DEV Community: Qasim Muhammad

nylas webhook server — What It Does and How to Use It

Qasim Muhammad — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 22:00:07 +0000

Webhooks fire when email arrives, events change, or contacts update. nylas webhook server helps you start a local webhook server for development.

The nylas webhook server command starts a local HTTP server that receives webhook events from Nylas. It automatically creates a tunnel so Nylas can reach your machine.

Quick Start

brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas
nylas init
nylas webhook server

Examples

Start on default port:

nylas webhook server

Start on a custom port:

nylas webhook server --port 8080

How It Works

Webhooks replace polling. Instead of checking every 30 seconds whether new email arrived, the webhook pushes the event to your endpoint within seconds. This reduces API calls and improves latency for your application.

Syntax

nylas webhook server [--port PORT]

Related Commands

nylas webhook list — List all webhooks
nylas webhook create — Create a webhook for real-time event notifications
nylas webhook delete — Delete an existing webhook by ID
nylas webhook test send — Send a test webhook event to a URL

Full docs: nylas webhook server reference — all flags, advanced examples, and troubleshooting.

All commands: Nylas CLI Command Reference

Get started: brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas — other install methods

E2E Email Testing with Playwright and Cypress — No Gmail Credentials Required

Qasim Muhammad — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 21:58:36 +0000

Your Playwright test clicks "Reset Password." An email gets sent. Now what?

Most teams fake this with mocked SMTP or MailHog. Tests pass locally but break in staging because the email never actually arrived. There's a better way.

Create a Real Test Inbox

brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas
nylas init
nylas inbound create e2e-test

nylas inbound create provisions a managed email address that receives real email. No MX records. No mail server.

Poll for Messages in Your Test

nylas inbound messages checks for new mail:

nylas inbound messages inbox_abc123 --unread --json --limit 1

Parse the JSON output to extract reset links, verification codes, or confirmation emails.

Monitor in Real Time

nylas inbound monitor streams messages as they arrive:

nylas inbound monitor inbox_abc123 --tunnel cloudflared

Extract OTP Codes

Testing two-factor auth? nylas workflow otp list extracts one-time passwords:

nylas workflow otp list --limit 1

List All Test Inboxes

nylas inbound list shows your managed addresses:

nylas inbound list --json

Why Not MailHog?

MailHog intercepts SMTP locally — your app must be configured to send through it. Nylas Inbound addresses receive email through real infrastructure. If it arrives here, it'll arrive in Gmail too.

CI Integration

- name: Install Nylas CLI
  run: curl -fsSL https://cli.nylas.com/install.sh | bash
- name: Run E2E tests
  env:
    NYLAS_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.NYLAS_API_KEY }}
  run: |
    nylas auth config --api-key $NYLAS_API_KEY
    npx playwright test

Webhook Testing

nylas webhook test send fires test events:

nylas webhook test send https://staging.myapp.com/hooks/email

nylas webhook server starts a local receiver:

nylas webhook server --port 4000

All commands: Nylas CLI Command Reference

Get started: brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas — other install methods

Build a Cross-Platform Communication Hub — Email, Slack, Contacts & Webhooks from One CLI

Qasim Muhammad — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 03:48:12 +0000

Your communication is scattered. Email in Gmail. Messages in Slack. Contacts in Outlook. Notifications via webhooks. Testing with throwaway inboxes. Managing all of this means switching between five different tools.

The Nylas CLI unifies email, Slack, contacts, webhooks, and inbound email into a single command-line interface. Automate cross-platform workflows, build notification pipelines, and manage your entire communication stack from the terminal.

Set Up Your Hub

brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas
nylas init

Log into the Nylas Dashboard to manage apps and API keys:

nylas dashboard login --google

nylas dashboard login supports Google, Microsoft, and GitHub SSO. Check your session with nylas dashboard status and list apps with nylas dashboard apps list.

