> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.maition.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# IMAP

> Configure the mAItion IMAP connector to ingest emails from any IMAP mail server.

Use the IMAP Connector to ingest emails from any IMAP-capable mail server (Gmail, Outlook/Exchange,
Yahoo, self-hosted, etc.) into the mAItion knowledge base.

## What It Does

* connects to an IMAP mailbox over implicit TLS (IMAP4\_SSL) or STARTTLS
* auto-discovers all mailboxes when none are specified, or ingests only the listed mailboxes
* converts each email into a document with subject as title and parsed body as content
* extracts sender/recipient metadata (including Cc/Bcc) and handles both plain text and HTML bodies
* runs ingestion on configurable schedules

## Authentication

Authenticates with a plain username and password against the configured mailbox — most providers
(e.g. Gmail) require an app-specific password rather than the account password when 2FA is enabled.
Server certificates are always verified (hostname + trust chain); self-signed certificates are
rejected unless the server's CA is trusted by the environment running the connector.

## Required Environment Variables

Set these in `.env.rag`:

* `IMAP1_HOST`: IMAP server hostname (example: `imap.gmail.com`)
* `IMAP1_USERNAME`: IMAP account username
* `IMAP1_PASSWORD`: IMAP account password or app-specific password
* `IMAP1_MAILBOXES`: comma-separated list of mailboxes to ingest (optional; omit to ingest all mailboxes)
* `IMAP1_SCHEDULES`: ingestion interval in seconds (default is `3600`)

## `config.yaml` Example

```yaml theme={null}
sources:
  - type: "imap"
    name: "imap1"
    enabled: true  # optional, default: true
    config:
      host: "${IMAP1_HOST}"
      port: 993                       # optional, default 993 (IMAPS), or 143 when use_starttls is set
      username: "${IMAP1_USERNAME}"
      password: "${IMAP1_PASSWORD}"   # app-specific password for Gmail
      mailboxes: "${IMAP1_MAILBOXES}" # optional, comma-separated; remove this line (not just the env var) to ingest all mailboxes
      since: "2024-01-01"             # optional, only ingest messages on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
      use_starttls: false             # optional, default false; connect plaintext then upgrade via STARTTLS instead of implicit TLS
      schedules: "${IMAP1_SCHEDULES}"
```

## `.env.rag` Example

```dotenv theme={null}
IMAP1_HOST=imap.example.com
IMAP1_USERNAME=user@example.com
IMAP1_PASSWORD=your-app-password
IMAP1_MAILBOXES=INBOX,Sent
IMAP1_SCHEDULES=3600
```

## Configuration Reference

| Field          | Required | Default                                     | Description                                                         |
| -------------- | -------- | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `enabled`      | no       | `true`                                      | Set to `false` to skip this source entirely                         |
| `host`         | yes      | —                                           | IMAP server hostname                                                |
| `port`         | no       | `993` (or `143` when `use_starttls` is set) | IMAP server port                                                    |
| `username`     | yes      | —                                           | IMAP account username                                               |
| `password`     | yes      | —                                           | IMAP account password or app-specific password                      |
| `mailboxes`    | no       | all mailboxes                               | Comma-separated list of mailboxes to ingest                         |
| `since`        | no       | —                                           | Only ingest messages on or after this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`)           |
| `use_starttls` | no       | `false`                                     | Connect plaintext then upgrade via STARTTLS instead of implicit TLS |
| `schedules`    | no       | `3600`                                      | Ingestion interval in seconds                                       |

## Multiple IMAP Sources

Add more `sources` entries (`imap2`, `imap3`, etc) with separate env vars per source.