Connect OpenClaw to your email

Sickle is a remote MCP server: OpenClaw talks to it over HTTP, so there is nothing to install on the machine running your gateway. Sign-in is OAuth, so there is no API key to store in your config. Once connected, your assistant sees every mailbox in your Sickle account at once — Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo and any IMAP host — wherever you talk to it.

Before you start

• A Sickle account with at least one mailbox connected. If you do not have one yet, start a free trial and add your mailboxes in the Mac app or on the Mailboxes page. There is a step-by-step guide for Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Fastmail and any other IMAP mailbox.
• An OpenClaw gateway you can run openclaw commands on.

Add the server

Run this on the machine running your gateway:

openclaw mcp set sickle '{"url":"https://mcp.sickle.app","transport":"streamable-http","auth":"oauth"}'

Or add it to ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json by hand:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "sickle": {
        "url": "https://mcp.sickle.app",
        "transport": "streamable-http",
        "auth": "oauth"
      }
    }
  }
}

Set transport explicitly: OpenClaw assumes SSE when it is missing, and Sickle speaks streamable HTTP. The gateway picks up the change on the next turn, without a restart.

Sign in and approve access

openclaw mcp login sickle

OpenClaw prints a Sickle sign-in link. Open it, sign in and approve the permissions OpenClaw asks for:

• email_read lets it list your mailboxes and folders, search and read messages.
• email_change lets it mark messages as read, move them between folders and move them to Trash.

You may also see email_send. Nothing uses it yet: Sickle has no tool that sends mail.

If your gateway runs on a server without a browser, finish the sign-in on any device and pass the code back with openclaw mcp login sickle --code <code>.

Check it works

openclaw mcp status --verbose

Sickle should be connected and list its tools.

Then, in any chat connected to your gateway, ask:

Which mailboxes can you see?

The assistant calls list_accounts and names every mailbox in your Sickle account.

Troubleshooting

• The server never connects. Run openclaw mcp doctor sickle --probe. The usual cause is a missing "transport": "streamable-http".
• Tool calls fail with an authorisation error. The sign-in did not finish or the token was revoked. Run openclaw mcp login sickle again.
• The assistant only sees some of your mailboxes. It sees exactly the mailboxes in your Sickle account. Add the others in the Mac app or on the Mailboxes page.

Disconnect

openclaw mcp logout sickle
openclaw mcp unset sickle

To cut access from the Sickle side, revoke OpenClaw on the Connect AI page in your dashboard; access it already holds ends within the hour.