Slack Integration

Connect Slack by storing your bot token:

Authenticate

nylas slack auth set stores your token:

nylas slack auth set --token xoxb-your-bot-token

Browse Channels

nylas slack channels list shows all channels you can access:

nylas slack channels list --json

Read Messages

nylas slack messages list shows recent messages in a channel:

nylas slack messages list --channel general --limit 20

Search Across Slack

nylas slack messages search finds messages workspace-wide:

nylas slack messages search --query "deploy production" --json

Send Messages

nylas slack messages send posts to any channel or DM:

nylas slack messages send --channel deploys --text "v2.3.1 deployed to production"

Update Your Status

nylas slack status set changes your status from the terminal:

nylas slack status set --text "In a meeting" --emoji ":calendar:"

List Users

nylas slack users list shows workspace members:

nylas slack users list --json

Contact Management

List Contacts

nylas contacts list displays your address book:

nylas contacts list --limit 50 --json

Search Contacts

nylas contacts search finds people by name or email:

nylas contacts search --query "Sarah" --json

View Contact Details

nylas contacts show shows everything — emails, phones, company, custom fields:

nylas contacts show --id contact_abc123

Create Contacts

nylas contacts create adds to your address book:

nylas contacts create --name "Sarah Connor" --email "sarah@skynet.com" --company "Cyberdyne"

Sync and Groups

nylas contacts sync refreshes the local cache:

nylas contacts sync

nylas contacts groups list shows contact groups (Google) or categories (Outlook):

nylas contacts groups list --json

Webhooks — Real-Time Notifications

Create a Webhook

nylas webhook create registers a URL for real-time events:

nylas webhook create --url https://api.myapp.com/hooks/email --triggers message.created

List Webhooks

nylas webhook list shows all registered hooks:

nylas webhook list --json

Manage Webhooks

nylas webhook update — change URL or triggers
nylas webhook delete — remove a webhook
nylas webhook triggers — list all available trigger types

Test and Debug

nylas webhook test send fires a test event to verify your endpoint:

nylas webhook test send https://api.myapp.com/hooks/email

nylas webhook server starts a local HTTP server for development:

nylas webhook server --port 4000

Inbound Email — Receive Without a Mail Server

Need to receive email for testing or automation? Inbound gives you managed addresses — no MX records, no mail server, no OAuth.

Create an Inbox

nylas inbound create provisions a new address:

nylas inbound create test-runner
# → test-runner@yourapp.nylas.email

List Inboxes

nylas inbound list shows all your managed addresses:

nylas inbound list --json

Read Received Messages

nylas inbound messages lists messages in an inbox:

nylas inbound messages inbox_abc123 --unread --json

Monitor in Real Time

nylas inbound monitor streams new messages as they arrive:

nylas inbound monitor inbox_abc123

Extract OTP Codes

nylas workflow otp list scans emails for one-time passwords — useful for automated testing:

nylas workflow otp list --limit 5

Putting It Together: Cross-Platform Alert Pipeline

Here's a real workflow — when a webhook fires, email the team and post to Slack:

#!/bin/bash
# Triggered by webhook server
EVENT="$1"

# Email the team
nylas email send \
  --to team@company.com \
  --subject "Alert: $EVENT" \
  --body "A new event was triggered. Check the dashboard." --yes

# Post to Slack
nylas slack messages send \
  --channel alerts \
  --text ":rotating_light: $EVENT triggered — check email for details"

Full Command Reference

Every Slack, contacts, webhook, and inbound command with complete documentation: Nylas CLI Command Reference.

Track Every Action Your AI Agent Takes — Audit Logs, Auth Management & Compliance for CLI Automation

Qasim Muhammad — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 03:48:11 +0000

Your AI agent just sent 47 emails. Which ones? To whom? At what time? If you can't answer those questions, you have an accountability gap.

The Nylas CLI has built-in audit logging that records every command execution — timestamps, arguments, exit codes, and who invoked it (human or AI agent). Combined with granular auth management, you get full control over what your automation can access and a complete paper trail of what it did.

Why Audit Logging Matters

SOC 2 compliance requires logging access to customer data. AI agent safety requires tracking autonomous actions. CI/CD debugging requires knowing exactly what commands ran. The CLI's audit system handles all three.

Set Up Audit Logging

Initialize

nylas audit init creates the log directory and default config:

nylas audit init --enable

Configure retention (default 90 days) and max file size (default 50 MB) during init, or set them later.

