search_emails

macOS

Purpose

Use this when the user wants to find specific emails on this Mac (Apple Mail — any account added to Mail.app). Searches subject and sender by default; pass scope="body" or scope="all" to also search the message body (see search_coverage in the response — a body search can be partial while its local index is still building). For a Microsoft 365 mailbox NOT added to Mail.app, use m365_search_emails. IMPORTANT: on machines with 2+ accounts, call with account=<name> (from list_email_accounts). Without it, and when the fast index can't answer, search_emails returns the account list instead of scanning all of them — scanning every account in one call has no time limit and can block Mail for other requests too. Exactly 1 account is unaffected.

Required inputs

• query

Permissions and confirmation

No explicit confirmation parameter is exposed in this snapshot. This does not grant permission to act: obtain user authorization before any real action.

• Use only the apps, accounts and resources authorized by the user on this platform. Consult this tool's platform-specific description for its connection and permission requirements; this catalog does not assert additional OAuth scopes or OS entitlements.

{
  "properties": {
    "account": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "limit": {
      "default": "20",
      "maximum": 100,
      "minimum": 1,
      "type": "integer"
    },
    "mailbox": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "query": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "scope": {
      "default": "metadata",
      "description": "\"metadata\" (default, subject+sender — fast, unchanged behavior), \"body\" (message body only, via a local index — see search_coverage in the response), or \"all\" (subject+sender+body).",
      "type": "string"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query"
  ],
  "type": "object"
}

Documentation example

Do not execute this example. These concrete inputs refer to a fictional demonstration dataset. Resolve real handles and obtain user authorization before any real call.

{
  "query": "launch checklist"
}