Limit what an MCP client can do

Fluxmail can limit the email actions available to each MCP connection. Give a research agent read-only access, or let an inbox organizer manage messages without granting send or permanent-delete access.

Permissions control which tools Fluxmail exposes to the client, and which actions are accepted by certain tools, e.g. modify_emails.

Choose a permission profile

Profile	What it allows
`read-only`	Read and search mail, list folders and scheduled sends, and download attachments
`read-write`	Everything in `read-only`, plus drafts, inbox organization, and moving messages to or from Trash
`full`	Everything in `read-write`, plus sending mail and permanently deleting messages

Fluxmail uses full when you do not choose a profile. Set a narrower profile for clients that do not need every email action.

Limit a local stdio connection

Pass a profile when your MCP client launches Fluxmail:

fluxmail stdio --profile read-only

For a client config file, put the profile in the argument list:

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

Limit an HTTP connection

HTTP permissions belong to the API key. Create a separate key for each MCP client so you can change or revoke one connection without affecting the others.

fluxmail apikey create --name research-agent --profile read-only
fluxmail apikey create --name inbox-agent --profile read-write

The key is shown once. fluxmail apikey list shows each key ID and permission profile without revealing the secret.

Change an existing key by its ID:

fluxmail apikey permissions <key-id> --profile read-only

Existing keys and keys created without permission options use full. When FLUXMAIL_AUTH=none, the HTTP endpoint also uses full because there is no API key to identify the client. Only disable authentication behind a network boundary you control.

Build a custom policy

Use repeated --allow options when the named profiles are too broad. List the available capabilities first:

fluxmail apikey capabilities

Capability	Actions
`mail.read`	List, search, and read mail; inspect status and folders; list scheduled sends; download attachments
`mail.drafts`	Create, update, and delete drafts; cancel scheduled sends
`mail.organize`	Mark read or unread, star, archive, move, and manage user labels
`mail.trash`	Move messages to or from Trash
`mail.delete`	Permanently delete messages
`mail.send`	Send or schedule messages

Create a custom HTTP key like this:

fluxmail apikey create \
  --name drafting-agent \
  --allow mail.read \
  --allow mail.drafts

The same options work with stdio:

fluxmail stdio --allow mail.read --allow mail.organize

Some workflows need more than one capability. Reply drafts need mail.drafts and mail.read; replies need mail.send and mail.read; forwarding also needs mail.send and mail.read.