owlpost MCP server

owlpost

<!-- mcp-name: io.github.smankoo/owlpost -->

A high-fidelity IMAP/SMTP MCP server for iCloud, Gmail, and other mail providers. Built because every other email MCP server I tried got tripped up by real-world IMAP quirks (CRLF line endings, RFC822 vs BODY.PEEK[], provider-specific Sent folders, multi-word search values).

owlpost is the one I actually use day-to-day from Claude Code to read, search, follow conversations, and send mail.

uvx owlpost

Contents

• Features
• Tools
• Install
• Configure
• Client setup — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Docker
• Provider notes — iCloud, Gmail, Proton Bridge, generic
• Security
• Troubleshooting
• Development

Features

• Multi-account — configure as many mailboxes as you want, switch by name
• iCloud and Gmail tested end-to-end, with provider-specific quirks handled:
• iCloud's RFC822 fetch returns empty bodies → uses BODY.PEEK[]
• iCloud's IMAP APPEND requires CRLF line endings → all outbound mail uses policy.SMTP
• iCloud's SMTP doesn't auto-save sent mail → owlpost APPENDs to Sent for you
• Gmail's SMTP does auto-save → owlpost skips the duplicate APPEND
• Folder names auto-discovered via RFC 6154 SPECIAL-USE (no hardcoding Sent Messages vs [Gmail]/Sent Mail)
• Servers without the MOVE extension get COPY + \Deleted + EXPUNGE instead
• Proton Bridge omits UID from FETCH responses unless asked → owlpost always asks
• Conversation following — Gmail's X-GM-THRID extension where available, otherwise a generic Message-ID/References BFS across folders
• Reliable connections — short-lived per-operation IMAP sessions instead of long-lived ones that drop randomly
• MIME-aware — parses multipart messages, decodes headers, lists attachments, downloads them to disk

Tools

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.