Enable/Disable Logging

nylas audit logs enable starts recording:

nylas audit logs enable

nylas audit logs disable stops recording (existing logs are preserved):

nylas audit logs disable

nylas audit logs status shows whether logging is active:

nylas audit logs status

View Audit Logs

nylas audit logs show displays recorded activity with powerful filters:

# All recent activity
nylas audit logs show

# Filter by date range
nylas audit logs show --since 2025-04-01 --until 2025-04-10

# Filter by command
nylas audit logs show --command "email send"

# Filter by invoker (who ran the command)
nylas audit logs show --invoker claude-code

# Filter by source
nylas audit logs show --source mcp

# Combine filters for targeted investigation
nylas audit logs show --invoker cursor --command "email send" --since 2025-04-08 --json

The --invoker filter distinguishes between terminal (human), claude-code, cursor, and other AI agents. The --source filter separates cli, mcp, and sdk invocations.

Summarize Activity

nylas audit logs summary aggregates stats:

nylas audit logs summary --days 30 --json

Output includes total commands run, error rates, most-used commands, top invokers (AI vs human), and busiest hours.

Export for Compliance

nylas audit export writes logs to JSON or CSV for external analysis:

# JSON export
nylas audit export --format json -o audit-april.json

# CSV for spreadsheet analysis
nylas audit export --format csv --since 2025-04-01 -o audit-april.csv

Configure Audit Settings

nylas audit config show displays current settings:

nylas audit config show

nylas audit config set changes individual settings:

nylas audit config set retention_days 180
nylas audit config set max_size_mb 100
nylas audit config set rotate_daily true

Clear Logs (Destructive)

nylas audit logs clear permanently deletes all entries. Always export first:

nylas audit export -o backup.json
nylas audit logs clear --force

Authentication Management

Audit logging shows you what happened. Auth management controls what can happen.

Configure API Credentials

nylas auth config stores your API key:

nylas auth config --api-key nyl_abc123

Connect Accounts

nylas auth login authenticates via OAuth:

nylas auth login

View Connected Accounts

nylas auth list shows all grants:

nylas auth list --json

Verify Current State

nylas auth whoami — which account is active
nylas auth status — is the token valid
nylas auth token — display the current token (for debugging)
nylas auth scopes — what permissions are granted
nylas auth show — full details for a specific account
nylas auth providers — list supported email providers

Switch Between Accounts

nylas auth switch changes the active account:

nylas auth switch grant_abc123

Remove Access

nylas auth logout — disconnect from the current session
nylas auth remove — permanently delete a grant and all cached tokens

Migrate from v2

nylas auth migrate upgrades stored credentials from API v2 to v3.

Nuclear Option

nylas config reset clears everything — API keys, sessions, grants:

nylas config reset --force

Putting It Together: Secure AI Agent Setup

# 1. Initialize with audit logging
nylas init
nylas audit init --enable

# 2. Connect only the accounts the agent needs
nylas auth login

# 3. Verify least-privilege access
nylas auth scopes

# 4. Let the agent work...

# 5. Review what it did
nylas audit logs show --invoker claude-code --since today
nylas audit logs summary --days 1

Install the Nylas CLI

brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas

See the getting started guide for other install methods.

Full Command Reference

All audit and auth commands with complete flag documentation: Nylas CLI Command Reference.

Manage Google Calendar, Outlook & Exchange from the Command Line — AI Scheduling Included

Qasim Muhammad — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 03:48:09 +0000

Managing calendars across Google, Outlook, and Exchange usually means three different UIs, three different APIs, and three sets of credentials. The Nylas CLI unifies them into one command-line interface — list events, create meetings, check availability, and let AI handle the scheduling.

Getting Started

brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas
nylas init

Once authenticated, every calendar command works against Google Calendar, Outlook, Exchange, Yahoo, and iCloud identically.

