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Email

Connect Toby to any IMAP/SMTP mailbox to read, search, and organize email from chat.

CLI name: email

Email ships as an installable plugin (toby-plugin-email). Release installs and upgrades place it in ~/.toby/plugins/ automatically. When building from source, run bun run build:plugin:email then toby plugins install ./dist/toby-plugin-email.

Prerequisites

  • An email account that supports IMAP (for reading mail) and SMTP (for sending mail)
  • Your IMAP host, port, username, and password
  • Your SMTP host, port, username, and password
Use the Setup Guide in Toby.app

On macOS, open Toby.appIntegrations → Email and click Setup Guide. The wizard shows the fields you need and walks you through entering credentials and connecting.

How IMAP/SMTP credentials work

The Email plugin uses standard IMAP and SMTP credentials instead of OAuth. You provide:

  • IMAP host and port (e.g. imap.gmail.com:993 for Gmail, imap.fastmail.com:993 for Fastmail, outlook.office365.com:993 for Outlook/Microsoft 365)
  • IMAP username (usually your email address) and password (use an App Password if your provider requires one — see below)
  • SMTP host and port (e.g. smtp.gmail.com:465 for Gmail, smtp.fastmail.com:465 for Fastmail, smtp.office365.com:587 for Outlook/Microsoft 365)
  • SMTP username and password (often the same as your IMAP credentials)

Use port 993 with SSL/TLS for IMAP (recommended) or port 143 with STARTTLS. For SMTP, use port 465 with SSL/TLS or port 587 with STARTTLS.

App passwords

Many providers (Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, Fastmail, and others) require an App Password instead of your regular account password when IMAP/SMTP access is enabled. Create one in your provider's security or account settings and use that password in the configure fields below.

Configure

toby config

Go to Integrations → Email and enter your IMAP and SMTP credentials:

FieldDescription
IMAP HostIMAP server hostname (e.g. imap.gmail.com)
IMAP PortIMAP server port (default 993)
IMAP UsernameYour email address or IMAP login
IMAP PasswordAccount password or App Password (stored masked)
SMTP HostSMTP server hostname (e.g. smtp.gmail.com)
SMTP PortSMTP server port (default 465)
SMTP UsernameYour email address or SMTP login
SMTP PasswordAccount password or App Password (stored masked)

Save the configuration.

Connect

toby connect email

Toby validates your IMAP and SMTP credentials and marks the integration connected.

Verify

toby status integration -i email

Disconnect

toby disconnect email

Example chat prompts

  • "Summarize my unread email from today and list anything that needs a reply."
  • "Find threads about the Q2 launch and suggest archive or label actions."
  • "Search my inbox for messages from alice@example.com from last week."