Outlook Assistant

Name: Outlook Assistant
Author: Little Bear Apps

Give your AI assistant full access to your Outlook email, calendar, and contacts.

21 tools for email, calendar, contacts, and more. Safety-first with pre-send mail tips, dry-run sends, and 64% fewer tokens.

MCP Server Released

Get Started View on GitHub

What it does

Everything you'd normally do in Outlook, but from Claude

Email management

Read, search, send, and organise emails. Export full threads as Markdown, EML, MBOX, JSON, HTML, or CSV.

Export an email thread as Markdown for documentation

Calendar and scheduling

View upcoming events, create meetings, decline invites, search meeting rooms — all through conversation.

Check your next meeting's details without opening Outlook

Contact and people search

Full CRUD for contacts plus relevance-based people search across your organisation.

Find a colleague's contact info by asking Claude

Mailbox automation

Create inbox rules, manage categories, configure Focused Inbox overrides, set automatic replies.

Create inbox rules to auto-sort incoming mail

What Outlook Assistant includes

Email search and filtering
Search by sender, date, keyword, and attachment type. Filter by folder, read/unread status, and importance.
Read and compose
Read emails and compose new messages with to, cc, and bcc support. Plain text or HTML.
Thread export in 6 formats
Export conversations as Markdown, EML, MBOX, JSON, HTML, or CSV. Full MIME with headers for forensics and archival.
Calendar management
View upcoming events, create meetings with attendees and rooms, decline invites, and manage recurrence.
Contact management
Full CRUD for personal contacts plus relevance-based people search across your organisation.
Inbox rules
Create, list, and reorder rules to auto-sort, redirect, or flag incoming mail — describe them in natural language.
Categories and Focused Inbox
Create categories with custom colours, apply to messages, and configure Focused Inbox overrides.
Automatic replies and settings
Set up out-of-office messages, configure working hours, timezone, and mailbox preferences.
Shared mailbox access
List and read emails from shared mailboxes in your organisation.
Folder management
Create folders, move emails between folders, and view folder statistics and hierarchy.
Follow-up flags and meeting rooms
Set follow-up flags on messages with due dates, and search available meeting rooms in your organisation.
OAuth2 authentication
Browser-based OAuth with automatic token refresh. Scoped to your account, revocable any time.
MCP safety annotations
Every tool carries readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, and idempotentHint annotations — AI clients auto-approve safe reads and prompt before sends or deletes.
Progressive search
Falls back through up to four search strategies on personal accounts — most Graph API wrappers fail silently, this one adapts.
Email header forensics
DKIM, SPF, DMARC authentication checks, delivery chain tracing, and spam score analysis — built in for phishing investigation and compliance.
Delta sync
Incremental inbox monitoring — returns only new, modified, and deleted emails since your last check, with tokens for continuous polling.
Batch operations
Flag, move, export, or categorise multiple emails in a single call. Up to 20 Graph API requests per $batch. Search-driven export lets you batch-export results without collecting IDs.
Pre-send mail tips
Check recipients before sending — detects out-of-office, mailbox full, delivery restrictions, moderation, and external recipients. No other Outlook MCP server offers this.
Immutable IDs
Opt-in immutable IDs — message and event IDs persist through folder moves for more reliable cross-tool workflows.

How it works

Your AI agent talks directly to Microsoft Graph. I'm not in the middle.

Direct to Microsoft

OAuth delegated permissions

Free and open source

21 tools across 9 modules

What exactly does it access?

What it accesses

Your Outlook mailbox via Microsoft Graph API (delegated permissions)
Email, calendar, contacts, and settings you explicitly grant access to

Where it stores

OAuth tokens: ~/.outlook-assistant-tokens.json

Delete ~/.outlook-assistant-tokens.json to revoke local tokens

Network calls

Microsoft Graph API (graph.microsoft.com)
No Little Bear Apps servers involved

Remove from MCP config to disable

Get started in 60 seconds

Copy this prompt and paste it into any AI assistant:

I want to install the Outlook Assistant server (https://github.com/littlebearapps/outlook-assistant) on my computer. My operating system is Mac. My AI tool is [Claude Desktop/Claude Code/Cursor/VS Code/Windsurf/Codex CLI/Gemini CLI/OpenCode]. Please guide me step-by-step, including the Azure app registration.

Or configure it yourself

Pick your AI agent and add the config manually

Requires an Azure app registration — see the Azure Setup Guide first

Windows/MacOS/Linux

Terminal

IDE

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "outlook": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@littlebearapps/outlook-assistant"],
      "env": {
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID": "your-azure-client-id",
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-azure-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving. Then ask Claude to authenticate — it will open a browser window for Microsoft sign-in.

