Connect Zoho Mail to Claude over IMAP

Zoho Mail supports IMAP and SMTP, the protocols desktop mail apps use. That is enough to connect a Zoho mailbox to Claude through Fluxmail, an email MCP server. Claude can search and read your mail, open attachments, move messages between folders, and write drafts that show up in Zoho Mail.

Fluxmail gives every mailbox the same tools and permission settings, so one connection can include your Zoho mailbox next to Gmail, Outlook, or iCloud. You can use Fluxmail Cloud, a hosted connector you add from Claude's connector directory, or self-hosted Fluxmail, which runs on your computer so mail goes straight from Zoho to your machine.

Before you start

Zoho doesn't offer IMAP on every account. Its help center says IMAP access isn't available to people who signed up for the free plan recently. If you don't see an IMAP Access setting in step 1, your plan doesn't include it, and Fluxmail can't connect.

Your server names depend on the kind of account you have:

If you sign in to Zoho at a regional address such as mail.zoho.eu or mail.zoho.in, replace .com with that region's domain, for example imappro.zoho.eu. A mismatched server rejects the login.

1. Turn on IMAP

1. In Zoho Mail, open Settings and select Mail Accounts.
2. Select your email address.
3. Under IMAP, check IMAP Access, then select Save.

2. Create an app-specific password

Zoho requires one if your account uses two-factor authentication or signs in through SAML. If you sign in with Google or another outside account, you need one too, because that sign-in doesn't work over IMAP. Otherwise your Zoho password works, but an app password lets you cut off Fluxmail without changing it.

1. Sign in at accounts.zoho.com.
2. Open Security, then App Passwords.
3. Select Generate New Password, name it "Fluxmail", and select Generate.
4. Copy the password without any spaces.

Zoho shows the password once. To cut off Fluxmail later, revoke it on the same page.

3. Connect with Fluxmail Cloud

1. Sign up for Fluxmail Cloud. A new workspace gets a seven-day trial, and you don't need a card to start it.
2. Open Mailboxes, choose Other email provider, and enter your Zoho address and app password.
3. Enter your IMAP server from the table with port 993, and your SMTP server with port 465.
4. Select Connect. Cloud tests both connections before saving the mailbox.

Then add Fluxmail to Claude from the connector directory:

1. In Claude, open Customize > Connectors and select Discover.
2. Search for Fluxmail and select +.
3. Sign in to Fluxmail and pick your Zoho 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 Zoho.

4. Or run Fluxmail on your computer

Skip this step if you connected through Fluxmail Cloud.

Install the Fluxmail CLI and create the local administrator:

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

Then connect the mailbox. This example is a paid organization account on Zoho's US data center:

fluxmail accounts add imap \
  --email you@yourcompany.com \
  --imap-host imappro.zoho.com \
  --smtp-host smtppro.zoho.com \
  --smtp-port 465 \
  --smtp-security tls

Use your own address and the servers from the table. Zoho accepts the full address as the username, which is Fluxmail's default. Fluxmail asks for the password without showing it, tests both connections, and encrypts the password in its local database.

Add Fluxmail to Claude Code 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, then restart Claude Desktop:

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

5. Try it

Ask Claude something only your inbox can answer:

Which customer emails in my Zoho inbox from the last two weeks are still waiting on a reply from me?

Claude searches with Fluxmail's search_emails tool, opens threads with get_thread, and downloads attachments when it needs them. Fluxmail fetches each message from Zoho when Claude asks for it.

When you want Claude to file mail or write drafts, widen access. In Cloud, connect Claude again with the permissions you want and revoke the old connection in Connections. In self-hosted Fluxmail, switch the profile to read-write, or to full to allow sending. Fluxmail moves messages between your Zoho folders. Over IMAP it can't apply Zoho tags, so ask Claude to move messages rather than tag them.

If something looks off

• Zoho rejects the login. Check that IMAP Access is on, that you used the app-specific password, and that the servers match your account type and region.
• 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.
• A folder is missing. Fluxmail finds Sent, Drafts, Trash, Archive, and Spam from the flags Zoho reports and then by common names. If one isn't detected, set it under Folder mappings in Cloud, or with fluxmail accounts configure <account-id> in self-hosted Fluxmail.

Next steps

• Sort the inbox and draft replies: Triage your Gmail inbox with Claude Code uses Gmail, but the prompts work the same with Zoho.
• 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.