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Mail Shadow MCP Server

@dryas

Repository

Basic information

Category

Other

Transports

stdio

Author

dryas

Submitted by

Benjamin Kaiser

About Mail Shadow MCP Server

MCP server for structured, read-only email access. Exposes a minimal, auditable API surface — AI agents can search and read emails, but cannot send, delete, or modify your mailbox.

#mail#server#ai-agent#llm#secure

Mail Shadow MCP Server config

Add this server to your MCP-compatible client using the configuration below.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mail_shadow": {
      "command": "/path/to/mail-shadow-mcp",
      "args": [
        "serve",
        "--config",
        "/path/to/config.yaml"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Mail Shadow MCP Server tools

Tool list not available yet

This listing does not currently have a tool list to display. This does not mean the server has no tools; check its documentation for supported capabilities.

We auto-extract tools from the README. The maintainer can list them under a ## Tools heading to populate this section.

Overview

What is Mail Shadow MCP?

Mail Shadow MCP is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that creates a local shadow copy of your IMAP mailboxes in a SQLite database. Instead of connecting directly to your IMAP server, AI agents query the local database through well-defined MCP tools, providing structured email access with built-in safety guarantees.

How to use Mail Shadow MCP?

Configure a config.yaml file with your IMAP account credentials, then run ./mail-shadow-mcp serve (or docker run for containerized deployments). Integrate with MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) by pointing them to the server via stdio or StreamableHTTP transport. Use the provided MCP tools like search_emails, get_thread, and download_attachments to interact with your mail.

Key features of Mail Shadow MCP

  • Local SQLite shadow database – no direct IMAP access for agents
  • Read-only mailbox – no STORE, APPEND, or EXPUNGE commands
  • Incremental sync – fetches only new messages since last sync
  • Full-text search via SQLite FTS5 index
  • Multi-account support – sync any number of IMAP accounts
  • Optional IMAP IDLE for near‑instant new‑mail notifications
  • Soft‑delete (IMAP MOVE to configurable trash folder)
  • Flexible transport: stdio, HTTP (StreamableHTTP), or SSE

Use cases of Mail Shadow MCP

  • AI agents answering questions about recent emails or threads
  • Automated inbox triage and notification summarization
  • Searching email bodies for specific topics or attachments
  • Building a read‑only, auditable email archive for AI consumption
  • Safe mailbox exploration without risk of accidental deletion

Frequently asked questions

1

What happens when an agent calls `delete_mail`?

The server performs an IMAP MOVE to a configurable trash folder and removes the local database entry. No email is ever permanently deleted; it remains intact on the IMAP server in the trash folder.

2

What runtime dependencies does Mail Shadow MCP require?

It requires Go 1.25+ to build from source. Pre‑built Docker images for `linux/amd64` and `linux/arm64` are available on GitHub Container Registry.

3

Where does my email data live?

All synced email data is stored in a local SQLite database at the path specified in `config.yaml` (e.g., `data/mail.db`). Attachments are cached in a local directory. The AI agent never contacts the remote IMAP server directly.

4

What authentication and transport options are available?

For `stdio` transport (local clients), no extra auth is needed. For `http` or `sse` transport (remote/Docker), you must set `http_bearer_token` in `config.yaml` and include an `Authorization: Bearer <token>` header in every request.

5

Does Mail Shadow MCP support IMAP IDLE for real‑time sync?

Yes. You can list folders (e.g., `INBOX`) in the `idle_folders` configuration section. The server opens a dedicated IMAP connection for each folder and triggers an immediate sync upon `EXISTS` notifications, falling back to polling if IDLE is unsupported.

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