Connect an AI app or agent to PowerMail over MCP

Goal

Let an AI app or agent on your PC work with your mail, calendar and todos within the permissions you choose.

Before you start

• An MCP client on the same PC as PowerMail, such as Claude, Cursor, VS Code or Hermes Agent.
• PowerMail open with your accounts signed in.

Steps

1. Open Apps & agents Open Settings > Apps & agents (MCP). MCP is the Model Context Protocol, the way other software and AI agents connect to PowerMail. Check that Allow connected apps is on: off refuses every agent and turns pairing off.
2. Start pairing Click Pair an app, then Get started. Under What are you connecting?, pick Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Hermes Agent, OpenClaw, Nemotron or Custom (for any other MCP client), and give it a name.
3. Choose what it may do Pick Read only (search and read your mail, calendar and todos), Read and organize (also plan and move todo blocks), Everything, with your OK (also send, file and delete mail and manage your calendar) or Custom to choose each permission. Changes ask you first unless you've allowed them under Approvals. Click Pair.
4. Copy the setup into your app Click Copy setup (Copy command for Hermes Agent). The setup carries this app's token and is shown only once, so paste it right away; then click Continue. The dialog then shows your app's own steps, for example for Claude: Settings > Developer > Edit Config, paste it in, then fully quit Claude and open it again. Setup configuration shows the full block, the raw token and the alternate command for Claude Code.
5. Check the connection Ask your app something about your mail. PowerMail waits for its first call and then shows that the app is connected. Keep PowerMail running: the agent works through it, and anything that needs your OK asks you there.
6. Manage a paired app Each paired app is listed with its level and pairing date. Its switch turns it on or off. Expand it to change single permissions, limit it to some accounts (All accounts includes accounts you add later), or Remove this agent, which stops its token from working; pair again to reconnect.
7. Set the limits Open Safety & approvals. Never let an agent skip approvals entirely keeps every ask in place, even for an app paired with Allow without asking me each time (unrestricted); it's recommended on. Keep the terminal read-only stops the pm command from changing mail or events or pairing agents. Notify me when an agent acts shows a notification with a Pause all AI button. Open Approvals sets what agents may do without asking.
8. See what agents did Open History for what paired agents did or tried on this PC. Filter by Missed, Changes, You ran it, Declined, Problems or Reads, or click Clear history. Requests nobody answered that are still open wait in the AI inbox under Drafts.

Tips

• Most agents learn how to use PowerMail when they connect. If yours doesn't, open Setup guide and click Copy note under Teach your agent about PowerMail, then add the note to its skills or memory.
• To stop one agent, switch it off or remove it. To stop all of them, turn off Allow connected apps.

Result

Your app is paired and connected, works within the permissions you chose, and asks you before any change you haven't allowed.

If something goes wrong

• The setup says no call from your app yet. Check that the setup is in the app's MCP settings and that the app was restarted, that PowerMail's pm command can be found on this PC, and that you asked the app something about your mail. Back shows the setup again.
• Pairing stops with: Connected apps are turned off. Turn on Allow connected apps in Settings > Apps & agents (MCP), then pair.
• You closed the dialog without copying the setup. It can't be shown again. Pair the app again under the same name: that replaces its setup and permissions.
• An agent's actions are refused with AI is paused. Pause all AI is on. Click Resume AI in Settings > Apps & agents (MCP), or switch Pause all AI off from the Assistant button's right-click menu or the tray.

Related guides

• AI ASSISTANT & BRAIN
  Brain and approvals: what the AI remembers and asks See what the assistant remembers and has learned in the Brain, remove what's wrong, and decide which actions it must ask you about first.
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• AI ASSISTANT & BRAIN
  Set up AI with LM Studio, Foundry Local or a cloud service Connect PowerMail's assistant to an AI runtime you run on your PC, such as LM Studio or Microsoft Foundry Local, or to a cloud service, and choose what AI helps with.
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