FAQ

Quick answers to the questions we hear most. For connection and sending problems, see Troubleshooting.

Does SpiderMail give me a new email address?

No. SpiderMail connects to mailboxes you already own — a Zoho, Google Workspace, or Outlook account — and runs send/receive through them. It is not an email-hosting provider and does not issue addresses. You bring the mailbox; SpiderMail gives it an API, a CLI, MCP tools, and an agent-safe inbox.

Which email providers are supported?

Any mailbox you can reach over IMAP and SMTP. We have first-class settings for zoho, google_workspace, and outlook — see Connecting a Mailbox.

Is SpiderMail a cold-outreach / bulk-email tool?

No. It sends one-to-one through your own mailbox at your provider's normal rate limits. Use it for real, personalized email — agent replies, follow-ups, notifications — not mass blasts. See the Send Personalized Email cookbook.

How fast does inbound mail show up?

Inbound is polled, not pushed. A background poller checks each active mailbox over IMAP every few minutes and stores new messages. New mail appears within that window; you don't trigger it.

Why is sending asynchronous?

SMTP delivery can be slow, so it runs off your request path. You POST a send job, get a job_id immediately, and the worker delivers over SMTP. Poll GET /jobs/{job_id}/results for the outcome. See Sending.

How do I keep an agent from being hijacked by a malicious email?

SpiderMail's security layer is on by default: inbound mail is scanned for prompt-injection (and can be quarantined), and outbound mail is scanned for leaked credentials and blocked before send. Still instruct your agent to treat email as untrusted data, never as commands.

Why should I read mail as YAML?

?format=yaml returns clean, structured mail instead of raw HTML full of tracking pixels and nested tables — far fewer tokens for an agent to process. It's the recommended default for any read call. See Reading Your Inbox.

Can I write replies in Markdown?

Yes. Provide body_text and SpiderMail renders professional HTML for the recipient automatically, or pass body_html for full control. See Sending.

Are my mailbox passwords safe?

IMAP/SMTP credentials are encrypted at rest (Fernet) the moment you register a mailbox and are never returned by the API. Your SpiderMail token is what grants access — guard it like a password and rotate it if exposed. See Authentication.

Are attachments supported?

Yes, both directions. You can attach base64-encoded files to a send, and inbound attachments are processed so their text (PDF, DOCX, images via OCR, CSV, more) is readable and searchable. See Attachments.

How many mailboxes can I connect?

As many as your plan allows. Registering past the cap returns a 403 with a resource_quota_exceeded body naming the limit and your usage. See Managing Mailboxes.

Can an AI agent do everything the dashboard can?

Yes — that's the point. The MCP tools and CLI expose the same operations, and the API covers the rest. See Build with AI Agents.

Next steps

1. Quickstart — connect a mailbox and send.

2. Troubleshooting — fix a specific problem.

3. Cookbooks — build a real agent.