Claude can read your Gmail through Google Workspace MCP. It can manage Outlook through Composio. But if you use Apple Mail, there hasn't been a straightforward option. Until now.

Macuse gives Claude Desktop direct access to your Mac's Mail database. Search, read, reply, forward, compose. All from the chat window. This guide walks through the setup and shows what you can do once it's connected.

Before You Start

You need:

macOS 13 (Ventura) or later
Claude Desktop installed
Apple Mail configured with at least one email account

Step 1: Install Macuse

Download Macuse and drag it to your Applications folder. Launch it from your menu bar.

The app will ask for two permissions that Mail requires:

Full Disk Access to read the Mail database. Open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, then Full Disk Access, and add Macuse.
Automation to compose and send emails. Macuse will prompt you automatically the first time you send.

See the full permissions guide if you need help.

Step 2: Connect to Claude Desktop

The fastest path:

Click the Server card in Macuse
Click Install next to Claude Desktop
Confirm the MCP bundle in Claude Desktop
Restart Claude Desktop

If that doesn't work, edit the config file manually at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "macuse": {
      "command": "/Applications/Macuse.app/Contents/MacOS/macuse",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Save and restart Claude Desktop. Full instructions at Claude Desktop setup.

Step 3: Try It

Start a new conversation and ask Claude something about your email. Here are a few things to try:

Search your inbox:

"Show my unread emails from today"

Claude calls mail_search_messages with a date filter and returns a list of messages with senders, subjects, and timestamps.

Read a specific email:

"Show me the full email from Sarah about the budget"

Claude calls mail_search_messages to find it, then mail_get_messages to fetch the full content.

Reply to a message:

"Reply to that email saying I'll review it by Friday"

Claude calls mail_reply_message with the message ID it already has from the previous search. The reply goes through Apple Mail. Your signature and account settings are preserved.

Compose a new email:

"Email the team at eng@company.com about tomorrow's deploy.
 Include the timeline and ask them to confirm availability."

Claude calls mail_compose_message with the recipient, subject, and body. You can also attach files by giving Claude a file path.

Manage your inbox:

"Archive all newsletters from this week"

Claude calls mail_search_messages to find them, then mail_move_message to move each to your Archive mailbox.

Tips

Attachments. mail_get_attachment exports attachments as base64 data. You can ask Claude to read a PDF attachment or save it to a specific folder.
Multiple accounts. If you have more than one email account in Mail, Claude can search across all of them. Use mail_list_accounts to see what's available.
Bulk operations. Claude can process multiple emails in one conversation. "Mark all emails from [sender] as read" or "Forward the last 3 emails about [topic] to [person]."

What You Can Do

Action	Tool
Search emails	`mail_search_messages`
Read full content	`mail_get_messages`
Get attachments	`mail_get_attachment`
Compose new email	`mail_compose_message`
Reply	`mail_reply_message`
Forward	`mail_forward_message`
Mark read/unread	`mail_update_read_state`
Move to folder	`mail_move_message`
Delete (to Trash)	`mail_delete_message`
Open in Mail.app	`mail_open_message`

Full reference: Mail toolbox documentation

AI Email Triage workflow for automated inbox processing
Inbox Zero workflow for daily email management
All mail workflows