Agent Email vs Email MCP
A side-by-side look at the Agent Email and Email MCP MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Agent Email for communication work as a local process; choose Email MCP for communication as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose Agent Email when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Communication domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You want tools like
list_emails, read_email, search_emails.
Choose Email MCP when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Communication domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- Its auth model fits you: other.
- You want tools like
email_list_accounts, email_add_account, email_remove_account.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Communication | Communication |
| Quality signal | 63/100 · Good | 68/100 · Great |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | Not declared | other |
| Pricing | Not declared | Free |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 6 | 24 |
| Directory activity | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 6 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 27 | 33 |
| Full listing | View Agent Email | View Email MCP |
Tools & capabilities
Agent Email tools 27
list_emailsList recent emails with filtering by unread status, folder, sender, and limit. Use offset for pagination. A row with `isDraft: true` is an unsent draft — it has NOT been sent, and its `receivedAt` is provider-supplied metadata, not evidence of delivery. Never describe such a row as a sent, delivered, or received email.read_emailRead the full content of an email by ID, transformed to token-efficient markdown. When the response has `isDraft: true` the message is an unsent draft — it has NOT been sent, and `receivedAt` is provider-supplied metadata, not evidence of delivery; never describe it as a sent, delivered, or received email. Set format to 'html' to get the raw body HTML instead of markdown — use this when you need to preserve inline styling (colour, background-colour, underline, strikethrough) that the markdown conversion discards, e.g. to change one sentence of a formatted body and leave the rest alone. Raw HTML costs far more tokens than markdown, so leave the default alone unless you need the styling; check `bodyFormat` (`text` means the message had no HTML part, so do not send it as HTML) before writing a body back, and never write one back with `bodyTruncated: true` — you do not have the whole body. strip_quoted_history and strip_signatures are markdown-shaped text transforms and are NOT applied when format is 'html'; the HTML is returned verbatim. To write it back, call create_draft/update_draft with format: 'html' AND force_black: false — force_black defaults to true and wraps your HTML in a force-black div, so leaving it on nests another wrapper on every round trip. Set strip_quoted_history to true to drop the terminal "On … wrote:" / Outlook-header / `>`-prefix reply chain and replace it with a short marker. Set strip_signatures to true to remove detected signatures and legal disclaimers; it defaults to false here for MCP compatibility even though the core action defaults to true.search_emailsSearch emails using full-text query across one or all mailboxes. Use offset for pagination. Results include unsent drafts: a row with `isDraft: true` has NOT been sent — its `receivedAt` is provider-supplied metadata, not evidence of delivery. Never describe such a row as a sent, delivered, or received email.get_mailbox_statusGet mailbox connection status, unread count, and warningslist_mailboxesList every configured mailbox: its logical `name` (pass this as the `mailbox` argument to other tools), its `emailAddress`, provider, connection status, and which one is the default. Reports mailboxes that failed to authenticate too, so it stays useful for diagnosing a broken setup.get_threadRetrieve all messages in a conversation thread by message ID. A thread can end with an unsent draft reply: a message with `isDraft: true` has NOT been sent, so it is not a sent reply — though earlier sent replies from the same author may exist elsewhere in the thread. Never describe such a message as a sent, delivered, or received email.send_emailCompose and send a new email. Gated by send allowlist. Draft mode bypasses allowlist. If a send fails with SEND_STATUS_UNKNOWN, the message may already have been delivered; do not resend without checking Sent Items. An identical send repeated within the duplicate window is refused with a DUPLICATE_SEND_* code instead of delivering twice; pass allow_duplicate: true only when a human has decided to send the same message again.reply_to_emailReply to an email within an existing thread. Default reply_all=true cc's the original thread; pass reply_all=false to reply only to the sender. Send path validates all effective recipients against the send allowlist; draft path bypasses. If a send fails with SEND_STATUS_UNKNOWN, the message may already have been delivered; do not resend without checking Sent Items. An identical reply repeated within the duplicate window is refused with a DUPLICATE_SEND_* code instead of delivering twice; pass allow_duplicate: true only when a human has decided to send the same reply again.create_draftCreate an email draft with to/cc/bcc recipients. Supports body_file with YAML frontmatter (to, cc, bcc, subject, reply_to, format). Use reply_to for threaded reply drafts, where to and subject are derived from the parent message and may be omitted; pass reply_all=false with reply_to to draft a sender-only reply.send_draftSend a previously created draft. Enforces send allowlist before sending. Rate-limited. If a send fails with SEND_STATUS_UNKNOWN, the message may already have been delivered; do not resend without checking Sent Items. Sending the same draft id twice within the duplicate window is refused with a DUPLICATE_SEND_* code instead of delivering twice; pass allow_duplicate: true only when a human has decided to send it again.update_draftUpdate a draft email. Body edits are refused for reply drafts; non-reply body edits require replace_body=true and replace the body wholesale. Subject, recipients (to/cc/bcc), and attachments remain editable. Allowlist is enforced at send_draft time, not here.cancel_scheduled_sendCancel a pending provider-held scheduled send. Only verified scheduled drafts can be cancelled.- +15 more on the listing page
Email MCP tools 33
email_list_accountsList all configured email accounts and their connection statusemail_add_accountAdd a new IMAP or iCloud email account (Gmail and Outlook require the setup wizard for OAuth)email_remove_accountRemove an email account: deletes its stored credentials, revokes the Google grant for Gmail accounts, and removes Outlook tokens from the local token cache. The result reports whether provider-side revocation succeeded.email_test_accountTest an email account connectionemail_list_foldersList all email folders for an accountemail_searchSearch emails with filters. By default returns compact results without full body content to save context. Set returnBody=true to include full email bodies.email_getGet a single email by IDemail_get_threadGet an email thread by thread IDemail_get_attachmentGet an email attachment by ID, returns base64 encoded dataemail_save_attachmentDownload an email attachment and save it directly to disk, returning metadata only (no base64 in the response) — avoids paying the token cost of round-tripping large attachments through the calling model. outputPath is relative to a fixed downloads directory (/home/user/.email-mcp/downloads, override with EMAIL_MCP_DOWNLOADS_DIR) and cannot escape it.email_sendSend a new emailemail_replyReply to an existing email- +21 more on the listing page
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
Agent Email
{
"mcpServers": {
"agent-email": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"email-agent-mcp"
]
}
}
}
Email MCP
{
"mcpServers": {
"marlinjai-email-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@marlinjai/email-mcp"
]
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
Agent Email is categorized under Communication and uses a local stdio subprocess. Email MCP belongs to Communication and uses a local stdio subprocess. Pick Agent Email for communication work and Email MCP for communication.
Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client.
Agent Email has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. Email MCP is listed as free. Auth: other. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.
Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add agent-email and marlinjai-email-mcp as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, Agent Email has a quality signal of 63/100 (Good) with 1 views, 0 installs and 6 GitHub stars. Email MCP has 68/100 (Great) with 6 views, 0 installs and 24 GitHub stars.