Outlook Assistant — Claude Code MCP server: what it does
Wires your assistant into an Outlook mailbox: search mail, write drafts, book meetings, look up contacts. Saves the jump between chat and your inbox.
claude mcp add --env OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID> --env OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET> --transport stdio outlook-assistant -- npx -y @littlebearapps/outlook-assistantWhat Outlook Assistant does
Outlook Assistant is a stdio MCP server published on npm as @littlebearapps/outlook-assistant. It hands the agent 22 tools across mail, calendar and contacts. Email search groups messages into threads, and delta sync sends back only what changed since the last check along with tokens you can poll again. A separate tool dumps the raw headers of a message — DKIM, SPF, DMARC, the delivery chain — which is how you check a suspicious sender.
Sending comes with guardrails: a dry-run preview, pre-send mail tips, a per-session send limit and a recipient allowlist. Drafts can be created, edited and sent, and replies or forwards can be staged as drafts first. Calendar covers upcoming and past events, meetings with attendees, and declining or cancelling them. Folders nest, and you address them by path like Parent/Child; inbox rules and colour categories are there too.
The server needs OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID and OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET in its environment and starts through npx. A shared mailbox stays off until you set OUTLOOK_SHARED_MAILBOX, and it only works on work or school Microsoft 365 accounts. Even then, sending, drafting and forwarding from that mailbox is not supported — those always run as the signed-in user. Folder listings for shared boxes are best-effort and flag branches they skipped.
What it helps with
- find a message by sender, subject or date without opening Outlook
- inspect a message's headers for phishing before replying
- stage a reply as a draft and review it before it goes out
- export a whole conversation to Markdown, MBOX or HTML
- set an out-of-office reply from the chat window
Example prompts for the agent
- Find last week's emails from the supplier and show me the headers of the latest one
- Draft a reply to that thread and run a dry-run preview before sending
- Export this thread to Markdown and schedule a meeting with everyone on it
How to install Outlook Assistant
Platform CLI
claude mcp add --env OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID> --env OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET> --transport stdio outlook-assistant -- npx -y @littlebearapps/outlook-assistantReplace <…> with your own values
Platform CLI
codex mcp add outlook-assistant --env OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID> --env OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET> -- npx -y @littlebearapps/outlook-assistantReplace <…> with your own values
Config file
{
"mcpServers": {
"outlook-assistant": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@littlebearapps/outlook-assistant"
],
"env": {
"OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID": "<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID>",
"OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET": "<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET>"
}
}
}
}Replace <…> with your own values
Config file
{
"servers": {
"outlook-assistant": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@littlebearapps/outlook-assistant"
],
"env": {
"OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID": "<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID>",
"OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET": "<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET>"
}
}
}
}Replace <…> with your own values
Platform CLI
gemini mcp add -e OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID> -e OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET> outlook-assistant npx -y @littlebearapps/outlook-assistantReplace <…> with your own values
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to add an MCP server to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI and more
Questions about Outlook Assistant
How do I install Outlook Assistant in Claude Code?
Run claude mcp add outlook-assistant -e OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET> -- npx -y @littlebearapps/outlook-assistant. To set the client ID as well and name the transport explicitly, use `claude mcp add --env OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID> --env OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET=<OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET> --transport stdio outlook-assistant -- npx -y @littlebearapps/outlook-assistant`.
What does Outlook Assistant do?
It gives the assistant tools for an Outlook mailbox: searching and reading mail, drafts and sending, calendar events, contacts, nested folders, inbox rules and auto-reply settings. You reach all of it from the conversation.
Does it work with a shared mailbox?
Yes on work or school Microsoft 365 accounts, once OUTLOOK_SHARED_MAILBOX is set. Sending, drafts and forwarding from that mailbox are not supported — those operations act on your own account.
