Connect Yahoo Mail to Claude

Claude has built-in connectors for Gmail and Microsoft 365, but none for Yahoo Mail. Yahoo doesn't offer a sign-in that other apps can use to read mail. It does support IMAP and SMTP, the protocols desktop mail apps use, with a separate app password for each app that stays valid when you change your Yahoo password.

That is enough to connect Yahoo Mail to Claude through Fluxmail, an email MCP server that talks to Yahoo over IMAP and to Claude over MCP. It works with @yahoo.com, @ymail.com, and @rocketmail.com addresses, and with Yahoo's country domains such as @yahoo.co.uk. Fluxmail works with your mailbox on Yahoo's servers, so drafts it saves and messages it files show up in Yahoo Mail on the web and in the Yahoo Mail app.

You can set it up two ways. Fluxmail Cloud is a hosted connector you add from Claude's connector directory, and it works in Claude Desktop, Claude on the web, Claude Code, and other MCP clients. Self-hosted Fluxmail runs on your computer, keeps the password encrypted there, and works with Claude Code and Claude Desktop. Both start with an app password.

1. Create a Yahoo app password

Your regular Yahoo password won't work for IMAP. Create an app password instead:

Sign in to Yahoo and open the Account Security page.
Under External connections, select Create app password.
Enter a name such as "Fluxmail" and select Generate password.
Copy the password, then select Done.

Yahoo shows the password once. Changing your Yahoo password doesn't turn it off, so if you stop using Fluxmail, delete it from the same page.

If Yahoo won't create the password, try again in a browser you've used to sign in to Yahoo for several days, outside private browsing. Yahoo's help page suggests this when generation fails.

2. Connect with Fluxmail Cloud

Sign up for Fluxmail Cloud. A new workspace gets a seven-day trial, and you don't need a card to start it.
Open Mailboxes, choose Other email provider, and enter your Yahoo address. For @yahoo.com, @yahoo.co.uk, @yahoo.ca, @ymail.com, and @rocketmail.com addresses, the dashboard fills in Yahoo's servers.
Paste the app password and select Connect.

For another Yahoo country domain, enter the servers yourself: imap.mail.yahoo.com on port 993 and smtp.mail.yahoo.com on port 465.

Then add Fluxmail to Claude from the connector directory:

In Claude, open Customize > Connectors and select Discover.
Search for Fluxmail and select +.
Sign in to Fluxmail and pick your Yahoo mailbox. The connector requests Full mail access, which includes sending, so uncheck Send emails and anything else you don't want, then approve.

To use Cloud from Claude Code, Cursor, or another client, follow How to connect Gmail or Outlook to Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor. The commands are the same for Yahoo.

3. Or run Fluxmail on your computer

Skip this step if you connected through Fluxmail Cloud.

Connect the mailbox

Install the Fluxmail CLI and create the local administrator:

npm install -g fluxmail
fluxmail setup --name "Your name" --email you@example.com

Then connect Yahoo with Yahoo's server settings:

fluxmail accounts add imap \
  --email you@yahoo.com \
  --imap-host imap.mail.yahoo.com \
  --smtp-host smtp.mail.yahoo.com \
  --smtp-port 465 \
  --smtp-security tls

Replace you@yahoo.com with your address. Yahoo uses the full address as the username for both IMAP and SMTP, which is Fluxmail's default, and IMAP runs over TLS on port 993, which is also a default.

Fluxmail asks for the password without showing it. Paste the app password. Fluxmail tests the IMAP and SMTP connections before saving, then encrypts the password in its local database.

Connect Claude

For Claude Code, add Fluxmail as an MCP server. Start with read-only access while you try it out:

claude mcp add fluxmail -- fluxmail stdio --profile read-only

For Claude Desktop, open Settings > Developer > Edit Config and add this to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fluxmail": {
      "command": "fluxmail",
      "args": ["stdio", "--profile", "read-only"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving. If it can't find the fluxmail command, run which fluxmail in a terminal and use the full path it prints.

4. Try it

Ask Claude something only your inbox can answer:

What came into my Yahoo inbox this week that isn't a newsletter or a receipt?

Claude searches with Fluxmail's search_emails tool and opens messages with get_email. Fluxmail fetches each message from Yahoo when Claude asks for it. With self-hosted Fluxmail, that mail goes straight to your computer.

Yahoo inboxes often hold years of mail, so ask for a date range or a sender when you can. Searches run on Yahoo's servers, and narrow ones come back faster.

5. Allow more when you need it

In Fluxmail Cloud, a connection keeps the permissions you approved. To change them, connect Claude again with the permissions you want, then revoke the old connection in Connections.

In self-hosted Fluxmail, switch the profile to read-write to let Claude organize mail and write drafts, or to full to let it send. For Claude Code, remove and re-add the server:

claude mcp remove fluxmail
claude mcp add fluxmail -- fluxmail stdio --profile read-write

With read and write access, Claude can move messages into your Yahoo folders, archive them, and save drafts that you finish and send from Yahoo Mail. IMAP mailboxes have folders but no labels, so ask Claude to move messages rather than label them.

If something looks off

Yahoo rejects the login. Use the app password, not your Yahoo password. If you copied it with spaces, paste it again without them.
The Spam folder is missing. Over IMAP, Yahoo's Spam folder is usually called Bulk. Fluxmail finds special folders from the flags the server reports and then by common names. If it can't find Spam, set the folder to Bulk under Folder mappings in Cloud, or with fluxmail accounts configure <account-id> --spam-folder Bulk in self-hosted Fluxmail. Get the account ID from fluxmail accounts list.
Sent messages appear twice. Some servers save their own copy of mail sent over SMTP. If you see duplicates in Sent, connect the mailbox again with Save sent mail to the Sent folder turned off in Cloud, or add --no-save-sent to the fluxmail accounts add imap command.

Next steps

Sort the inbox and draft replies: Triage your Gmail inbox with Claude Code uses Gmail, but the prompts work the same with Yahoo.
Set limits before you allow sending: How to give an AI agent access to your email safely.
Connect another client: Connect an MCP client covers Codex, Cursor, ChatGPT, and others.