Email IMAP/SMTP

Email IMAP/SMTP

Use this skill to automate email operations with standard IMAP/SMTP protocols using local scripts.

Workflow

1. Confirm provider and auth mode (password or oauth2).
2. Run connection checks first.
3. List/search emails before reading full content.
4. Send email only after previewing key fields (to/subject/body/attachments).

Security Rules

• Prefer app passwords over account login passwords in password mode.
• Prefer OAuth2 tokens for Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, AOL, and Zoho.
• Do not print secrets in terminal output.
• Load credentials from environment variables whenever possible.
• Avoid storing real credentials in repository files.

Required Inputs

• Email address (login username)
• Authentication:
  • Password mode: app password / authorization code
  • OAuth2 mode: access token, or refresh token + client info
• IMAP host/port
• SMTP host/port

Use references/provider-presets.md for common provider host/port defaults.

Script

Run:

python scripts/email_ops.py --help

Subcommands:

• check: Verify IMAP/SMTP login connectivity.
• list: List recent/unread email summaries.
• read: Read one email by UID.
• send: Send an email with optional HTML and attachments.
• token: Resolve OAuth2 access token (masked output by default).
• auth-url: Build OAuth2 browser login URL for authorization code flow.

Common Commands

Check mailbox connectivity:

python scripts/email_ops.py check --provider qq --email you@qq.com

Check connectivity with OAuth2 (Gmail):

python scripts/email_ops.py check --provider gmail --email you@gmail.com --auth-mode oauth2 --access-token ""

List unread emails:

python scripts/email_ops.py list --provider qq --email you@qq.com --unseen --limit 20

Read one email:

python scripts/email_ops.py read --provider qq --email you@qq.com --uid 12345

Send email:

python scripts/email_ops.py send --provider qq --email you@qq.com --to friend@example.com --subject "Test" --body "Hello from Codex"

Resolve a new OAuth2 token from refresh token:

python scripts/email_ops.py token --provider outlook --email you@outlook.com --auth-mode oauth2 --refresh-token "" --client-id "" --client-secret ""

Build OAuth2 authorization URL (Gmail example):

python scripts/email_ops.py --provider gmail --client-id "" --redirect-uri "http://localhost:8080/callback" auth-url

Environment Variables

• EMAIL_ADDRESS: Login email address.
• EMAIL_PROVIDER: Provider preset key (for example qq, gmail, outlook, yahoo, aol, zoho, icloud).
• EMAIL_AUTH_MODE: auto/password/oauth2.
• EMAIL_APP_PASSWORD or EMAIL_PASSWORD: Password mode credential.
• EMAIL_ACCESS_TOKEN: OAuth2 access token.
• EMAIL_REFRESH_TOKEN: OAuth2 refresh token.
• EMAIL_TOKEN_ENDPOINT: OAuth2 token endpoint.
• EMAIL_AUTH_ENDPOINT: OAuth2 authorization endpoint.
• EMAIL_CLIENT_ID: OAuth2 client id.
• EMAIL_CLIENT_SECRET: OAuth2 client secret.
• EMAIL_REDIRECT_URI: OAuth2 redirect URI for auth-url.
• EMAIL_SCOPE: Optional scope for refresh request.
• EMAIL_IMAP_HOST, EMAIL_IMAP_PORT: Override IMAP endpoint.
• EMAIL_SMTP_HOST, EMAIL_SMTP_PORT: Override SMTP endpoint.
• EMAIL_SMTP_SSL: true/false, default from provider preset.

Troubleshooting

• Authentication failed in password mode: confirm app password and IMAP/SMTP permissions are enabled.
• Authentication failed in OAuth2 mode: confirm token has IMAP/SMTP scopes and token endpoint/client info are correct.
• SSL/TLS handshake failed: verify host/port pair and whether SMTP SSL is enabled.
• Empty list results: switch mailbox folder (--mailbox) or remove filters.