imap-smtp-email

What This Skill Does

The imap-smtp-email skill acts as a comprehensive email client interface for your AI agent, enabling it to programmatically read, parse, search, and send messages via standard IMAP/SMTP protocols. By configuring a simple .env file, the agent can interact with virtually any modern email provider, including Gmail, Outlook, and various Chinese mail services like 163, 126, and 188. It automates email management tasks such as polling for new messages, fetching detailed message bodies, searching archives using specific filters, and managing attachments directly from your terminal or automation scripts.

Installation

To integrate this skill into your OpenClaw environment, execute the following command in your terminal: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/apple133junjiang-a11y/imap-smtp-email-chinese

Once installed, navigate to the skill directory and rename the template configuration file to .env. Update the file with your specific SMTP and IMAP host details, port configurations, and authentication credentials. For providers like 163.com, ensure you have enabled IMAP/SMTP in your web-based settings and are using an authorization code rather than your standard account password.

Use Cases

This skill is designed for high-efficiency workflows where human intervention is slow or cumbersome. Use cases include:

1. Automated Notification Parsing: The AI can monitor your support inbox and categorize or prioritize technical alerts.
2. Batch Attachment Processing: Automatically download and extract data from invoices or reports sent to your email.
3. Transactional Outreach: Program the agent to send automated status updates or personalized email responses based on data processed by other AI agent skills.

Example Prompts

1. "Check my INBOX for any unread messages from 'Billing' that arrived in the last 2 hours and summarize the content for me."
2. "Search for the latest email with the subject 'Project Proposal' and download all PDF attachments to the project folder."
3. "Compose and send an email to [email protected] with the subject 'System Status' and inform them that the nightly build completed successfully."

Tips & Limitations

• Security: Always use environment variables for passwords. Never hardcode credentials in your scripts. If your provider supports it, use an 'App Password' instead of your primary login credentials.
• Compatibility: If you encounter connection issues, verify your TLS settings. Most modern providers require IMAP_TLS=true and specific ports (usually 993 for IMAP, 587 or 465 for SMTP).
• Limitations: The tool is primarily designed for automated script interaction. Large-scale bulk emailing should be handled by dedicated transactional mail services to avoid being flagged as spam by providers.