Apple Mail MCP Server

An MCP server that provides programmatic access to Apple Mail, enabling AI assistants like Claude to read, send, search, and manage emails on macOS.

⚠️ Pre-1.0 — expect breaking changes. The MCP tool surface (tool names, parameters, return shapes) is still evolving as the project matures. Pin to a specific version (for example, apple-mail-mcp==0.8.1) and review the CHANGELOG before upgrading.

Tools (23)

Core: list_mailboxes, search_messages, get_messages, update_message Drafts lifecycle: create_draft, update_draft, delete_draft Mailbox CRUD: create_mailbox, update_mailbox, delete_mailbox Attachments & Management: save_attachments, delete_messages Discovery & Rules: list_accounts, list_rules, get_thread, create_rule, update_rule, delete_rule Templates: list_templates, get_template, save_template, delete_template, render_template

See docs/reference/TOOLS.md for full parameter and return-shape documentation.

Prerequisites

• macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later
• Python 3.10 or later
• Apple Mail configured with at least one account
• uv (recommended) or pip

Installation

# From source (recommended for development)
git clone https://github.com/s-morgan-jeffries/apple-mail-mcp.git
cd apple-mail-mcp
uv sync --dev

Configuration

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-mail": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/path/to/apple-mail-mcp", "run", "python", "-m", "apple_mail_mcp.server"]
    }
  }
}

Permissions

On first run, macOS will prompt for Automation access. Grant permission in: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation > Terminal (or your IDE)

Optional: faster search via IMAP

search_messages works out of the box via AppleScript. For large mailboxes (thousands of messages), AppleScript's whose clause can take 1–5 seconds per query. If you want faster server-side search, you can enable IMAP delegation per account by adding a Keychain entry.

How it works. If a Keychain entry exists for an account, the server uses IMAP (fast, server-side SEARCH). Otherwise — or on any IMAP failure (offline, wrong password, timeout) — it silently falls back to AppleScript. You never lose functionality; you only gain speed when IMAP is configured and reachable. No config flags, no environment variables; the Keychain entry's presence is the opt-in.

One-time setup per account.

1. Generate an app-specific password at your provider. The procedure varies:

   • iCloud: appleid.apple.com/account/manage → App-Specific Passwords. Requires 2FA on your Apple ID (default).
   • Gmail: myaccount.google.com/apppasswords. Requires 2-Step Verification on your Google account.
   • Yahoo / Fastmail / AOL: generate an app password in the provider's account-security settings.

2. Run the setup-imap subcommand. It prompts for the password (no echo), writes the Keychain entry, and verifies by connecting:

   apple-mail-mcp setup-imap --account iCloud
   

   Substitute the Mail.app account name exactly — whatever it's labeled in Mail.app (e.g. iCloud, Gmail, "Yahoo!"). The CLI:

   • looks up the account's primary email from Mail.app (override with --email),
   • prompts via getpass so the password never lands in shell history,
   • writes to Keychain at apple-mail-mcp.imap.<account> (idempotent — re-running with a new password updates the existing entry),
   • opens an IMAP connection and runs a real LOGIN to confirm the password works. On rejection it rolls back the Keychain entry so you can retry without leaving a broken item behind.

3. If you see a one-time "security wants to use the 'login' keychain" prompt on the next IMAP-backed call, click Always Allow.

To remove the entry later: apple-mail-mcp setup-imap --account iCloud --uninstall.

Verifying the setup. The setup-imap command does this for you. If you want to spot-check post-hoc:

uv run python -c "from apple_mail_mcp.mail_connector import AppleMailConnector; \
    print(AppleMailConnector().search_messages(account='<ACCOUNT_NAME>', limit=1))"

If IMAP is working, the call returns in ~1 second. If it logs a WARNING about falling back (visible with --log-level=DEBUG), check that the account name matches Mail.app's account name exactly and that the email in your Keychain entry matches what email addresses of account returns.

Known provider quirks.

• iCloud: the IMAP server accepts @icloud.com / @me.com aliases as LOGIN username, not the Apple ID email. The server (and setup-imap) reads email addresses of account from Mail.app for that reason.
• Yahoo: app passwords have been progressively deprecated; the option may not be available for all accounts. If Yahoo's account-security page doesn't show the option, IMAP setup isn't possible for that account and AppleScript is the only path.
• Gmail: requires 2-Step Verification enabled. If your Google Workspace admin has disabled app passwords at the tenant level, IMAP setup isn't possible for that account.
• Gmail thread retrieval — All Mail visibility tradeoff. find_thread_members (used internally by thread-aware queries) is fastest when [Gmail]/All Mail is exposed over IMAP — that path is ~5 round-trips, mailbox-count-independent. Many users hide All Mail (Gmail Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP → Folder size limits → "Do not show in IMAP") because it duplicates every message. When hidden, the connector falls back to a per-mailbox X-GM-THRID iteration (still ~6× faster than the universal BFS, but proportional to your label count — ~25s on a 92-label account). Expose All Mail if you want the headline speed; keep it hidden if you prefer the cleaner IMAP folder list.

Write operations (create_draft, update_draft, including the send_now=true send path) always use AppleScript regardless of IMAP configuration — these need Mail.app's compose UI.

Development

# Setup
uv sync --dev

# Common commands
make test              # Run unit tests
make lint              # Lint with ruff
make typecheck         # Type check with mypy
make check-all         # All checks (lint, typecheck, test, complexity, version-sync, parity)
make coverage          # Coverage report
make test-integration  # Integration tests (requires Mail.app)

# Validation scripts
./scripts/check_version_sync.sh          # Version consistency
./scripts/check_client_server_parity.sh  # Connector-server alignment
./scripts/check_complexity.sh            # Cyclomatic complexity
./scripts/check_applescript_safety.sh    # AppleScript safety audit

Branch Convention

{type}/issue-{num}-{description} — e.g., feature/issue-42-thread-support

Architecture

server.py (FastMCP tools — thin orchestration)
  -> mail_connector.py (AppleScript bridge — domain logic)
     -> subprocess.run(["osascript", ...])
        -> Apple Mail.app

• server.py — MCP tool registration, input validation, response formatting
• mail_connector.py — All AppleScript generation and execution
• security.py — Input sanitization, audit logging, confirmation flows
• utils.py — Pure functions: escaping, parsing, validation
• exceptions.py — Typed exception hierarchy

Security

• Local execution only (no cloud processing)
• Uses existing Mail.app authentication (no credential storage)
• All inputs sanitized and AppleScript-escaped
• Destructive operations require confirmation
• Operation audit logging
• See SECURITY.md for policy and docs/SECURITY.md for detailed analysis

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development workflow, coding standards, and PR process.

License

MIT