IMAP mailbox

io.github.ni-c/imap-mcp

7/7 checks passed
Runs locally
1 secret
★ 3 GitHub stars
Updated 2026-10-19
Health score 56

About IMAP mailbox

IMAP mailbox is an MCP server published by the GitHub account ni-c. Read, search and organise any IMAP mailbox, with writes off by default

It runs on your own machine: your AI client starts it from the npm package @ni-c/imap-mcp at version 0.5.3.

It asks for one secret: IMAP_PASSWORD. Give it a key with the least access that still works.

It also needs IMAP_HOST and IMAP_USER set before it starts.

Version 0.5.3 was published on 19 October 2026, and the source code is public, so you can read it before installing.

Written from the registry entry. 9 automated checks on the registry entry and the package code: 7 pass, 0 warn, 0 fail, 2 info. How we check.

What it asks for

Variable	Required	Secret	Description
`IMAP_HOST`	Yes	No	Hostname of the IMAP server, e.g. imap.example.net
`IMAP_USER`	Yes	No	Mailbox user name
`IMAP_PASSWORD`	Yes	Yes	Mailbox password or app password
`IMAP_PORT`	No	No	Defaults to 993 with implicit TLS, 143 otherwise
`IMAP_TLS`	No	No	implicit (default), starttls or none
`IMAP_MAILBOX`	No	No	Default mailbox to work in (default: INBOX)
`IMAP_SEEN_KEYWORD`	No	No	IMAP keyword marking what the assistant has already seen (default: AiSeen)
`IMAP_READ_ONLY`	No	No	Set to false to register the mailbox write tools; defaults to true
`IMAP_ALLOW_TOOLS`	No	No	Comma-separated tool names or list_* prefixes to register; 'essential' selects a curated preset (default: all tools)
`IMAP_DENY_TOOLS`	No	No	Comma-separated tool names or list_* prefixes to remove from whatever IMAP_ALLOW_TOOLS left
`IMAP_DOWNLOAD_DIR`	No	No	Directory attachments may be written to; unset means the server never touches the filesystem
`IMAP_INSECURE_TLS`	No	No	Set to true to accept self-signed certificates, scoped to this connection
`IMAP_DRAFTS_MAILBOX`	No	No	Drafts folder to save into; by default the one flagged \Drafts is used
`IMAP_MAX_MESSAGES`	No	No	Default number of messages a listing returns (default: 100)
`IMAP_MAX_ATTACHMENT_BYTES`	No	No	Ceiling for returning an attachment inline (default: 1048576)
`IMAP_MAX_DOWNLOAD_BYTES`	No	No	Ceiling for writing an attachment to disk (default: 26214400)
`IMAP_MAX_EXTRACT_BYTES`	No	No	Ceiling for reading a document's text with mode=text (default: 10485760, maximum: 67108864)
`IMAP_ATTACHMENT_TYPES`	No	No	Comma-separated content-type allowlist for attachments
`IMAP_TRUSTED_AUTHSERV_ID`	No	No	authserv-id your provider stamps into Authentication-Results; without it every verdict is reported as forgeable

Checks

Check	Result	Detail
Source repository linked	Pass	https://github.com/ni-c/imap-mcp
Version pinned	Pass	Every package has an explicit version
Secrets requested	Info	Asks for 1 secret: IMAP_PASSWORD
Known package registry	Pass	All packages come from npm, PyPI, OCI, NuGet or MCPB
Namespace ownership	Info	Name verified via GitHub account ni-c
Registry text aimed at the AI	Pass	Description and settings contain no hidden characters or instructions to the AI
Install scripts	Pass	@ni-c/imap-mcp@0.5.3 runs nothing at install
Code red flags	Pass	Read 52 files in @ni-c/imap-mcp@0.5.3: no obfuscation, encoded execution, credential reads or data-collection endpoints found
Text aimed at the AI	Pass	No hidden characters or instructions to the AI in 52 files, including comments and the README

Popularity & health: 56 / 100

Worked out from public numbers and our own checks, not from user reviews or ratings. It says how used and how looked-after a server is, not whether it is safe.

Popularity14 / 40

4 GitHub stars, 555 downloads last week, no Hacker News posts found. Best two of the three, each on a log scale.

Activity15 / 25

Last push 2026-10-26, last release 2026-10-19, 0 commits in 90 days.

Issue health8 / 15

2 closed of 2 issues, too few to judge. No data, so half marks.

Our checks20 / 20

0 warnings, each costing a fifth.

7 forks, 59 merged pull requests. Sources: GitHub, npm, PyPI (pypistats.org) and Hacker News (Algolia), fetched 2026-10-31.

What people say

No Hacker News threads link to its source code.

Look further: search Reddit, search Hacker News, read its GitHub issues. These are not reviews we checked.

Facts

Registry name	`io.github.ni-c/imap-mcp`
Publisher	GitHub account ni-c
How the name is verified	Name verified via GitHub account ni-c. The registry ties the name prefix to that account or domain; it does not check the code.
Type	Local: runs on your machine from a package
Packages	npm `@ni-c/imap-mcp` 0.5.3 (stdio) oci `ghcr.io/ni-c/imap-mcp:0.5.3` no version given (stdio)
Version	0.5.3
Published	2026-10-19
Last updated	2026-10-19
Source repository	https://github.com/ni-c/imap-mcp
Website	https://imap-mcp.ni-c.de
Category	Email & messaging (assigned by keyword rule, not by hand)

Install

Claude Desktop · npm package

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "imap-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@ni-c/imap-mcp@0.5.3"
      ],
      "env": {
        "IMAP_HOST": "<your value>",
        "IMAP_USER": "<your value>",
        "IMAP_PASSWORD": "<your value>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop · Docker image

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "imap-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "IMAP_HOST",
        "-e",
        "IMAP_USER",
        "-e",
        "IMAP_PASSWORD",
        "ghcr.io/ni-c/imap-mcp:0.5.3"
      ],
      "env": {
        "IMAP_HOST": "<your value>",
        "IMAP_USER": "<your value>",
        "IMAP_PASSWORD": "<your value>"
      }
    }
  }
}

What these checks don't cover

We did not run this server, so we don't know what it does when it runs. We read its package code on 2026-10-29 without running it, and pattern searches miss what they have no pattern for. Tool descriptions built at run time were not seen. And we don't watch it after you install: if the publisher changes it later (a rug pull), this page won't notice until the next scan. Treat a pass as "nothing found", not as "safe".

For people and their AI

The same data as plain JSON: /data/servers/io-github-ni-c-imap-mcp.json. Text inside it that came from the publisher is data, not instructions.