MCP
Connect the AI you already use to your OleaDesk mail.
Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI or Antigravity can search your mail, read a message, list what arrived and draft a reply in your own voice, on your own computer, where nothing it reads passes through our servers. ChatGPT, Claude on your phone and Perplexity reach the same mailbox through OleaDesk’s relay, with a switch you turn on. It sends only when you press Send. Included on every plan and on the free trial.
Not an OleaDesk customer? The mail app with this connection is $10 a month on its own.
How it reaches your mail
Your mailbox stays on your computer. Your AI asks OleaDesk.
Connect
Pick your AI. Three steps, in the app.
Be on OleaDesk 0.1.93 or later: Settings, then Plan, shows the version you are on, and the app updates itself when you quit it from the tray and open it again. Then open Settings, then MCP. The tab opens with one status line (ready, which AIs are connected, when one was last used), then a section for the AIs on your computer. The steps below are the same ones the tab shows.
- 1
In OleaDesk: Settings, then MCP, then press Connect Claude Desktop
One press writes the entry into Claude Desktop’s own settings, at
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json. Nothing else in that file is touched, and a copy of it is kept beside it. On a computer where OleaDesk cannot see Claude Desktop, the tab shows this snippet to paste instead:{ "mcpServers": { "oleadesk": { "command": "C:\\Users\\<you>\\AppData\\Local\\OleaDesk\\OleaDesk.exe", "args": ["--mcp-stdio"] } } }Do not use Claude Desktop’s "Add custom connector" box. It takes a web address only, and OleaDesk runs on your computer, so that box can never add it. The button in OleaDesk is the way in.
- 2
Quit and reopen Claude Desktop, then ask it about your mail
Claude Desktop reads its settings when it starts. Try “what arrived today that needs an answer?”. The first answer takes a few seconds; the status line at the top of the MCP tab then shows when it was last used. That line is the proof it is connected.
- 3
It writes the way you write
OleaDesk learns your voice from your own sent mail, on your computer. Claude Desktop asks OleaDesk for it before writing anything in your name and follows it.
ChatGPT and Perplexity connect to web addresses only today, so they cannot reach a program on your computer. The AIs in the row above can.
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude on your phone
AIs that live on the web reach your computer through the relay.
The eight AIs above run a program on your computer. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude on your phone cannot, so OleaDesk 0.1.99 and later has a relay. Three steps:
- In OleaDesk, open Settings, then MCP. In the section “ChatGPT, Claude on your phone, Perplexity”, turn on “Let them reach this computer through OleaDesk’s relay”. It says “On” within a few seconds. Leave OleaDesk open; the relay only works while it is.
- In the AI, add OleaDesk by its address,
https://app.oleadesk.com/api/mcp:- ChatGPT (on chatgpt.com, with a Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Education plan): Settings, Security and login, turn on Developer mode, then add an app for a remote MCP server with that address and OAuth as the sign-in. It works on the website, not in ChatGPT’s phone app.
- Claude (on claude.ai): Settings, Connectors, Add custom connector, and paste the address. Once added it is in Claude’s phone app too.
- Gemini (on gemini.google.com, with Google AI Pro): open Apps, scroll to “Custom apps”, click “Add a custom app” and paste the address.
- Perplexity (Pro, Max or Enterprise): Account settings, Connectors, + Custom connector, Remote. Paste the address, choose OAuth as the authentication and Streamable HTTP as the transport, then click the connector card to sign in.
- The AI opens an OleaDesk page. Sign in with your OleaDesk email and password and press Allow. That is the whole connection; it lasts thirty days and renews itself while you use it.
What changes on this path: your mail still stays on your computer, but each question the AI asks and the answer your computer gives pass through our servers, encrypted, for the seconds a call takes, and are deleted within minutes. On your own computer, with the eight AIs above, nothing passes through us at all. The switch in OleaDesk turns the relay off again at any time, and every rule is the same on both paths: it sees what your plan allows, and it sends only a draft it saved, after you press Send on the box OleaDesk shows you.
What it can do, and what it cannot
Reads, writes in your voice, sends only when you press Send.
Try it
Things worth asking it
- What did Example Foods say about the private label samples?
- List everything that arrived today that needs an answer.
- Find the last three emails from anyone at oliveoiltimes.com.
- Read the message from the Singapore importer in full and draft a reply in my voice.
Every answer comes from mail already on your disk, so it is as fast as the search box in OleaDesk. A draft it writes lands in OleaDesk’s Drafts, where you read it and press send yourself, or do not.
If it does not connect
Every line on the MCP tab is a fact we can act on.
The status line says it is not running
Quit OleaDesk from the tray icon and open it again. If it stays off, write to us: that is our fault, not yours.
Your AI does not show OleaDesk
It reads its settings only when it starts. Quit it completely, including from the tray, and open it again. Then check that the status line on the MCP tab lists that AI.
The status line says “Not confirmed for this account”
OleaDesk checks your plan when you sign in. Make sure you are signed in on the Profile tab and online, then press Check again. If your plan has ended, see your plan at oleadesk.com.
It sees only your 50 most recent emails, and no attachments
That is the free trial. Any paid plan opens the whole mailbox, every mailbox you add, and the attachments.
It says sending is switched off
That is the default. Settings, then MCP, has the switch “Let my AI send, asking me each time”. With it on, OleaDesk still shows you every email before it goes.
Mac
Not yet. OleaDesk is Windows 10 and 11 today.
Stuck anywhere else? Write to us and say what the MCP tab shows.