Compared with other tools

See what Mail does and does not do: read-only IMAP sync into the shared store, search left to memo, no sending, no Outlook yet.

mail is a command line and an MCP server that copies your mailbox over IMAP into the shared WireCat store on your computer. This page puts it next to the other mail command lines and MCP servers, so you can see which one fits your job. The marks for mail come from its documentation and source, checked on 1 November 2026 against its first release (0.1.0). The marks for the other tools come from their own READMEs and documentation, checked on 28 October 2026. Nothing was logged in to or tested against a real mailbox, and a tool may do more than its pages say.

The tools:

mail: this tool. Copies a mailbox over IMAP into the shared store and never changes the mailbox. It does not send mail. You search and read the stored mail with memo.
Himalaya: a Rust command line for mail over IMAP, SMTP, JMAP, Gmail, Microsoft Graph, Maildir and mbox (v2.2.1, 2 October 2026).
mu: indexes a Maildir into a search database, with a fast search command line (v1.14.4, 14 October 2026).
gog: one command line for Gmail, Calendar, Drive and more, built for agents, with an MCP server (v0.47.1, 27 October 2026).
Google Workspace MCP: an MCP server for 12 Google services, 15 of its tools for Gmail (v2.2.1, 27 October 2026).
Microsoft 365 MCP: an MCP server for Microsoft Graph, with Outlook mail among 300 or more tools (v0.176.0, 28 October 2026).

NeoMutt is not in the table: it is a mail program for a person at a terminal, and its pages say little about agents. It is named below.

✅ yes · 🟡 partly · ❌ no · ➖ not in its documentation · n/a does not apply

Features

Task	mail	Himalaya	mu	gog	Workspace MCP	Microsoft 365 MCP
Read and search
See new or unread mail	❌¹	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Search by sender, date and words in one query	❌¹	✅	✅	✅	✅	➖
Read and search with no internet	❌¹	🟡	✅	➖	➖	➖
Find a message with an attachment and save the file	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Keep a copy
Copy a big mailbox in parts and carry on after a stop	✅	➖	➖	➖	➖	➖
Keep mail in one store with chats, meetings and notes, and search them together	✅²	➖	➖	➖	➖	➖
Organise and send
Move, archive, flag or delete a message	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Send, reply or forward	❌	✅	🟡	✅	✅	✅
Keep a draft without sending it	❌	✅	➖	✅	✅	✅
Mailboxes and providers
Use several mailboxes in one tool	✅	✅	➖	✅	🟡	✅
Any IMAP mailbox that offers app passwords (Yandex, iCloud, Fastmail, your own server)	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Gmail	🟡³	✅	🟡	✅	✅	n/a
Outlook and Microsoft 365	❌⁴	🟡	➖	n/a	n/a	✅
Agents and safety
An agent can read mail but not send or change it	✅⁵	➖	➖	✅	✅	✅
Allow or deny single commands for an agent	✅	➖	➖	✅	✅	✅
Preview what a command would do before it runs	🟡⁶	➖	➖	✅	➖	➖
Tell the agent that mail text is data, not instructions	✅	➖	➖	✅	➖	➖
MCP server	✅	➖	➖	✅	✅	✅
Mailbox password kept in the system keyring	🟡⁷	➖	➖	➖	➖	➖
Setup
Start from just an address, with no cloud app to register first	✅	✅	➖	❌	❌	✅
Sign in with OAuth	❌⁴	❌	➖	✅	✅	✅
MCP over HTTP, for Claude or ChatGPT in the browser	✅	➖	➖	➖	✅	✅

Requirement	mail	Himalaya	mu	gog	Workspace MCP	Microsoft 365 MCP
Install	npm, Node 22.16 or later	brew, cargo or a release file	distro package or meson build	brew or go install	uvx	npx
Licence	Apache-2.0	Apache-2.0	GPL-3.0	MIT	MIT	MIT

¹ memo does this. mail has no list, show or search command. It fills the store, and memo lists, searches and reads what is in it, with no internet.

² The store is shared with the other WireCat tools. The search across all of it is done by memo.

³ mail signs in to Gmail with an app password. It does not use Gmail's labels, and a Google Workspace domain that turns app passwords off cannot be used.

⁴ OAuth sign-in is the next item on the roadmap. Microsoft accepts only OAuth for IMAP, so Outlook and Microsoft 365 mailboxes cannot be added yet.

⁵ mail has no command that sends, moves, flags or deletes mail. MAIL_READ_ONLY=1 also refuses every write to the local store. memo mail delete is a separate command of memo, not of mail: it moves Gmail mail to Trash.

⁶ --dry-run shows the parsed arguments and the permissions of a command before it runs. It does not list the mail a command would change.

⁷ The system keyring is the default. When it fails, mail keeps the password in a private file (mode 600) and says so once. It also reads MAIL_PASSWORD and an entry that Himalaya left in the keyring.

Notes on the Himalaya column: its marks come from its README, and from the read only --help of v2.2.1. Nothing was run against a mailbox. Its pages name no read only mode, no command allowlist and no MCP server.

Notes on the mail column:

Read only. mail cannot change or send mail, so an agent that uses it cannot either. Sending is not planned in the roadmap. Memo's own memo mail delete moves Gmail mail to Trash, so give an agent mail alone if it must change nothing.
Attachments. mail stores text and headers. It does not store attachment bytes.
Permissions. Each profile sets allow, ask, readonly or deny per command. Over MCP no one can answer an ask, so the command runs. --permission on mcp serve can only make a profile stricter. See settings.
Speed and cost against a browser agent. mail reads the mail server over IMAP and opens no browser. No measurement of it against a browser agent is published, so this page makes no claim.

When another tool fits better

Himalaya: you want to send, reply, move or delete mail from the terminal, or you use a provider that is not IMAP, such as JMAP or Microsoft Graph.
gog: you use Gmail only and want an agent that can read and draft, with a switch that stops sending, and commands compiled in so the agent cannot widen them.
Microsoft 365 MCP: your mailbox is Outlook or Microsoft 365 and an agent must use it today. mail has no OAuth yet.
mu: you already keep a Maildir and want a fast search over it with attachments and threads.

If mail fits, start with installation. To connect an agent, see use it.

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When another tool fits better