List Your Calendars

nylas calendar list shows all calendars on your account — primary, shared, and subscribed:

nylas calendar list --json

View Upcoming Events

nylas calendar events list displays your schedule:

# Next 7 days (default)
nylas calendar events list

# Next 30 days
nylas calendar events list --days 30

# In a specific timezone
nylas calendar events list --days 7 --timezone America/New_York --json

Inspect a Single Event

nylas calendar events show gives you every detail — attendees with RSVP status, recurrence rules, conferencing links:

nylas calendar events show --id evt_abc123 --json

Create Events

nylas calendar events create adds events directly:

nylas calendar events create \
  --title "Sprint Review" \
  --start "2025-04-15T14:00:00" \
  --end "2025-04-15T15:00:00" \
  --participants "alice@co.com,bob@co.com" \
  --location "Zoom" \
  --yes

Update and Delete Events

Modify with nylas calendar events update:

nylas calendar events update --id evt_abc123 --title "Sprint Review (Moved)" --start "2025-04-16T14:00:00"

Remove with nylas calendar events delete:

nylas calendar events delete --id evt_abc123 --notify

The --notify flag sends cancellation emails to attendees.

RSVP from the Terminal

nylas calendar events rsvp responds to invitations:

nylas calendar events rsvp --id evt_xyz789 --status yes
nylas calendar events rsvp --id evt_xyz789 --status maybe
nylas calendar events rsvp --id evt_xyz789 --status no

AI-Powered Scheduling

This is where it gets interesting. The CLI has built-in AI features that go beyond CRUD.

Natural Language Event Creation

nylas calendar schedule ai parses plain English:

nylas calendar schedule ai "Team standup tomorrow at 9am for 15 minutes"
nylas calendar schedule ai "Lunch with Sarah next Friday at noon"

Find a Meeting Time

nylas calendar find-time queries everyone's availability and returns open slots:

nylas calendar find-time \
  --participants "alice@co.com,bob@co.com,carol@co.com" \
  --duration 30 \
  --days 5

Check Availability

nylas calendar availability check shows free/busy windows:

nylas calendar availability check \
  --start "2025-04-15T09:00:00Z" \
  --end "2025-04-15T17:00:00Z" \
  --participants "alice@co.com,bob@co.com"

Detect Conflicts

nylas calendar ai conflicts scans your calendar for double-bookings and tight back-to-back slots:

nylas calendar ai conflicts --days 14

The AI flags hard conflicts (simultaneous events), soft conflicts (less than 15 minutes between meetings), and travel-time risks.

AI Rescheduling

nylas calendar ai reschedule suggests optimal alternative times:

nylas calendar ai reschedule --id evt_conflicting123

It analyzes participant availability and calendar density to propose 3 conflict-free alternatives.

Calendar Analytics

nylas calendar analyze breaks down your meeting load:

nylas calendar analyze --days 30 --json

Output includes total meeting hours, busiest day of the week, average meeting duration, recurring vs one-off ratio, and focus-time gaps.

Timezone Tools (100% Offline)

The CLI includes standalone timezone utilities that work without an API key or internet connection.

nylas timezone list — browse all IANA timezones:

nylas timezone list --filter America

nylas timezone convert — convert between zones:

nylas timezone convert --from "America/New_York" --to "Asia/Tokyo" --time "2025-04-15T09:00"

nylas timezone find-meeting — find overlapping work hours across zones:

nylas timezone find-meeting --zones "America/New_York,Europe/London,Asia/Tokyo"

nylas timezone dst — check DST transitions:

nylas timezone dst --zone "America/New_York"

nylas timezone info — current offset and status:

nylas timezone info "Europe/London"

Full Command Reference

All calendar and timezone commands with full flag documentation: Nylas CLI Command Reference.

Give Your AI Coding Agent Email, Calendar & Contacts — One CLI Command

Qasim Muhammad — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 03:48:08 +0000

Claude Code can't read your email. Cursor can't check your calendar. GitHub Copilot can't search your contacts. Until you give them access.

The Nylas CLI connects AI assistants to your email, calendar, and contacts through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). One command. No API code. Your agent can then send emails, create events, search contacts, and manage your inbox on your behalf.

Why MCP Matters for AI Agents

MCP is an open standard that lets AI assistants call external tools. Instead of copy-pasting email content into Claude, the agent reads your inbox directly. Instead of describing a meeting, the agent creates it on your calendar.

The Nylas CLI ships a built-in MCP server that exposes 50+ email, calendar, and contact operations as tools your agent can call.

Step 1: Install and Authenticate

brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas
nylas init

nylas init handles account setup. For headless environments, use nylas auth config with an API key directly.

