Email Reader
Read, search, and manage emails from your inbox, including downloading attachments and listing folders.
mcp_email_reader
Model Context Protocol (MCP) server exposes several mcp tools called search_emails, download_attachment and list_folders. This has been tested on Claude Desktop and LibreChat with Ollama.
Installation
Prerequisites
Windows
-
Install Claude Desktop (or another MCP-enabled AI tool)
- Download Claude for Desktop
- Follow the current installation instructions: Installing Claude Desktop
-
Install Python 3.10 or higher:
- Download the latest Python installer from python.org
- Run the installer, checking "Add Python to PATH"
- Open Command Prompt and verify installation with
python --version
-
Install uv:
- Open Command Prompt as Administrator
- Run
pip install --user uv
- Verify installation with
uv --version
macOS
-
Install Claude Desktop (or another MCP-enabled AI tool)
- Download Claude for Desktop
- Follow the current installation instructions: Installing Claude Desktop
-
Install Python 3.10 or higher:
- Using Homebrew:
brew install python
- Verify installation with
python3 --version
- Using Homebrew:
-
Install uv:
- Using Homebrew:
brew install uv
- Alternatively:
pip3 install --user uv
- Verify installation with
uv --version
- Using Homebrew:
Configuration
Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json
:
{
"mcpServers": {
"mcp_email_reader": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"--from",
"git+https://github.com/karateboss/mcp_email_reader@main",
"mcp_email_reader"
],
"env": {
"IMAP_SERVER": "<email server>",
"EMAIL_ACCOUNT": "<user email account>",
"EMAIL_PASSWORD_ENC": "<encrypted password>"
"EMAIL_SECRET_KEY": "<secret key used to encypt password>"
}
}
}
Note: Clearly, the secret key can be used to decrypt the encrypted password and is therefore a potential security risk - although claude_desktop_config.json is stored locally on your laptop/PC. It has been added to the json file above since it is not possible to add a .env file when using uvx to clone the repo dynamically.
Attribution
This software package implements the ability to read emails into a MCP enabled framework and is developed by karateboss.
Contributing
We welcome contributions to improve these tools. Please submit issues and pull requests through our repository.
Support
For questions and support:
- Check our documentation
- Submit an issue in our repository
Related Servers
CData Email Server
A read-only MCP server for querying live email data using the CData JDBC Driver.
Integration App
Interact with any other SaaS applications on behalf of your customers.
Mailtrap
Integrates with Mailtrap Email API.
KimpalbokTV Slack
A Slack server for managing workspace channels, messages, and users, created by KimpalbokTV.
RetellAI
Interact with RetellAI's voice services to create conversational voice AI.
Voice Mode
A server for natural voice conversations with AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT.
AllVoiceLab
An AI voice toolkit with TTS, voice cloning, and video translation, now available as an MCP server for smarter agent integration.
Sinch Engage / MessageMedia MCP server
Sinch Engage (Sinch MessageMedia in AU) MCP server, which provides Sinch Engage APIs as MCP tools.
VRChat MCP OSC
A bridge between AI assistants and VRChat using MCP and OSC, enabling AI-driven avatar control and interactions in virtual reality.
Gmail
Query live Gmail data using LLMs via CData's read-only MCP server.