Email Agent

⚠️ IMPORTANT: This is a demo application by Anthropic. It is intended for local development only and should NOT be deployed to production or used at scale.

This is an in-development IMAP email assistant powered by Claude and the Claude Code SDK.

Still in Development

This agent will be continually developed over time. Currently it can:

• display your inbox
• do agentic search to find emails
• display a 'profile' of you

We'll be building more features and sharing them here as we go.

🔒 Security Warning

This application should ONLY be run locally on your personal machine. It:

• Stores email credentials in plain text environment variables
• Has no authentication or multi-user support
• Is not designed for production security standards

Prerequisites

• Bun runtime (or Node.js 18+)
• An Anthropic API key (get one here)
• Email account with IMAP access enabled

Quick Start

1. Clone and Install

git clone https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code-sdk-demos.git
cd claude-code-sdk-demos/email-agent

2. Install Dependencies

bun install
# or npm install

3. Configure Environment

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env with your credentials (see IMAP Setup below).

4. Run the Application

bun run dev
# or npm run dev

5. Open Browser

Navigate to http://localhost:3000

IMAP Setup Guide

Gmail Setup

Gmail requires an App Password instead of your regular password:

1. Enable 2-Factor Authentication (required for app passwords):

   • Go to Google Account Security
   • Click on "2-Step Verification" and follow the setup

2. Generate an App Password:

   • Go to Google App Passwords
   • Select "Mail" from the dropdown
   • Select your device (or choose "Other" and name it "Email Agent")
   • Click "Generate"
   • Copy the 16-character password (you won't see it again!)

3. Configure .env:

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-anthropic-api-key
EMAIL_USER=[email protected]
EMAIL_PASSWORD=your-16-char-app-password  # NOT your regular password!
IMAP_HOST=imap.gmail.com
IMAP_PORT=993

Features

• Natural Language Search: Find emails using conversational queries
• AI-Powered Assistance: Claude helps draft replies, summarize threads, and extract information
• SQLite Integration: Fast local email caching and search
• Real-time Streaming: WebSocket-based UI updates
• Multi-turn Conversations: Complex email workflows with context retention

Resources

• Claude Code SDK Documentation
• API Reference
• GitHub Issues

Support

This is a demo application provided as-is. For issues related to:

• Claude Code SDK: SDK Documentation
• Demo Issues: GitHub Issues
• API Questions: Anthropic Support

License

MIT - This is sample code for demonstration purposes.