Step 2: Connect Your AI Assistant

nylas mcp install writes the MCP configuration for your assistant:

# Interactive — pick your assistant
nylas mcp install

# Direct — specify the assistant
nylas mcp install --assistant claude-code
nylas mcp install --assistant cursor
nylas mcp install --assistant windsurf

# All detected assistants at once
nylas mcp install --all

That's it. Your agent now has email, calendar, and contacts tools.

Check the installation with nylas mcp status:

nylas mcp status
# Shows which assistants are configured and server state

Need to remove it later? nylas mcp uninstall cleans up:

nylas mcp uninstall --assistant cursor

Step 3: Start the MCP Server

The server runs automatically when your assistant starts, but you can also start it manually with nylas mcp serve:

nylas mcp serve

This is useful for debugging — you can see every tool call your agent makes in real time.

What Your Agent Can Do Now

Once connected, your AI assistant can:

Read and search email:

"Show me unread emails from the last 24 hours"
→ Agent calls nylas email list --unread --json

nylas email list and nylas email search are the most-used tools for AI agents that need inbox context.

Send email on your behalf:

"Reply to Sarah's email and accept the meeting"
→ Agent calls nylas email send --to sarah@... --subject "Re: ..." --body "..."

nylas email send with --yes skips the confirmation prompt, which agents need for autonomous operation.

Manage your calendar:

"Schedule a 30-minute standup tomorrow at 9am with the team"
→ Agent calls nylas calendar events create --title "Standup" --start ...

nylas calendar events create and nylas calendar events list give agents full calendar access.

Search contacts:

"Find Sarah's email address"
→ Agent calls nylas contacts list --json and searches

nylas contacts list and nylas contacts search power contact lookups.

The AI Chat Interface

Don't want to use MCP? nylas chat launches a web-based AI chat that's already connected to your email and calendar:

# Default agent
nylas chat

# Use Claude
nylas chat --agent claude

# Use a local model via Ollama
nylas chat --agent ollama --model llama3

Configure Your AI Provider

nylas ai config lets you choose between local models (Ollama, LM Studio) for privacy or cloud providers (OpenAI, Anthropic) for capability:

nylas ai config

Other Ways to Interact

The CLI offers three UI modes beyond the terminal:

nylas tui — interactive terminal UI with keyboard navigation
nylas ui — web-based configuration dashboard
nylas air — full email client in your browser

Security: Track What Your Agent Does

When AI agents have email access, you need visibility. The Nylas CLI has built-in audit logging that records every command an agent executes. See the audit logging guide for setup.

Full Command Reference

Every MCP, email, calendar, and contacts command has a detailed reference page at the Nylas CLI Command Reference.

Automate Your Entire Email Workflow from the Terminal — No SMTP, No Sendmail

Qasim Muhammad — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 03:48:06 +0000

You have a cron job that needs to send a report every morning. A CI pipeline that emails test results. An AI agent that triages your inbox. All of these need email — and all of them hate SMTP configuration.

The Nylas CLI handles email through Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, Yahoo, iCloud, and IMAP from a single command-line interface. No SMTP server. No app passwords. No sendmail configuration. Here's how to build a complete email automation workflow.

Step 1: Get Set Up in 2 Minutes

Install and authenticate:

brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas
nylas init

nylas init runs a 4-step wizard: account creation, app selection, API key generation, and email sync. For CI/CD, skip the wizard:

nylas init --api-key nyl_abc123

Already have credentials? Use nylas auth config to store your API key, then nylas auth login to connect a mailbox via OAuth.

Want to try it without connecting a real account? nylas demo email list shows sample data with zero configuration.

Pro tip: run nylas completion bash and pipe the output to your shell's completion directory — every flag and subcommand gets tab-completion.

Step 2: Read Your Inbox

List recent messages:

nylas email list --limit 20

nylas email list supports filters that make automation practical:

# Unread only
nylas email list --unread --json

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

# Only messages with attachments
nylas email list --has-attachment --json | jq '.[].subject'

Read a specific message with nylas email read:

nylas email read msg_abc123 --raw

If the message is GPG-encrypted, add --decrypt --verify to decrypt and verify the signature inline.

Step 3: Search Like You Mean It

nylas email search queries across your entire mailbox:

nylas email search "invoice" --after 2025-01-01 --limit 10 --json

Filter by sender, date range, read status, or attachment presence. Pipe --json output into jq to extract exactly the fields you need.

