Three ways in, one behaviour after
Gmail and Microsoft 365 open their own sign-in page and you authorize there, so no password ever reaches us. A generic IMAP mailbox has no such page: you supply the incoming and outgoing servers, the ports and the password, exactly as your mail client holds them today. That is the only difference. After the connection, listing folders, reading a thread, downloading an attachment or creating a draft work identically whichever of the three you chose.
Two-factor mailboxes need an app password
If your host has two-factor authentication and you connect over IMAP, your normal password will be refused — the host expects an application-specific password generated in its own interface. This trips up most first connections on Gmail with IMAP, on iCloud and on Fastmail. Generate it on the provider’s side, paste that instead, and the mailbox connects. With Google and Microsoft the hosted sign-in handles it for you, which is why it is the easier route when you have the choice.
When a mailbox stops answering
Mail connections break for prosaic reasons: a password changed, an app password revoked, a host that migrated its servers, an OAuth grant expired. The account carries a state and the agent gets an error naming the mailbox rather than an empty inbox that looks like calm. Reconnecting reuses the same mailbox instead of creating a second one, so anything referring to it keeps working — and a mailbox that moved host is reconnected with the new server details, not re-added.
Several mailboxes in one question
Most people have more than one: a personal address, a company one, a shared support box, sometimes a client’s. Each action names the mailbox it runs on, so a single request can cross them — which is the point, because the question “did anyone answer about the September order?” has no reason to stop at one inbox. When a request is ambiguous the agent asks which mailbox rather than picking.
“Did anyone answer about the September order, in any of my mailboxes?”
“List what arrived in the support box since yesterday and tell me what is still unanswered.”
What the agent sees, and what it cannot
It reaches the mailboxes you connected, and nothing else. Mailbox passwords and app passwords stay on our side, never returned in a tool result or visible in an argument. Reading never authorizes sending: a reply is a separate action you ask for, and a draft left in your own drafts folder is the safer default while you calibrate. You can disconnect a mailbox at any time, which cuts every agent at once — and if your company pays for the workspace, that buys seats, not a way for an administrator to read your mail.
Connect once, use from every agent
The mailbox belongs to your Nilyo account rather than to one tool. Connect it today from ChatGPT and it is there tomorrow in Claude, in Cursor, in an n8n workflow, with the same identifiers. That matters more for email than elsewhere, because IMAP identifiers are host-specific: maintaining the same mailbox in four separate integrations means four sessions that expire on four different days.
Common questions
Can ChatGPT access my business email?
Yes, once you connect the mailbox. Gmail and Microsoft 365 connect through their own sign-in; a custom-domain or hosted mailbox connects over IMAP with the server details you already use. After that ChatGPT can list, read, search, draft and send from it.
Does it work with OVH, Infomaniak, Ionos, Gandi or my company server?
Yes. Generic IMAP is a first-class provider, not an afterthought: host, port and password, the same values your mail client holds. Most MCP email servers cover only Gmail and Outlook, which is exactly the gap this fills.
My password is refused. Why?
Almost always two-factor authentication: the host wants an application-specific password generated in its own settings, not your account password. Generate one there and use it for the connection.
Do you store my mailbox password?
Credentials are held on our side to maintain the connection and are never returned to the agent, never visible in a tool argument and never included in a response. With Google and Microsoft there is no password at all, only an authorization you can revoke.
Can it read attachments?
Yes, attachments come back as files, so a PDF quote or a scanned document can be read and used in the answer rather than merely mentioned.
Can my employer read my mailbox because they pay?
No. Company billing covers seats. It gives no administrator access to a member’s mail, messages or calendars, and you can disconnect a mailbox whenever you want.
How Email works with Nilyo
Connection. Gmail and Microsoft 365/Outlook through their official sign-in (the “Unipile” name appears on the consent screen: Unipile SAS operates the connection). Any other mailbox through IMAP/SMTP: OVH, Zoho, iCloud, IONOS, Infomaniak, Fastmail, Yahoo, GMX and self-hosted servers.
What your agent can do. Folders and labels, listing and searching messages, reading with attachments, drafts, sending and true replies, moving and labelling, contacts on Gmail and Microsoft.
Pacing and safety. No local budget; provider limits apply. IMAP mailboxes are read live, so listings are paged (50 messages max per page).
- “How many emails today” uses the folder counts of the mailbox; “today” is a date filter, never a guess.
- On IMAP a message id changes after a move; Nilyo returns the new id so the agent keeps working on the right message.
All Email guides
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