# Give Your AI Agent Its Own Inbox: A 5-Minute Setup with MCP

> Source: <https://dev.to/zhu_726761e22491e810619fc/give-your-ai-agent-its-own-inbox-a-5-minute-setup-with-mcp-2e2p>
> Published: 2026-09-01 03:30:28+00:00

Most email APIs are send-only. But if you're building an agent that needs to

have a *conversation* over email — support, scheduling, invoicing — it needs

to receive replies too, with thread context.

In this post we'll set up an agent with its own mailbox using the Model

Context Protocol. This is an official EngageLab Email tutorial, so feedback

from developers is welcome.

[Create an EngageLab account](https://www.engagelab.com/zh_CN/accounts/signup) and generate a Secret Key from the console (it looks like

`sk_sg_xxx`

— the prefix encodes the region). Or use the CLI to create one

via browser login:

```
npm install -g @engagelabemail/cli
engagelab-email-cli login
```

You'll also need a mailbox — create one in the console (shared subdomain is

fastest to start; custom domains need DNS verification).

For Claude Code:

```
claude mcp add engagelab-email \
  -e ENGAGELAB_EMAIL_SECRET_KEY=sk_sg_yourkey \
  -- npx -y @engagelabemail/mcp
```

Or in `claude_desktop_config.json`

:

```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "engagelab-email": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@engagelabemail/mcp"],
      "env": { "ENGAGELAB_EMAIL_SECRET_KEY": "sk_sg_yourkey" }
    }
  }
}
```

Ask your agent:

List my mailboxes, then send an email from the first one to

[me@example.com]saying "invoice #42 approved", then check for new messages.

The agent now has 9 tools: send, reply, list inbound mail, get a message,

poll for new mail, and browse threads.

`sandbox: true`

in send_email) skips real delivery while
you're iterating on promptsRepo: [https://github.com/Metaverse-Cloud/engagelab-email-mcp](https://github.com/Metaverse-Cloud/engagelab-email-mcp)

Package: [https://www.npmjs.com/package/@engagelabemail/mcp](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@engagelabemail/mcp)

What would you build first — a support agent, or an approval bot?