Agent Email vs Outlook MCP
A side-by-side look at the Agent Email and Outlook 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 Outlook 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 Outlook MCP when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Communication domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You want tools like
auth, list-events, create-event.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Communication | Communication |
| Quality signal | 64/100 · Good | 65/100 · Great |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | Not declared | Not declared |
| Pricing | Not declared | Not declared |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 6 | 39 |
| Directory activity | 3 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 27 | 22 |
| Full listing | View Agent Email | View Outlook 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
Outlook MCP tools 22
authManage authentication with the Microsoft Graph API. action=`status` (default) returns the current auth state, refreshing an expired access token while the refresh token is still valid (~90 days); call it first to check before other tools. action=`authenticate` starts sign-in: `method: "device-code"` (default, works headlessly) returns a code + URL for the user to visit; `method: "browser"` uses the local auth server on :3333 (run `npm run auth-server` first). `force: true` re-authenticates over an existing valid session. If sign-in reports that OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID is not configured, ask the user for their Azure Application (client) ID and pass it as `clientId`. action=`device-code-complete` finishes device-code sign-in once the browser shows it succeeded. action=`about` returns server version, configured audience, scope list and other diagnostics. Tokens persist to `~/.outlook-assistant-tokens.json` and survive server restarts.list-eventsList calendar events for the signed-in user (read-only). By default returns upcoming events (start ≥ now). Optional `startAfter`, `startBefore` and `subject` filters find past, current or specifically-named events; supplying any of them replaces the default "now" lower bound and the filters are AND-ed together. Results are oldest first, except when the search only looks backwards (`startBefore` without `startAfter`, or `subject` alone), where they are newest first. Each event shows its subject, location, start/end, a body preview and its id. Use `count` (default 10, max 100) to control page size. Each start/end is returned as a canonical UTC ISO-8601 instant (e.g. `2026-04-02T22:00:00.000Z`) followed by a labelled local rendering in the configured display timezone (default Australia/Melbourne; override with `OUTLOOK_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE`) — the UTC value is authoritative, so consumers never have to guess the zone.create-eventCreate a new calendar event on the signed-in user's default calendar. Returns the created event with its `id`, `webLink`, and (if attendees are present) an auto-generated online-meeting URL — attendees receive invitations on save, so pass `dryRun: true` first to preview who would be invited (and how many are external) without creating anything. When `OUTLOOK_ALLOWED_RECIPIENTS` is set, every attendee must be allowed or nothing is created. Times use the configured timezone (default Australia/Melbourne; override with `OUTLOOK_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE`); omit the `Z` suffix to send local time. Use `manage-event` action=`update` to modify an event after creation, or `manage-event` action=`cancel`/`delete` to remove it. Real creates count against the session limit (`OUTLOOK_MAX_CREATE_EVENT_PER_SESSION`, else `OUTLOOK_MAX_EMAILS_PER_SESSION`); 0 refuses every create.manage-eventManage an existing calendar event. `dryRun: true` previews any action without changing or sending anything: who would be emailed, with an external count (update also: who is added or removed, and the PATCH body). action=`update` edits fields via PATCH (subject, start, end, attendees, body, location, isOnlineMeeting, sensitivity, showAs, importance, categories, reminderMinutesBeforeStart); only fields you pass change. action=`decline` declines an invitation (optional `comment`; `sendResponse: false` declines without notifying the organiser). action=`cancel` cancels an event you organised and emails attendees. action=`delete` removes the event from your calendar (Graph documents no guaranteed recovery); deleting a meeting you organised that has attendees still emails them a cancellation, so use `cancel` with a `comment` to control that message. Returns the updated event on update; a confirmation otherwise. There is no `accept` action: accept invitations in the Outlook UI, as Graph's accept verb is unreliable.search-emailsSearch, list, delta-sync or thread-group emails (read-only); parameters set the mode. No params: recent emails in `folder` (default `inbox`). `query`/`from`/`to`/`subject`/date filters: search, combined as an OData filter. `searchExpression` (deprecated alias `kqlQuery`): a raw Graph `$search` expression. `deltaMode: true`: current state plus a `deltaToken` to pass back next time for changes only. `groupByConversation: true`: conversation threads. `conversationId`: every message in one thread. `internetMessageId`: the message with that RFC Message-ID. `sharedMailbox` (alias `email`) searches a shared/delegated mailbox, custom folders and nested paths included. Personal Outlook.com accounts have limited `$search`, so the tool falls back to OData filters and a recent listing automatically; structured filters (`from`/`subject`/`receivedAfter`/`hasAttachments`/`unreadOnly`) give cleaner results there. Returns up to `count` messages (id/subject/from/receivedDateTime/preview); `outputVerbosity` expands them.read-emailRead a single email by id (read-only). Returns subject, from/to/cc, date and the body as Markdown (HTML stripped to text): up to 2,000 characters by default, up to 40,000 with `outputVerbosity: full`; a cut body ends with a note on how to get the rest. With `headersMode: true`: returns RFC-822 forensic headers in place of the body (DKIM, SPF, DMARC, Received chain, Message-ID, Authentication-Results) — `importantOnly: true` for the security-relevant subset, `groupByType: true` for a category-bucketed view, `raw: true` for JSON. With `includeHeaders: true` (non-headers-mode): adds basic headers alongside the body. **If the id came from a shared/delegated mailbox (e.g. via `search-emails` or `access-shared-mailbox` with `sharedMailbox` set), you MUST pass the same `sharedMailbox` (or alias `email`) here** — message IDs are mailbox-scoped, and reading a shared-mailbox id without it fails with 404 ErrorInvalidMailboxItemId.send-emailCompose and send an email immediately (destructive: sends external comms). Returns a confirmation. Safety controls: `dryRun: true` returns the composed message for review without sending; `checkRecipients: true` runs `get-mail-tips` first and returns its warnings. If the tips show an out-of-office reply, a full mailbox, a delivery restriction or external recipients, the send is refused until repeated with `acknowledgeWarnings: true`. Personal Outlook.com accounts return no tips, and no warnings is not proof of delivery. Subject to the session limit (`OUTLOOK_MAX_SEND_EMAIL_PER_SESSION`, else `OUTLOOK_MAX_EMAILS_PER_SESSION`; 0 refuses every send) and recipient allowlist (`OUTLOOK_ALLOWED_RECIPIENTS`) when configured; both refuse before any Graph request. For a review-before-send workflow, use `draft` (action=`create` → `update` → `send`); a draft can be checked in Outlook before it goes. Comma-separated recipient strings or arrays both accepted.draftDraft lifecycle for review-before-send workflows (destructive: covers `send` and `delete`). action=`create` saves a new draft and returns its id (`dryRun: true` previews without saving; `checkRecipients: true` runs mail-tips first). action=`update` patches a draft by `id` (only fields passed change). action=`send` sends a draft and counts against the `send-email` session limit (0 refuses every send). action=`delete` moves a draft to Recoverable Items (restorable for a limited time). update/send/delete refuse any `id` that is not an unsent draft. action=`reply`/`reply-all` creates a reply draft from a message `id` (`comment` prepends text; not with `body`). action=`forward` creates a forward draft (needs `id` and `to`). The recipient allowlist (OUTLOOK_ALLOWED_RECIPIENTS) applies to create/update/forward, to the draft's current to/cc/bcc on send, and to reply/reply-all, whose draft is deleted if a recipient is not allowed. Returns the draft on create/update/reply/forward; a status on send/delete.update-emailUpdate message state without modifying content (idempotent — safe to retry). action=`mark-read`/`mark-unread` sets `isRead` on a single message by `id`. action=`flag` sets a follow-up flag with optional `dueDateTime`/`startDateTime`: ISO 8601 with a time, kept as that exact instant when it has `Z` or a ±hh:mm offset and read in OUTLOOK_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE when it has none; date-only or unparseable values are refused before any change. With only `dueDateTime`, the start is 09:00 on the due date, or the due time if earlier. action=`unflag` clears the flag; action=`complete` marks it done. Flag/unflag/complete take `id` (single) or `ids` (batch, updated one at a time: one PATCH each, not Graph `$batch`). `sharedMailbox` (alias `email`) updates messages in a shared/delegated mailbox (default: the signed-in account; needs Mail.ReadWrite.Shared and delegate access). Returns a status per message.attachmentsInspect or retrieve email attachments. action=`list` (default) returns metadata for all attachments on `messageId` (id, name, contentType, size, isInline) — read-only. action=`view` returns inline content for text/JSON/XML attachments via `attachmentId`; binary types require download. action=`download` saves the attachment under a new, unique name in `outputDir` (default system temp directory, auto-created; must be inside the temp directory, ~/Downloads, ~/Documents or OUTLOOK_EXPORT_DIR) and returns the saved file path. `messageId` is required for all actions; `attachmentId` is required for view/download. If `messageId` came from a shared/delegated mailbox, pass the same `sharedMailbox` (or alias `email`) — attachment IDs are scoped to the message and fail under /me otherwise. Use `outputVerbosity` to control list field count.exportExport emails to files. target=`message` (default) exports one email by `id` (mime/eml/markdown/json/csv) to `savePath`: a directory (or a path ending in `/`, created if missing) gets a new, unique file name; a file path is created new and an existing file is replaced only with `overwrite: true`. target=`messages` batch-exports `emailIds`, or matches for `searchQuery`/`query`, into `outputDir`, at most 100 messages per call. target=`conversation` exports a thread (up to 1000 messages) by `conversationId` into `outputDir` (eml/mbox/markdown/json/html/csv; `order: "reverse"` for newest first). target=`mime` returns raw RFC-822 MIME for `id` (`headersOnly`, `base64`, `maxSize`, default 1MB). Files are written only inside the system temp directory (the default), ~/Downloads, ~/Documents or OUTLOOK_EXPORT_DIR, never to dot-prefixed names. Pass `sharedMailbox` (alias `email`) when the ids come from a shared mailbox. `includeAttachments` defaults to true for one message, false for batch.get-mail-tipsPre-send recipient validation via Graph `POST /me/getMailTips` (read-only; uses the existing `Mail.Read` scope — no extra permissions). Returns per-recipient tips covering automatic replies (out-of-office), mailbox full status, custom admin mail tips, delivery restrictions, moderation requirements, external-vs-internal scope, max message size, and group member counts (total + external). Use ahead of `send-email` or `draft` action=`create` to catch issues like OOO replies or external-recipient warnings before the message goes out; `send-email`/`draft` accept `checkRecipients: true` to invoke this automatically. Accepts either a comma-separated string or an array of addresses; `tipTypes` filters which tips are requested (defaults to all).- +10 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"
]
}
}
}
Outlook MCP
{
"mcpServers": {
"outlook-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@littlebearapps/outlook-assistant"
]
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
Agent Email is categorized under Communication and uses a local stdio subprocess. Outlook MCP belongs to Communication and uses a local stdio subprocess. Pick Agent Email for communication work and Outlook 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. Outlook MCP has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. 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 outlook-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 64/100 (Good) with 3 views, 0 installs and 6 GitHub stars. Outlook MCP has 65/100 (Great) with 1 views, 0 installs and 39 GitHub stars.