Step 4: Send Email — One Command

nylas email send handles plain sends, scheduled delivery, GPG encryption, and tracking:

# Basic send
nylas email send \
  --to user@example.com \
  --subject "Daily Report" \
  --body "See attached metrics." --yes

# Schedule for 2 hours from now
nylas email send \
  --to team@company.com \
  --subject "Reminder" \
  --body "Standup in 30 minutes" \
  --schedule 2h

# GPG signed and encrypted
nylas email send \
  --to legal@partner.com \
  --subject "Contract v2" \
  --body "Attached." \
  --sign --encrypt

Check what's queued with nylas email scheduled list.

Step 5: Let AI Write Your Emails

nylas email smart-compose generates drafts from natural language:

nylas email smart-compose \
  --prompt "Decline the meeting politely, suggest next week" \
  --to manager@company.com

Pass --thread-id to give the AI context from an existing conversation.

For inbox analysis, nylas email ai analyze extracts sentiment, action items, and summaries:

nylas email ai analyze --id msg_abc123 --prompt "What action items are in this email?"

Step 6: Manage Messages at Scale

Batch operations from shell scripts:

# Mark all unread as read
nylas email list --unread --json | jq -r '.[].id' | while read id; do
  nylas email mark read --id "$id"
done

# Star important messages
nylas email mark starred --id msg_xyz789

Other management commands:

nylas email delete — remove a message
nylas email drafts list — view saved drafts
nylas email folders list — list Gmail labels and Outlook folders
nylas email threads list — view conversation threads
nylas email attachments list — inspect attachments on a message
nylas email metadata show — debug headers and Message-ID
nylas email templates list — reuse saved templates
nylas email mark read — set the read flag
nylas email mark starred — star/flag a message

Putting It Together: A Cron Job

Here's a real example — a daily script that emails you a summary of unread messages:

#!/bin/bash
COUNT=$(nylas email list --unread --json | jq length)
SUBJECTS=$(nylas email list --unread --json --limit 5 | jq -r '.[].subject' | head -5)

nylas email send \
  --to me@company.com \
  --subject "Inbox Summary: $COUNT unread" \
  --body "Top 5 subjects:\n$SUBJECTS" \
  --yes

Add it to crontab: 0 8 * * * /path/to/inbox-summary.sh

Full Command Reference

Every command shown here has a detailed reference page with all flags, examples, and troubleshooting at the Nylas CLI Command Reference.

Sync Contacts Across Gmail and Outlook with OpenClaw

Qasim Muhammad — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:39:13 +0000

You use Gmail for personal stuff and Outlook for work. Someone emails your personal address about a project. You know their name but not their work email. You open Outlook contacts — they're not there. You open Gmail contacts — found them, but now you need to copy the address and switch back.

Your OpenClaw agent can search both accounts at once.

What you'll build

An agent workflow that:

Searches contacts across multiple email accounts simultaneously
Finds the right person regardless of which account knows them
Pulls contact details — email, phone, company, title
Uses that information in follow-up actions (send email, schedule meeting)

No exporting CSVs. No switching between Google Contacts and Outlook People. One question, one answer.

Prerequisites

You need the Nylas plugin with at least two connected accounts. If you followed The Nylas Plugin for OpenClaw, you're most of the way there.

Install (if you haven't already):

openclaw plugins install @nylas/openclaw-nylas-plugin
openclaw config set plugins.entries.nylas.config.apiKey nyl_v0_your_key_here
openclaw gateway restart

Then configure named grants for your accounts:

openclaw config set plugins.entries.nylas.config.grants '{"work":"grant-id-1","personal":"grant-id-2"}'
openclaw gateway restart

Find your grant IDs with openclaw nylas discover.

Full setup: cli.nylas.com/guides/install-openclaw-nylas-plugin. New to the CLI? Start with the getting started guide.

Search contacts across accounts

The simplest case — you need someone's email:

"Find the contact info for Sarah Chen."

The agent calls nylas_list_contacts on your default grant. But with multi-account configured, you can search everywhere:

"Search for Sarah Chen across both my work and personal accounts."

