Email for n8n: Give Your Agent a Mailbox (MCP or HTTP)

This guide covers both paths in three steps.

Step 1 - Provision a mailbox and a scoped key

Create the mailbox in the dashboard and issue a per-mailbox key - read_write to send and read, read to only fetch codes/confirmations. Store the sm_live_… secret in an n8n credential so it's never pasted into a node:

# Keys are issued from the dashboard, not over REST - the issuance surface is
# deliberately not agent-callable, so a leaked key can never mint or revoke
# another. To get one: Dashboard → API keys → pick the mailbox + a role
# (read / read_write / management) + an optional expiry → copy the sm_live_…
# secret (it is shown ONCE). Then set it for your agent and pass it as the
# Bearer token on every REST + MCP call:
export SAIRAPH_MAIL_KEY="sm_live_…"

Step 2a - MCP path: the MCP Client Tool node (for AI Agent flows)

If your flow uses n8n's AI Agent node, attach the mailbox as a tool:

1. Add the MCP Client Tool node (built into n8n's LangChain nodes) and connect its output to your AI Agent node's tool input.
2. Set the endpoint to https://mail.sairaph.com/mcp/v1/mcp and the server transport to HTTP Streamable.
3. Set Authentication to Bearer and select the credential holding your sm_live_… key.
4. (Optional) Use Tools to Exclude to hide any actions you don't want the agent to call.

The agent now sees the mailbox's send and read actions as tools and chooses them on its own.

Step 2b - HTTP path: the HTTP Request node (for any flow)

For a plain automation (no AI Agent), send with an HTTP Request node. The required Idempotency-Key makes retries safe - a re-run can never double-send:

{
  "method": "POST",
  "url": "https://mail.sairaph.com/api/v1/mailboxes/{{ $json.mailbox_id }}/outbound",
  "authentication": "genericCredentialType",
  "genericAuthType": "httpHeaderAuth",
  "sendHeaders": true,
  "headerParameters": {
    "parameters": [
      { "name": "Idempotency-Key", "value": "={{ $execution.id }}" }
    ]
  },
  "sendBody": true,
  "specifyBody": "json",
  "jsonBody": "={\n  \"to\": [\"agent@acme.dev\"],\n  \"subject\": \"Your verification code\",\n  \"body_text\": \"Reply with APPROVE to continue.\"\n}"
}

The canonical request this maps to:

curl https://mail.sairaph.com/api/v1/mailboxes/$MAILBOX_ID/outbound \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SAIRAPH_MAIL_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": ["agent@acme.dev"],
    "subject": "Your verification code",
    "body_text": "Reply with APPROVE to continue."
  }'

Step 3 - Read inbound on a schedule or on demand

To act on replies and one-time codes, read inbound with a second HTTP Request node (or a Schedule trigger that polls). Use live=true to force an on-demand fetch when a flow is blocking on a code:

# Read inbound from cache, or live=true for an on-demand fetch.
curl "https://mail.sairaph.com/api/v1/mailboxes/$MAILBOX_ID/messages?direction=inbound&live=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SAIRAPH_MAIL_KEY"

How Sairaph Mail fits n8n

n8n orchestrates the steps visually; Sairaph Mail *is* the mailbox - provisioned, two-way, EU-hosted by default, callable as an MCP tool or a plain HTTP node, with a dashboard to watch what your flow sent and received. Generic automation tools make you bring and IMAP/SMTP-configure your own mailbox; here there's nothing to configure. See the MCP docs for the tool path or the REST API docs for the HTTP path.

Next step: get started and provision a mailbox, then drop in either node. Sending notifications? See transactional notifications.