How to Set an Out-of-Office Reply

Enable automatic replies so people know you’re away. Set separate messages for colleagues and external contacts, and schedule replies for specific dates.

Enable an Immediate Out-of-Office#

“Turn on my out-of-office reply”

tool: mailbox-settings
params:
  action: "set-auto-replies"
  enabled: true
  internalReplyMessage: "I'm currently out of the office and will respond when I return."

This turns on auto-replies immediately and keeps them on until you disable them.

Schedule Auto-Replies for Specific Dates#

“Set my out-of-office from March 10 to March 15”

tool: mailbox-settings
params:
  action: "set-auto-replies"
  enabled: true
  startDateTime: "2026-03-10T00:00:00Z"
  endDateTime: "2026-03-15T23:59:59Z"
  internalReplyMessage: "I'm on leave from 10–15 March. Back Monday 16th."

Scheduled mode automatically activates and deactivates at the specified times. The result, get and the dry run show each scheduled time as the UTC instant followed by a labelled local time in your display timezone (OUTLOOK_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE, default Australia/Melbourne), for example 2026-03-10T00:00:00.000Z (10 Mar 2026, 11:00 am GMT+11:00).

Set Separate Messages for Internal and External Senders#

“Set different out-of-office messages for internal and external people”

tool: mailbox-settings
params:
  action: "set-auto-replies"
  enabled: true
  startDateTime: "2026-03-10T00:00:00Z"
  endDateTime: "2026-03-15T23:59:59Z"
  internalReplyMessage: "On leave. For urgent issues, contact James (james@company.com)."
  externalReplyMessage: "Thank you for your email. I'm currently out of the office and will respond after 15 March."
  externalAudience: "all"

Control Who Gets the External Reply#

If you omit externalAudience, the existing setting is preserved. If no external message is set, external senders receive no auto-reply.

Preview Before You Switch Them On#

Automatic replies go to other people, including senders outside your organisation, until they’re switched off. Add dryRun: true to see what a call would do without changing anything:

tool: mailbox-settings
params:
  action: "set-auto-replies"
  startDateTime: "2026-03-10T00:00:00Z"
  endDateTime: "2026-03-15T23:59:59Z"
  internalReplyMessage: "I'm on leave from 10–15 March."
  externalAudience: "all"
  dryRun: true

The preview starts with DRY RUN — nothing was changed. and shows:

• the status (off, on with no end date, or the schedule as UTC plus labelled local times)
• who gets each reply: internal senders, and the external audience (none, contactsOnly or all)
• each message’s length in characters and its first 100 characters

Anything the call doesn’t set keeps its current value, so the preview reads the current setting first and marks those parts “unchanged”.

Disable Auto-Replies#

“Turn off my out-of-office”

tool: mailbox-settings
params:
  action: "set-auto-replies"
  enabled: false

Check Current Auto-Reply Status#

“What’s my current out-of-office status?”

tool: mailbox-settings
params:
  action: "get"
  section: "automaticRepliesSetting"

This shows whether auto-replies are enabled, the schedule (UTC plus a labelled local time), and the current messages.

Parameter Reference#

Tips#

• Omit startDateTime and endDateTime to enable immediately (always-on mode)
• Include startDateTime and endDateTime for scheduled auto-activate/deactivate
• You can include HTML in your reply messages for formatting
• Check your current status with action: "get" before making changes
• mailbox-settings is marked destructive because automatic replies go to other people, so clients that honour MCP annotations ask before running it, even for get
• If you enable auto-replies without providing a message, the server warns you — it will note if a previously configured message will be reused, or warn that recipients will receive a blank reply

Related#

• Configure Working Hours — set your work schedule
• Verify Your Connection — ensure you’re authenticated
• Tools Reference — mailbox-settings