Inbox MCP

Overview

Inbox MCP turns your everyday email inbox into a conversational, LLM‑powered assistant that can understand natural language commands and execute them across any major mail provider. By leveraging the Nylas v3 API, the server abstracts away the complexities of Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo, and any IMAP service, exposing a unified set of tools that can be called from Claude or other MCP‑compatible clients. The result is a single, consistent interface that lets developers and power users ask their assistant to “take a look at my inbox” or “archive everything older than two weeks,” and receive precise, XML‑formatted responses that can be parsed automatically.

The server’s value lies in reducing cognitive load for users who spend hours triaging email. It automatically scans, categorises, and prioritises messages based on simple natural‑language prompts, then performs batch operations such as moving, archiving, or forwarding. Because the tools are designed with clear descriptions and consistent parameter sets, LLMs can invoke them reliably without needing custom prompts for each provider. The XML output ensures that downstream workflows—whether a chatbot, an automation script, or a custom UI—can consume the results without additional parsing logic.

Key capabilities include:

• Batch‑friendly operations that work on large sets of messages (e.g., “move the last 100 unimportant emails”) without hitting rate limits.
• Intelligent filtering that distinguishes actionable items from noise, enabling quick inbox‑zero strategies.
• Cross‑platform compatibility with all major email services through a single Nylas integration, eliminating provider‑specific code.
• Zero‑setup convenience: users can connect accounts via the Nylas dashboard, obtain an API key and grant ID, and start issuing commands immediately.

Typical use cases span personal productivity to enterprise workflows. A project manager can ask the assistant to summarize recent AWS alerts and forward them to a team channel; a sales rep can automatically archive old leads while preserving starred messages. In an organization, developers can embed Inbox MCP into internal tools to automate routine email handling or build custom dashboards that display key metrics derived from inbox activity.

Integration with AI workflows is straightforward: an MCP client sends a prompt to the server, receives XML‑formatted results, and can feed those back into the LLM or use them to trigger downstream actions (e.g., sending a Slack notification). Because the server handles all provider‑specific details, developers can focus on higher‑level business logic rather than plumbing email APIs. Overall, Inbox MCP offers a powerful, low‑friction bridge between conversational AI and the day‑to‑day task of managing email.