CLI command or .mcp.json

claude mcp add outlook -- npx -y @littlebearapps/outlook-assistant

Set OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID and OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET as environment variables first. Run this command, then verify with /mcp.

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.outlook]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@littlebearapps/outlook-assistant"]
env = { "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID" = "your-azure-client-id", "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET" = "your-azure-client-secret" }

Save config and restart Codex CLI. Use the authenticate tool to complete Microsoft sign-in.

~/.gemini/settings.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "outlook": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@littlebearapps/outlook-assistant"],
      "env": {
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID": "your-azure-client-id",
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-azure-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Save config and restart Gemini CLI. Use the authenticate tool to complete Microsoft sign-in.

opencode.json

{
  "mcp": {
    "outlook": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@littlebearapps/outlook-assistant"],
      "environment": {
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID": "your-azure-client-id",
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-azure-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to opencode.json in your project root or ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json for global config.

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "outlook": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@littlebearapps/outlook-assistant"],
      "env": {
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID": "your-azure-client-id",
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-azure-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add via Cursor Settings → MCP → Add Server, or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json directly.

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "outlook": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@littlebearapps/outlook-assistant"],
      "env": {
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID": "your-azure-client-id",
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-azure-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your project or user MCP settings.

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "outlook": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@littlebearapps/outlook-assistant"],
      "env": {
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID": "your-azure-client-id",
        "OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-azure-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Enable MCP in Windsurf Settings → Cascade → MCP first, then add this config.

Try these prompts now

Copy one of these into your AI agent to see it in action

"Show me my unread emails from today"

Great first test — reads your inbox

"What meetings do I have this week?"

Checks your Outlook calendar

"Search my emails for invoices from last month"

Uses email search with date filtering

"I was tired of copying emails into Claude conversations just to get help drafting replies or summarising threads."

—

Nathan

Help & support

v3.5.0

Getting Started

Set up Outlook Assistant step by step

How-To Guides

24 practical guides

All Outlook Assistant Help

Guides, reference, and more

Questions about Outlook Assistant

Does Outlook Assistant store or send my emails to Little Bear Apps?

No. All data flows directly between Claude and Microsoft via the Graph API. Little Bear Apps never sees, stores, or processes your email content.

Does this work with personal Outlook.com and work/school Microsoft 365?

Yes. Outlook Assistant supports both personal Microsoft accounts (Outlook.com, Hotmail) and work/school Microsoft 365 accounts. Work accounts may require admin consent.

Is the Azure app registration free?

Yes. Azure app registration and Microsoft Graph API delegated calls are free. Azure requires a payment method on file, but the services used by Outlook Assistant incur no charges.

What permissions does it need?

Delegated permissions only — offline_access, User.Read, Mail.Read, Mail.ReadWrite, Mail.Send, Calendars.Read, Calendars.ReadWrite, Contacts.Read, Contacts.ReadWrite, MailboxSettings.ReadWrite, and People.Read. Optionally Mail.Read.Shared (shared mailboxes) and Place.Read.All (meeting rooms) for work/school accounts. All scoped to your account and revocable at any time.

Does this work with Claude.ai or mobile apps?

No. MCP servers require a desktop client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, or OpenCode) that can run local processes. Web-based interfaces and mobile apps don't support MCP.

Can I access shared mailboxes?

Yes, on work/school Microsoft 365 accounts. Shared mailboxes require the Mail.Read.Shared permission and are not available on personal Outlook.com accounts.

What export formats are supported?

Six formats: EML/MIME (forensics and archival), MBOX (batch archive), Markdown (human-readable), JSON (programmatic), HTML (visual archival), and CSV (spreadsheet import and compliance audits).

How do I revoke access?

Delete ~/.outlook-assistant-tokens.json locally, and revoke the app from your Microsoft account at account.microsoft.com → Privacy → Apps and services.

What changes

• Instead of copying emails into Claude to draft replies, let Claude read and write directly from your mailbox.
• Instead of switching to Outlook to check your calendar before scheduling, ask Claude to check your upcoming events and create the meeting.
• Instead of manually exporting emails for documentation, ask Claude to export a thread as Markdown or EML in one step.
• Instead of navigating Outlook settings to set up rules, describe the rule in natural language and Claude creates it.
• Instead of searching through your contacts app, ask Claude to find the person by name, role, or department.