Nylas

Nylas CLI — Unified Email, Calendar & Contacts

Quick Start

# List recent emails
nylas email list

# Send an email
nylas email send --to recipient@example.com --subject "Hello" --body "Hi there!" -y

# Search emails
nylas email search "invoice"

# Read a specific email
nylas email read <message-id>

# Check account health
nylas doctor

# Interactive TUI
nylas tui

Setup & Authentication

Install

brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas

First-time setup

# Interactive guided setup (opens browser for OAuth)
nylas init

# Or configure with existing API key
nylas auth config --api-key nyl_xxx

# Then authenticate with an email provider
nylas auth login --provider google     # Gmail
nylas auth login --provider microsoft  # Outlook/M365
nylas auth login --provider imap       # Generic IMAP (prompts for credentials)

IMAP setup (non-interactive)

expect -c '
set timeout 60
spawn nylas auth login --provider imap
expect "IMAP username"    ; send "user@example.com\r"
expect "IMAP password"    ; send "YOUR_PASSWORD\r"
expect "IMAP host"        ; send "mail.example.com\r"
expect "IMAP port"         ; send "993\r"
expect "Add SMTP"          ; send "Y\r"
expect "SMTP host"         ; send "mail.example.com\r"
expect "SMTP port"         ; send "465\r"
expect eof
'

Verify setup

nylas auth status    # Show current auth
nylas auth list      # List all accounts
nylas doctor         # Full health check

Core Email Commands

List emails

# Recent 10 from INBOX
nylas email list

# More emails
nylas email list --limit 50

# Unread only
nylas email list --unread

# From specific sender
nylas email list --from boss@company.com

# Specific folder
nylas email list --folder SENT
nylas email list --folder TRASH

# All folders
nylas email list --all-folders

# Paginate through all
nylas email list --all --max 500

# JSON output for scripting
nylas email list --json
nylas email list --json --limit 50 | jq '.[].subject'

Read email

# Read a specific message
nylas email read <message-id>

# Show full headers
nylas email read <message-id> --headers

# Raw MIME source
nylas email read <message-id> --raw

# Mark as read after viewing
nylas email read <message-id> --mark-read

Search emails

# Full-text search
nylas email search "quarterly report"

# From specific person
nylas email search "from:alice@example.com"

# Subject filter
nylas email search "subject:urgent"

# Date range
nylas email search "after:2026-01-01 before:2026-03-01"

# Unread
nylas email search "is:unread"

# Starred
nylas email search "is:starred"

# Has attachments
nylas email search "has:attachment"

Send email

# Simple send
nylas email send --to user@example.com --subject "Hello" --body "Hi there!" -y

# Multiple recipients
nylas email send --to a@example.com --to b@example.com --subject "Team update" --body "..." -y

# CC and BCC
nylas email send --to user@example.com --cc boss@example.com --bcc archive@example.com \
  --subject "FYI" --body "See attached" -y

# HTML body
nylas email send --to user@example.com --subject "Newsletter" \
  --body "<h1>Hello</h1><p>HTML content</p>" -y

# Scheduled send
nylas email send --to user@example.com --subject "Reminder" --body "..." --schedule "2h" -y
nylas email send --to user@example.com --subject "Morning" --body "..." --schedule "tomorrow 9am" -y

# With tracking
nylas email send --to user@example.com --subject "Proposal" --body "..." \
  --track-opens --track-links -y

# GPG sign
nylas email send --to user@example.com --subject "Secure" --body "..." --sign -y

# GPG encrypt
nylas email send --to bob@example.com --subject "Confidential" --body "..." --encrypt -y

# Interactive mode (opens editor)
nylas email send --to user@example.com --subject "Draft" -i

Mark, move, delete

# Mark as read/unread
nylas email mark read <message-id>
nylas email mark unread <message-id>

# Star/unstar
nylas email mark starred <message-id>
nylas email mark unstarred <message-id>

# Delete
nylas email delete <message-id>

# Move to folder
nylas email move <message-id> --folder Archive

Calendar Commands

Note: Calendar requires Google or Microsoft 365 provider. IMAP does not support calendar.

# List calendars
nylas calendar calendars list

# List upcoming events
nylas calendar events list

# Create event
nylas calendar events create --title "Team standup" --when "tomorrow 9am" --duration 30m

# Create with attendees
nylas calendar events create --title "1:1" --when "friday 2pm" --duration 45m \
  --attendees alice@example.com,bob@example.com

# Show event details
nylas calendar events show <event-id>

# Delete event
nylas calendar events delete <event-id>

Contact Commands

# List contacts
nylas contacts list

# Search contacts
nylas contacts list --query "john"

# JSON output
nylas contacts list --json

Folder Management

# List all folders
nylas email folders list

# Show folder with IDs
nylas email folders list --id

# Create a new folder
nylas email folders create --name "Projects"

# Rename a folder
nylas email folders rename --folder <folder-id> --name "Renamed"

# Delete a folder
nylas email folders delete --folder <folder-id>

OTP Extraction

# Get latest OTP code from email
nylas otp get

# Watch for new OTP codes
nylas otp watch

MCP Server (AI Integration)

# Start MCP server for Claude/Cursor/Windsurf
nylas mcp

# With specific transport
nylas mcp --transport stdio
nylas mcp --transport sse --port 8080

TUI (Interactive Mode)

# Launch interactive terminal UI
nylas tui

# Vim-style navigation: j/k to move, Enter to read, q to quit

Global Flags

Provider Support

Important Notes

• IMAP provider supports email only — no calendar or contacts
• Send uses --to, --subject, --body flags (unlike himalaya which takes raw RFC 5322)
• Use -y flag to skip confirmation prompts in scripts
• Use --json for scripting — all commands support JSON output
• API key stored in system keyring — config at ~/.config/nylas/config.yaml
• Free tier (Sandbox) has rate limits — 1 grant, limited API calls
• Nylas routes email through its servers — not a direct IMAP client like himalaya
• Demo mode available — nylas demo email list works without any account

References

• references/cli-reference.md — Complete command reference for all nylas subcommands
• references/config-reference.md — Config file format, multi-account setup, keyring, and provider templates
• references/common-workflows.md — Search patterns, scheduled send, templates, MCP setup, and scripting patterns