisites: a Cloudflare account on the Workers Paid plan — required for Containers (the Cloudflare free tier does not include Containers) — and the wrangler CLI.

1. git clone https://github.com/n24q02m/better-email-mcp && cd better-email-mcp
2. wrangler login
3. Create the KV namespace (better-email is KV-only -- no D1 / Vectorize):

   wrangler kv namespace create better-email-kv
   

   Paste the returned id into <better-email-kv-namespace-id> in wrangler.jsonc.
4. Push the container image to your Cloudflare managed registry (CF Containers cannot pull from external registries directly), then set <YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID> in wrangler.jsonc:

   docker pull ghcr.io/n24q02m/better-email-mcp:beta
   docker tag ghcr.io/n24q02m/better-email-mcp:beta better-email-mcp:beta
   wrangler containers push better-email-mcp:beta   # prints registry.cloudflare.com/<ACCOUNT_ID>/better-email-mcp:beta
   

5. Point wrangler.jsonc at your own domain: set <YOUR_PUBLIC_URL> (e.g. https://email.example.com) and <YOUR_WORKER_DOMAIN> (e.g. email.example.com).
6. Set the deploy secrets:

   wrangler secret put CREDENTIAL_SECRET      # per-sub vault key + deterministic EdDSA signing (required)
   wrangler secret put MCP_RELAY_PASSWORD     # gate for the /authorize setup form
   wrangler secret put MCP_DCR_SERVER_SECRET  # proof of an intentional multi-user deploy
   

   Optional Outlook overrides -- only to replace the bundled public Azure device-code client (default needs no user-side Azure app): wrangler secret put OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID and wrangler secret put OUTLOOK_EMAIL. For a Microsoft 365 organisation, also set OUTLOOK_TENANT (and OUTLOOK_EXTRA_DOMAINS for mailboxes on your own domain).
7. wrangler deploy, then open <YOUR_PUBLIC_URL>/authorize and complete the browser relay form.

End-users supply their own email credentials -- an App Password via the paste form, or the bundled Outlook device-code sign-in -- through that relay form; there is no server-side EMAIL_CREDENTIALS. Storage maps to Cloudflare via MCP_STORAGE_BACKEND=cf-kv (already set in wrangler.jsonc); see Cloudflare serverless mode (KV-only) for the encryption and trust details.

Trust Model

This plugin implements TC-NearZK (in-memory, ephemeral). See the mcp-core trust model for full classification.

Mode	Storage	Encryption	Who can read your data?
HTTP remote (hosted)	In-memory Map<sub, OAuthToken>	In-process only	Server process (cleared on restart)
HTTP self-host	Same as hosted	Same	Only you (admin = user)
stdio	platformdirs mcp config dir (config.enc; e.g. %APPDATA%\mcp\Config\config.enc on Windows)	AES-GCM, machine-bound key	Only your OS user (file perm 0600)

License

MIT -- See LICENSE.