Is there an official IMAP MCP server?
No, and there cannot really be one: IMAP is a protocol standardised in the 1980s, with no vendor behind it to publish a server. What you find instead is a Gmail MCP server here, an Outlook MCP server there, each tied to its own API and its own OAuth app. They work well for those two and cover nothing else, which is a problem the moment a mailbox sits on a European host, on a company server, or on a domain a client manages themselves. Nilyo closes that gap: one MCP server over Gmail, Outlook and any IMAP mailbox, with the same tools for all three, so the host of the mailbox stops deciding what your agent can do.
One URL, OAuth, about two minutes
The server is at https://nilyo.com/mcp over streamable HTTP. Add it as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client and choose OAuth: the client registers itself, opens a browser once, and you sign in and authorize the accounts the agent may reach. No key to generate, nothing to paste into a config file.
One interface, whatever hosts the mailbox
Gmail and Outlook connect with hosted sign-in; a generic IMAP mailbox connects with the host, port and password you already use in your mail client. After that the tools are identical: email_list_folders, email_list_folder_messages, email_get_thread, email_get_attachment, email_create_draft. An assistant that learned to triage a Gmail inbox handles an Infomaniak mailbox with no change, and a workflow can span several mailboxes at once.
“List what arrived in my professional mailbox since yesterday and tell me what needs an answer.”
“Find the thread where we agreed the delivery date and quote the message.”
Folder and message identifiers, resolved not guessed
IMAP identifiers are server-specific and they move: a message that changes folder can change identifier, and a Gmail label is not an IMAP folder even though both look like folders in an interface. The tools return the identifiers to reuse and the errors name the listing to call again, rather than failing on a folder name an assistant invented from its display label. This is the part that makes raw IMAP steps painful in most automation tools.
Dates that mean what they say
Asking for “everything since Monday” has to mean exactly that. Date filtering is exact on both Gmail and IMAP, rather than the day-granularity rounding IMAP servers apply by default — so a morning digest does not silently re-include yesterday, and a report of the last twelve hours is really twelve hours.
“Summarize the emails received in the last twelve hours, grouped by sender.”
Drafts are the safe half of sending
An assistant that is unsure should not send. email_create_draft leaves the message in your mailbox, in your own drafts, where you read it and press send yourself — and email_get_attachment lets it read the PDF it is answering about first. Sending exists too, but a draft is what you want while you are still learning how the assistant writes.
Common questions
Is there an official IMAP MCP server?
No. IMAP is a protocol with no vendor to publish one. A Gmail MCP server or an Outlook MCP server wraps that one provider API and covers nothing else. Nilyo is a hosted MCP server that covers Gmail, Outlook and any generic IMAP mailbox behind one interface — folders, threads, drafts and attachments, with the host, port and password you already use.
Does it work with OVH, Infomaniak, Ionos or a company mail server?
Yes. Generic IMAP is a first-class provider: you connect with the host, port and password you already use in your mail client, and the tools are the same as for Gmail or Outlook.
Is IMAP only for developers?
No. IMAP is what your mail client already speaks; you never see it. You ask for your emails in plain language and the protocol stays underneath.
Can the agent read attachments?
Yes. Attachments are returned as files, so a PDF quote or a scanned document can be read and used in the answer rather than merely mentioned.
Will it send email without asking?
Sending is an explicit action. Creating a draft is a separate one, and it is the safer default while you are calibrating how the assistant writes: the message waits in your own drafts folder.
Can it handle several mailboxes at once?
Yes. Each action names the mailbox it runs on, so one question can cross a personal mailbox, a shared one and a client’s IMAP box in the same answer.
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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