Outlook email

Outlook Email

Overview

This skill helps AI agents send, read, search, and automate emails through Microsoft Outlook via the Graph API. It covers sending messages (plain text, HTML, attachments, inline images), reading and searching mailboxes, folder management, mail rules, and email automation patterns.

Instructions

Authentication

// Same Azure AD app registration as other Microsoft 365 services
// Permissions needed:
//   Mail.ReadWrite — read/write user's mail
//   Mail.Send — send mail as user
//   MailboxSettings.ReadWrite — manage rules, auto-replies

import { ClientSecretCredential } from '@azure/identity';
import { Client } from '@microsoft/microsoft-graph-client';
import { TokenCredentialAuthenticationProvider } from '@microsoft/microsoft-graph-client/authProviders/azureTokenCredentials';

const credential = new ClientSecretCredential(
  process.env.AZURE_TENANT_ID,
  process.env.AZURE_CLIENT_ID,
  process.env.AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET
);

const authProvider = new TokenCredentialAuthenticationProvider(credential, {
  scopes: ['https://graph.microsoft.com/.default'],
});

const graphClient = Client.initWithMiddleware({ authProvider });

Send Emails

// Simple text email
await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/sendMail`)
  .post({
    message: {
      subject: 'Sprint 14 Recap',
      body: {
        contentType: 'Text',
        content: 'Hi team,\n\nSprint 14 is complete. We shipped 3 features and fixed 12 bugs.\n\nBest,\nSarah',
      },
      toRecipients: [
        { emailAddress: { address: '[email protected]' } },
      ],
    },
    saveToSentItems: true,
  });

// HTML email with CC, BCC, and importance
await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/sendMail`)
  .post({
    message: {
      subject: 'Q1 Revenue Report — Action Required',
      body: {
        contentType: 'HTML',
        content: `
          <h2>Q1 2026 Revenue Report</h2>
          <table border="1" cellpadding="8" style="border-collapse:collapse;">
            <tr style="background:#f0f0f0;"><th>Metric</th><th>Value</th><th>Change</th></tr>
            <tr><td>Revenue</td><td>$4.2M</td><td style="color:green;">+23%</td></tr>
            <tr><td>New Customers</td><td>847</td><td style="color:green;">+40%</td></tr>
            <tr><td>Churn</td><td>2.1%</td><td style="color:green;">-38%</td></tr>
          </table>
          <p>Please review and share feedback by Friday.</p>
        `,
      },
      toRecipients: [
        { emailAddress: { address: '[email protected]', name: 'Alex' } },
      ],
      ccRecipients: [
        { emailAddress: { address: '[email protected]', name: 'Morgan' } },
      ],
      bccRecipients: [
        { emailAddress: { address: '[email protected]' } },
      ],
      importance: 'high',
      isReadReceiptRequested: false,
    },
  });

// Email with file attachment
const fileBuffer = fs.readFileSync('/path/to/report.pdf');
await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/sendMail`)
  .post({
    message: {
      subject: 'Monthly Report Attached',
      body: { contentType: 'Text', content: 'Please find the monthly report attached.' },
      toRecipients: [{ emailAddress: { address: '[email protected]' } }],
      attachments: [
        {
          '@odata.type': '#microsoft.graph.fileAttachment',
          name: 'monthly-report-feb-2026.pdf',
          contentType: 'application/pdf',
          contentBytes: fileBuffer.toString('base64'),
        },
      ],
    },
  });

// Reply, reply all, or forward
await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/messages/${messageId}/reply`)
  .post({ comment: 'Thanks for the update. I\'ll review by EOD.' });
await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/messages/${messageId}/forward`)
  .post({ comment: 'FYI', toRecipients: [{ emailAddress: { address: '[email protected]' } }] });

Read Emails

// Get inbox messages
const messages = await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/mailFolders/inbox/messages`)
  .select('id,subject,from,receivedDateTime,bodyPreview,isRead,importance,hasAttachments')
  .top(25)
  .orderby('receivedDateTime DESC')
  .get();

messages.value.forEach(msg => {
  const read = msg.isRead ? '  ' : '🔵';
  const att = msg.hasAttachments ? '📎' : '  ';
  console.log(`${read}${att} ${msg.from.emailAddress.address}: ${msg.subject}`);
});

// Get unread messages only
const unread = await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/mailFolders/inbox/messages`)
  .filter('isRead eq false')
  .select('id,subject,from,receivedDateTime,bodyPreview')
  .orderby('receivedDateTime DESC')
  .get();

// Get full message body
const fullMsg = await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/messages/${messageId}`)
  .select('subject,body,from,toRecipients,ccRecipients,receivedDateTime,attachments')
  .expand('attachments')
  .get();

console.log('Subject:', fullMsg.subject);
console.log('Body:', fullMsg.body.content); // HTML or Text