The agent runs nylas_list_contacts twice — once per grant — and merges the results:

Source	Name	Email	Company	Phone
Work	Sarah Chen	s.chen@bigcorp.com	BigCorp	+1-555-0142
Personal	Sarah Chen	sarah.chen@gmail.com	—	+1-555-0142

Same person, two different email addresses. Now you know which one to use depending on the context.

Real workflows

Contact lookup is rarely the end goal. It's usually the first step in something bigger. Here's where it gets useful.

Find and email

"Find Bob Martinez's work email and send him a message about the Q3 proposal."

The agent:

Calls nylas_list_contacts with the search query
Finds bob.martinez@company.com
Calls nylas_send_email with the address it just found

No need to look up the email separately. The agent connects the dots. For more on sending email, see the send email guide.

Find and schedule

"Look up everyone from the design team in my contacts and find a time we're all free next week."

The agent:

Calls nylas_list_contacts searching for "design" in company/group fields
Collects the email addresses
Calls nylas_check_availability with all of them
Reports back with open slots

Contact search → calendar availability → meeting creation, all in one conversation. (We covered the scheduling part in Automate Meeting Scheduling.)

Find and push to CRM

"Find all contacts from BigCorp and export them to Salesforce."

The agent searches your contacts, collects the results, and you can pipe them into your CRM. The export email to Salesforce guide walks through the full integration. For HubSpot and Pipedrive workflows, see the CRM email workflows guide.

Find duplicates

"Search for contacts named 'Johnson' across both accounts. Are there any duplicates?"

The agent searches both grants, compares results by name and email, and flags matches:

"Found 3 contacts named Johnson. Mike Johnson appears in both accounts — mike.j@work.com (work) and mikej@gmail.com (personal). The other two are different people."

Not a full dedup tool, but enough to spot the obvious overlaps.

What contacts data is available?

The Nylas Contacts API returns structured fields for each contact:

Field	Example
Name	Sarah Chen
Email(s)	s.chen@bigcorp.com, sarah@personal.com
Phone(s)	+1-555-0142 (mobile), +1-555-0100 (work)
Company	BigCorp
Title	Engineering Manager
Address	123 Main St, San Francisco, CA
Groups	Design Team, Project Alpha
Notes	Met at KubeCon 2025

The agent can access all of these. Ask for exactly what you need:

"What company does raj@example.com work for?"

"Give me the phone numbers for everyone in the 'Sales' group."

When contacts aren't enough

Sometimes the person you're looking for isn't in your contacts. They emailed you once, six months ago, and you never saved them.

The agent can fall back to email search:

"I need to reach someone named Park who emailed me about the API migration. Check my contacts first, then search my email if you don't find them."

The agent:

Searches nylas_list_contacts — no results
Falls back to nylas_list_emails searching for "Park" + "API migration"
Finds the email thread and extracts the address: j.park@vendor.io

Contacts and email working together. One tool picks up where the other leaves off. We covered email search workflows in more detail in the email triage post.

Prefer the terminal?

If you'd rather search contacts from the command line without an agent, the Nylas CLI has you covered. The guides walk through contact management and other workflows.

Automate Meeting Scheduling with OpenClaw and Nylas

Qasim Muhammad — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:37:39 +0000

Scheduling a meeting sounds simple. Then you do it: check three people's availability, find a 30-minute slot that works for everyone, create the event, and send an email with the details. Four steps, three tabs, ten minutes gone.

Your OpenClaw agent can do all four in one conversation.

What you'll build

An agent workflow that:

Checks availability across multiple participants
Finds the first open slot that works for everyone
Creates the calendar event with attendees
Sends a confirmation email with the meeting details

One prompt. No tab-switching. No back-and-forth Slack messages asking "does 2pm work?"

Prerequisites

You need the Nylas plugin installed. If you followed The Nylas Plugin for OpenClaw, you're set.

If not:

openclaw plugins install @nylas/openclaw-nylas-plugin
openclaw config set plugins.entries.nylas.config.apiKey nyl_v0_your_key_here
openclaw gateway restart

Full setup: cli.nylas.com/guides/install-openclaw-nylas-plugin

Step 1: Check availability

Start with:

"Check if Alice, Bob, and I are all free this Thursday between 9am and 5pm."

