Yes, Apple Mail is free to use.

How do I install Apple Mail?

Apple Mail is a local plugin. Install it using PyPI package: apple-mail-mcp and add the generated configuration snippet to your AI app's MCP config file. Then restart your AI app.

What AI apps work with Apple Mail?

Apple Mail uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and works with any MCP-compatible AI app, including Claude, ChatGPT / Codex, Gemini, Copilot, Cursor, and more.

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Apple Mail MCP Server

by Imdinu

Developer ToolsModerate6.5MCP RegistryLocal

Free

Server data from the Official MCP Registry

Fast MCP server for Apple Mail with batch JXA and FTS5 search index.

About

Fast MCP server for Apple Mail with batch JXA and FTS5 search index.

Security Report

6.5

Moderate6.5Moderate Risk

Valid MCP server (1 strong, 2 medium validity signals). 3 known CVEs in dependencies (1 critical, 1 high severity) Package registry verified. Imported from the Official MCP Registry.

4 files analyzed · 4 issues found

Security scores are indicators to help you make informed decisions, not guarantees. Always review permissions before connecting any MCP server.

Permissions Required

This plugin requests these system permissions. Most are normal for its category.

database

Check that this permission is expected for this type of plugin.

env_vars

Check that this permission is expected for this type of plugin.

How to Install

Add this to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "io-github-imdinu-apple-mail-mcp": {
      "args": [
        "apple-mail-mcp"
      ],
      "command": "uvx"
    }
  }
}

Documentation

View on GitHub

From the project's GitHub README.

Apple Mail MCP

The only Apple Mail MCP server with full-text email search. Reliable on large mailboxes where other servers timeout — with 8 tools for reading, searching, and extracting email content.

Read the docs for the full guide.

Quick Start

pipx install apple-mail-mcp

Add to your MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mail": {
      "command": "apple-mail-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Build the Search Index (Recommended)

# Requires Full Disk Access for Terminal
# System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access → Add Terminal

apple-mail-mcp index --verbose

Tools

Tool	Purpose
`list_accounts()`	List email accounts
`list_mailboxes(account?)`	List mailboxes
`get_emails(filter?, limit?)`	Get emails — all, unread, flagged, today, last_7_days
`get_email(message_id)`	Get single email with full content + attachments
`search(query, scope?, before?, after?, highlight?)`	Search — all, subject, sender, body, attachments
`get_email_links(message_id)`	Extract links from an email
`get_email_attachment(message_id, filename)`	Extract attachment content
`get_attachment(message_id, filename)`	Deprecated — use `get_email_attachment()`

Performance

Tested against 6 other Apple Mail MCP servers on a 30K+ email mailbox:

Only server that completes all operations without timing out
Only server with full-text body search (FTS5 index, ~20ms)
5ms single email fetch via disk-first .emlx reading
7–9ms subject search via FTS5 (vs 230ms+ for AppleScript-based servers)

Capability Matrix

Configuration

Variable	Default	Description
`APPLE_MAIL_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT`	First account	Default email account
`APPLE_MAIL_DEFAULT_MAILBOX`	`INBOX`	Default mailbox
`APPLE_MAIL_INDEX_PATH`	`~/.apple-mail-mcp/index.db`	Index location
`APPLE_MAIL_INDEX_MAX_EMAILS`	`5000`	Max emails indexed per mailbox
`APPLE_MAIL_INDEX_EXCLUDE_MAILBOXES`	`Drafts`	Mailboxes to skip in search
`APPLE_MAIL_READ_ONLY`	`false`	Disable write operations

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mail": {
      "command": "apple-mail-mcp",
      "args": ["--watch"],
      "env": {
        "APPLE_MAIL_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT": "Work"
      }
    }
  }
}

CLI Usage

All tools are also available as standalone CLI commands (no MCP server needed):

apple-mail-mcp search "quarterly report" --scope subject
apple-mail-mcp search "invoice" --after 2026-01-01 --limit 10
apple-mail-mcp read 12345
apple-mail-mcp emails --filter unread --limit 10
apple-mail-mcp accounts
apple-mail-mcp mailboxes --account Work
apple-mail-mcp extract 12345 invoice.pdf

All commands output JSON. Generate a Claude Code skill for CLI-based access:

apple-mail-mcp integrate claude > ~/.claude/skills/apple-mail.md

Migrating from apple-mcp?

If you used supermemoryai/apple-mcp (archived January 2026), apple-mail-mcp is a maintained alternative for the Mail portion specifically. Notes, Messages, Contacts, Calendar, and Reminders are out of scope.

apple-mcp (`mail` tool, action)	apple-mail-mcp
`read_emails`	`get_emails(filter?, limit?)` + `get_email(message_id)`
`search_emails`	`search(query, scope?)` — 5 scopes: all, subject, sender, body, attachments
`send_email`	Not yet supported (planned)

What's different: available on PyPI (pipx install apple-mail-mcp), full-text body search via FTS5 (~20ms), disk-first single-email reads (~5ms), reliable on large mailboxes (30K+) where AppleScript-based servers timeout.

Development

git clone https://github.com/imdinu/apple-mail-mcp
cd apple-mail-mcp
uv sync
uv run ruff check src/
uv run pytest

License

GPL-3.0-or-later

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Apple Mail MCP Server

About

Security Report

Findings (4)Action required

Permissions Required

How to Install

Documentation

Apple Mail MCP

Quick Start

Build the Search Index (Recommended)

Tools

Performance

Configuration

CLI Usage

Migrating from apple-mcp?

Development

License

Reviews

No reviews yet

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