OpenClaw Email Setup Guide

What does email integration with OpenClaw actually mean?

OpenClaw is an AI agent that can read, draft, send, and act on email once it is connected to a real inbox. Which connection method you use depends on two things:

Most guides cover one provider in isolation. This one covers all of them so you can pick the path that matches your stack. For provider-specific deep-dives, the Gmail-specific deep-dive and the Outlook setup walkthrough go further.

What are the four ways OpenClaw connects to email?

Every email integration falls into one of four buckets. The right choice depends on your provider, your privacy needs, and how much setup you want to handle yourself.

Each method exposes the same agent capabilities — read, summarize, draft, send, archive, label. The differences are in three areas: how authentication works, how much access you grant, and how quickly you can be operational.

Method 1: AgentMail — Managed inbox via Ampere

AgentMail is a dedicated inbox that ships with your agent on Ampere. You do not need an existing Gmail, Outlook, or any other account. Your agent gets its own email address. Any incoming message is delivered straight to its context.

When this fits:

Setup steps:

Behind the scenes Ampere maps the AgentMail inbox to your agent's runtime. The conversation surface includes email alongside chat, Telegram, or Slack. The inbox is permanent for the life of the agent and survives restarts.

Method 2: Gmail via OAuth

Gmail integration uses Google OAuth to grant your OpenClaw agent scoped access to a real Gmail or Google Workspace account.

Required permissions OpenClaw requests:

You approve each scope during the OAuth flow. The agent never sees your password.

High-level setup:

For the full Google permissions walkthrough including OAuth consent screens, scopes, and revoking access, see the Google Workspace permissions guide.

Method 3: Outlook / Microsoft 365 via OAuth

Outlook uses Microsoft Graph OAuth and works for both personal outlook.com accounts and Microsoft 365 business accounts.

Setup steps:

Microsoft 365 admins must approve the OpenClaw app at the tenant level first. Only then can users complete the consent flow. Personal Outlook accounts skip that step.

Method 4: iCloud Mail via IMAP/SMTP

iCloud Mail does not offer OAuth for third-party agents. The supported path is IMAP for reading and SMTP for sending, authenticated with an Apple app-specific password.

Setup steps:

Notes:

Method 5: ProtonMail via Bridge + IMAP

ProtonMail's end-to-end encryption means standard IMAP cannot reach the inbox directly. Proton's Bridge app runs locally and exposes a decrypted IMAP/SMTP endpoint on 127.0.0.1.

Setup steps:

Bridge must run on the same machine as OpenClaw. If you self-host on a VPS, install Bridge there and keep it running as a service.

Method 6: Custom IMAP/SMTP

The universal fallback. Works for FastMail, Zoho Mail, Yandex, custom domain providers, and any mail host that exposes IMAP and SMTP.

Setup steps:

Most providers accept this exact shape. The only fields that vary are the host names and ports.

Choosing the right method

If you are deciding between self-hosting and managed hosting, the self-hosted alternative covers the trade-offs. For agents that need to run continuously to catch incoming mail, see keep the agent running around the clock.

What are the most common email setup problems and how do you fix them?

OAuth flow completes but the agent shows no mail

The most common cause is that OpenClaw was not running when the OAuth callback fired. Restart the gateway and re-run the connection flow. If the issue persists, revoke the app in your Google or Microsoft account and start fresh. A clean reinstall of the integration usually fixes stuck states.

"App password not accepted" on iCloud or Gmail

App passwords require 2FA to be enabled on the upstream account. Confirm 2FA is on, then generate a fresh app-specific password. Old passwords get auto-revoked after long periods of inactivity.

ProtonMail Bridge connection refused

Bridge listens only on localhost. If OpenClaw runs in a container or on a different machine, the connection will fail. Either run Bridge on the same host or use Proton's SMTP relay for outbound only.

Mail arrives but the agent does not respond

Check the agent has the email tool enabled in its tools list. Run openclaw plugins inspect <plugin-id> --runtime --json to confirm the email plugin is live. Cold config can show "enabled" even when the runtime never imported the plugin properly.

IMAP polling delay feels slow

Default IMAP polling is 60 seconds. For lower-latency triggers, switch to IMAP IDLE (push-style) by adding idle: true to your email config. Not every provider supports IDLE reliably.

Security best practices

Prefer OAuth over passwords when available. OAuth scopes are revocable, time-limited, and visible in your account dashboard. Passwords sit in config files and survive rotations.

Use app-specific passwords, not account passwords. Every provider that does not offer OAuth still offers app passwords. Generate one per agent and label it clearly. This way you can revoke a single credential without affecting others.

Start with read-only scopes. Grant send and delete access only after the agent's draft-only behavior has been tested for a few days. The default for sales follow-up flows and similar high-volume use cases is draft-only with human approval in the loop.

Keep credentials off shared filesystems. Use a secrets manager or environment variables rather than committing the config file. Container deployments make this enforceable by default.

Audit which agent has which mailbox. A single agent with access to multiple inboxes is easier to misconfigure than separate agents per inbox. For multi-inbox workflows like remote work routines, an agent-per-mailbox setup stays cleaner over time.

Set up calendar workflows on the same account. If the agent will send meeting invites in reply to email, calendar access usually shares the OAuth consent flow. Approve both at once to avoid re-authentication later.

FAQs About OpenClaw Email Setup