Connect it in two minutes
Add the Nilyo app in ChatGPT, or enable developer mode and add a connector with the URL https://nilyo.com/mcp and OAuth. Then connect the mailbox: give the address and the password and the servers are detected from the address — you normally never type a host or a port. Only if detection fails are you asked for them, and the authoritative place to copy them from is the account settings of the mail client you already use.
What usually blocks the first attempt
Almost always the login. IONOS mailboxes authenticate with the full email address, not the customer number or a short username, and a mailbox created under a domain you also use for aliases will refuse an alias. If two-factor authentication is enabled on the account, an application password from the IONOS control panel is expected instead of the account password. When detection cannot resolve the servers, copy them from the account settings of the mail client already using the mailbox rather than from a forum post.
What it is actually good for here
With several mailboxes on the same domain — contact, invoices, your own — the questions that pay off are the ones that cross them: did anyone answer about the September order, in any box. Each action names the mailbox it runs on, so nothing bleeds between them, and an invoice PDF is read rather than reported as present.
“What arrived since yesterday that needs an answer from me?”
“Find the thread where we agreed the delivery date and quote the message.”
One connection, several mailboxes
Most people with an IONOS domain have more than one mailbox on it: contact, invoices, a personal one. Each action names the mailbox it runs on, so a single question can cross them instead of being asked three times.
When it stops working
Two causes cover nearly everything. The password is refused after it worked: an application password was revoked, or the mailbox password was changed — generate or update it and reconnect the same mailbox rather than adding a second one. The agent suddenly sees nothing: the session expired, and the card in the answer carries the reconnection link. A mailbox that moved host is reconnected with the new servers, not re-added, so anything referring to it keeps working.
Common questions
Can ChatGPT read an IONOS mailbox?
Yes, over IMAP, with the address and the password you already use; the servers are detected from the address.
Why is authentication failing?
Use the full email address as the login rather than a customer number or a short name, and the real mailbox rather than an alias. With two-factor on, an application password is expected.
Can it send as well as read?
Yes. Sending is an explicit action, and creating a draft in your own drafts folder is the safer default while you calibrate how it writes.
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
Related guides
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