// Download attachment
const attachment = await graphClient
  .api(`/users/${userId}/messages/${messageId}/attachments/${attachmentId}`)
  .get();
const fileData = Buffer.from(attachment.contentBytes, 'base64');
fs.writeFileSync(attachment.name, fileData);

Search Emails

// Search by subject/body content
const results = await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/messages`)
  .search('"quarterly report" OR "Q1 revenue"')
  .select('subject,from,receivedDateTime,bodyPreview')
  .top(20)
  .get();

// Filter by sender
const fromSender = await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/messages`)
  .filter("from/emailAddress/address eq '[email protected]'")
  .select('subject,receivedDateTime,bodyPreview')
  .orderby('receivedDateTime DESC')
  .get();

// Filter by date range
const recentImportant = await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/messages`)
  .filter("receivedDateTime ge 2026-02-01T00:00:00Z and importance eq 'high'")
  .select('subject,from,receivedDateTime')
  .orderby('receivedDateTime DESC')
  .get();

// Filter messages with attachments
const withAttachments = await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/messages`)
  .filter('hasAttachments eq true')
  .select('subject,from,receivedDateTime')
  .top(20)
  .get();

Folder Management

// List, create folders
const folders = await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/mailFolders`)
  .select('id,displayName,totalItemCount,unreadItemCount').get();
const newFolder = await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/mailFolders`)
  .post({ displayName: 'Project Alpha' });

// Move message to folder, mark as read
await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/messages/${messageId}/move`)
  .post({ destinationId: folderId });
await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/messages/${messageId}`)
  .patch({ isRead: true });

For bulk operations, use POST /$batch with up to 20 requests (e.g., batch mark-as-read).

Mail Rules (Inbox Rules)

// Create inbox rule
await graphClient.api(`/users/${userId}/mailFolders/inbox/messageRules`)
  .post({
    displayName: 'Move newsletters to folder',
    sequence: 1,
    isEnabled: true,
    conditions: {
      senderContains: ['newsletter', 'digest', 'weekly-update'],
    },
    actions: {
      moveToFolder: newsletterFolderId,
      markAsRead: true,
    },
  });

For auto-replies (Out of Office), use PATCH /users/{userId}/mailboxSettings with automaticRepliesSetting — set status: 'scheduled' with start/end dates, and provide separate internalReplyMessage and externalReplyMessage.

Webhooks (New Email Notifications)

// Subscribe to new messages (expires in 3 days, must renew)
const subscription = await graphClient.api('/subscriptions')
  .post({
    changeType: 'created',
    notificationUrl: 'https://your-app.com/api/email-webhook',
    resource: `/users/${userId}/mailFolders/inbox/messages`,
    expirationDateTime: new Date(Date.now() + 3 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000).toISOString(),
    clientState: 'your-secret-token',
  });

In the webhook handler, return the validationToken on subscription creation, then fetch the new message by ID from notification.resourceData.id and process it (forward to Slack, trigger workflows, etc.).

Examples

Example 1: Send a weekly project status report with attachment

User prompt: "Send an HTML email to the engineering team at [email protected] with the subject 'Sprint 22 Status Report' summarizing our completed features. Attach the burndown chart from /reports/sprint-22-burndown.png."

The agent will compose an HTML email body with a styled table showing completed features, their owners, and status. It will read the burndown chart file, base64-encode it, and attach it as a fileAttachment with the correct content type. The email will be sent via POST /users/{userId}/sendMail with importance: 'normal', the HTML body, the attachment array, and saveToSentItems: true.

Example 2: Create an inbox rule to auto-organize client emails

User prompt: "Set up an Outlook rule that moves all emails from anyone at @acmecorp.com into a folder called 'Acme Project', and create the folder if it doesn't exist. Also mark those emails as read automatically."

The agent will first create a mail folder named Acme Project using POST /users/{userId}/mailFolders and capture the returned folder ID. It will then create an inbox message rule via POST /users/{userId}/mailFolders/inbox/messageRules with conditions set to senderContains: ['acmecorp.com'] and actions set to moveToFolder (using the new folder ID) and markAsRead: true.

Guidelines

• Use $select on every query — mailbox data is heavy, fetch only needed fields
• Batch operations for bulk updates (mark read, move, delete) — max 20 per batch
• Webhook subscriptions expire in 3 days — set up auto-renewal
• HTML emails: use inline CSS only — email clients strip <style> blocks
• Large attachments (>3MB): use upload session instead of inline base64
• Use $search for full-text search, $filter for structured queries — different syntax
• Rate limits: 10,000 requests per 10 min per app per tenant
• Always set saveToSentItems: true when sending — unless intentionally ephemeral
• For automated emails, use a dedicated service account — not a person's mailbox
• Delta queries for efficient polling: /users/{id}/mailFolders/inbox/messages/delta