# How to give Cline its own email address

Cline can have its own email address with Botmail. Ask Cline to claim one,
approve it from your inbox, then add `https://botmail.pro/mcp` as a remote MCP
server with the Streamable HTTP transport and click **Authenticate**. Cline
then has tools to check, search, draft, send and reply from an address like
`ada-dev@botmail.pro`, in the editor extension and in Cline CLI.

## Why Cline should have its own address

A coding agent runs into email more often than you'd expect. With its own
address, Cline can:

- **Test your app's email flows.** Sign up on your staging site with its
  Botmail address, wait for the welcome email, and check the link and copy.
  Botmail's `wait_for_mail` returns new mail as soon as it arrives.
- **Get past sign-up walls.** When a task needs an API key from a service you
  approve, Cline can register and [read the verification
  code](https://botmail.pro/guides/ai-agent-verification-emails) itself.
- **Write to people about the work.** Draft a reply to the customer who
  reported the bug it just fixed, for you to review before it goes.
- **Stay out of your inbox.** Your work email never enters the repo agent's
  context.

## Step 1: Ask Cline to claim a mailbox

Paste this into a Cline task:

```text
Read https://botmail.pro/skill.md and claim a mailbox for yourself. Send the invite to my email, then wait for me to approve it.
```

Cline reads Botmail's instructions and runs a few terminal commands: it solves
a small proof-of-work challenge and calls `POST /v1/claim`. Approve those
commands when Cline asks. Botmail then emails you an approval link; sign in
with GitHub or Google and accept. Unapproved mailboxes are deleted after 24
hours.

## Step 2: Add the Botmail server

### In the editor extension

1. In the Cline panel, click the **MCP Servers** icon (the stacked server icon
   in the top toolbar).
2. Open the **Remote Servers** tab.
3. Set **Server Name** to `botmail` and **Server URL** to
   `https://botmail.pro/mcp`.
4. Set **Transport Type** to **Streamable HTTP**, then click **Add Server**.
5. Click **Authenticate** on the botmail server. Your browser opens Botmail's
   sign-in page.

To edit the JSON instead, open the **Configure** tab and click **Configure MCP
Servers**:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "botmail": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://botmail.pro/mcp",
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}
```

Keep `"type": "streamableHttp"`. Without it Cline falls back to the legacy SSE
transport, and Botmail speaks Streamable HTTP.

### In Cline CLI

```sh
cline mcp add botmail https://botmail.pro/mcp --transport http
```

This opens the add wizard with the fields filled in. Then run `cline mcp` and
choose **Authorize OAuth** to sign in. The CLI keeps its servers in
`~/.cline/data/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json`.

### Using an API key instead of OAuth

If you'd rather not sign in through a browser, Cline can send the key the
agent got when it claimed the mailbox as a header:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "botmail": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://botmail.pro/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer bm_your_key" }
    }
  }
}
```

The key then sits in a plain JSON file, so keep that file out of your repo.
OAuth avoids that and lets you pick permissions.

## Step 3: Approve access

Botmail's page asks you to sign in with GitHub or Google, then choose:

- **Permissions.** Read mail, Send mail, and Manage. Cline only sees tools for
  what you grant. For testing sign-up emails, Read is enough.
- **Mailboxes.** All, or only Cline's. If you have one mailbox per project,
  give Cline the one for this repo.

Press **Allow**. The botmail server shows its tools in the MCP Servers panel.

## Things to ask Cline

```text
Sign up on http://localhost:3000/signup with your Botmail address, wait for the welcome email, and check that the confirm link points to localhost, not production.
```

```text
Search your Botmail inbox for the Postmark verification email and finish setting up the account.
```

```text
Draft a reply to the latest email from dana@acme.dev explaining that the CSV export bug is fixed in v2.4.1. Don't send it. Give me the review link.
```

The review link shows the email with Send and Discard buttons, so a first
email to a stranger never goes out without you reading it.

## Things to know

- **Auto-approve reading only.** `autoApprove` lists tools that run without
  asking. Reading tools are reasonable there:
  `["check_inbox", "search_mail", "read_conversation", "wait_for_mail"]`.
  Keep `send_email`, `reply` and `forward` out of it.
- **Auth errors.** Click **Authenticate** again (or **Authorize OAuth** in
  `cline mcp`). If the consent page lists no mailboxes, the claim from Step 1
  isn't approved yet.
- **Company-managed Cline.** Organizations can block personal remote MCP
  servers. If Botmail won't save, ask your admin to add it to the
  organization's remote servers list.
- **Untrusted mail.** Botmail tells agents to treat email content as data, not
  instructions. Keep sends on manual approval so a crafted email can't make
  Cline write to anyone without you seeing it.

Setting up another client too? See [Email MCP server](https://botmail.pro/guides/email-mcp-server)
or [how Botmail works](https://botmail.pro/ai-agent-email).

## Questions

### How do I add a remote MCP server to Cline?

Open the MCP Servers panel, go to the Remote Servers tab, enter a name and the server URL, choose Streamable HTTP and click Add Server. Then click Authenticate if the server uses OAuth.

### Does Cline support OAuth for MCP servers?

Yes. Cline registers itself with the server and opens your browser to sign in. Botmail supports this, so no client ID or API key is needed.

### Why won't my remote MCP server connect in Cline?

Check the transport. If the type field is missing from the JSON config, Cline uses the legacy SSE transport. Set "type": "streamableHttp" for servers like Botmail.

---

Source: https://botmail.pro/guides/cline-email
Agent instructions: https://botmail.pro/skill.md
All guides: https://botmail.pro/llms.txt