The agent calls nylas_check_availability with the participant emails and time window. It returns free/busy blocks for each person:

Time	You	Alice	Bob
9:00–10:00	Free	Busy	Free
10:00–11:00	Free	Free	Busy
11:00–12:00	Free	Free	Free
12:00–1:00	Busy	Busy	Free
1:00–2:00	Free	Free	Free
2:00–3:00	Busy	Free	Busy
3:00–4:00	Free	Free	Free
4:00–5:00	Free	Busy	Free

Three open slots: 11am, 1pm, and 3pm.

Step 2: Pick a slot

The agent already knows the open slots. Ask it to choose:

"Book the earliest available slot for a 30-minute meeting."

Or be specific:

"Use the 1pm slot — mornings are for deep work."

The agent picks 1:00–1:30pm.

Step 3: Create the event

"Create the meeting. Title it 'Sprint Planning'. Add a Google Meet link."

The agent calls nylas_create_event:

Title: Sprint Planning
When: Thursday 1:00–1:30pm
Attendees: alice@company.com, bob@company.com
Conferencing: Google Meet link auto-generated

The event appears on all three calendars. Attendees get the standard calendar invite notification. For more on managing calendar events, see the calendar management guide.

Step 4: Send a heads-up email

Calendar invites are easy to miss. A quick email helps:

"Send Alice and Bob an email confirming the meeting. Include the time, Meet link, and ask them to add agenda items to the doc."

The agent calls nylas_send_email with the details from the event it just created. No copy-pasting the Meet link or double-checking the time — the agent already has the context. See the send email guide for more on email workflows.

The single-prompt version

Once you've done this a few times, compress it:

"Find a 30-minute slot this week where Alice, Bob, and I are all free. Book it as 'Sprint Planning' with a Google Meet link. Email everyone with the details."

The agent chains: availability check → slot selection → event creation → email confirmation. You approve once and it's done.

Handling conflicts

Real calendars are messy. Here's how the agent handles common problems:

No open slots this week:

"No overlapping free time this week. Want me to check next week, or should I find the slot where only one person has a conflict?"

Timezone mismatches:

"Alice is in London (GMT+1). The 1pm slot for you is 6pm for her. Still want to book it?"

The plugin uses your configured timezone and converts automatically. Set it once:

openclaw config set plugins.entries.nylas.config.defaultTimezone America/New_York
openclaw gateway restart

Recurring meetings:

"Make this a weekly recurring meeting, same time every Thursday."

The agent passes the recurrence rule to nylas_create_event. One command sets up the series. If you're working with Google Calendar specifically, the Google Calendar guide covers provider-specific details. For Outlook users, the Outlook calendar guide handles the Microsoft-specific quirks. And if you're on Exchange, the Exchange calendar guide covers on-prem setups.

Why this beats Calendly

Calendly and similar tools work great for external scheduling — someone picks a slot from your public availability page. But for internal meetings:

You don't need a booking page for a 1:1 with your teammate
Calendly can't check other people's calendars (only yours)
It can't send a custom follow-up email with agenda items
It can't adjust based on context ("avoid mornings" or "prefer after standup")

The agent sees everyone's calendar at once, understands your preferences, and handles the follow-up. It's scheduling with context, not just availability.

Going further

Layer in more context from the plugin's other tools:

"Before booking, check my email for any messages from Alice about rescheduling."

The agent calls nylas_list_emails to search for recent messages from Alice, finds one saying "Can we push to Friday?", and adjusts the search window. Email + calendar + contacts working together.

Prefer the terminal?

If you'd rather manage calendar events directly from the command line, the Nylas CLI handles it. The calendar management guide walks through creating events, checking availability, and more.

Build an Email Triage Agent that Actually Sends Replies

Qasim Muhammad — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:33:04 +0000

Most email triage demos stop at classification. They read your inbox, sort messages into buckets, and call it done. You still have to write the replies yourself.

Let's build one that closes the loop.

What you'll build

An OpenClaw agent workflow that:

Pulls your unread emails
Classifies each one (urgent, needs reply, FYI, spam)
Drafts replies for the "needs reply" bucket
Shows you the drafts for approval before sending

No copy-pasting between tabs. No context-switching. The agent reads, thinks, writes, and waits for your go-ahead.

Prerequisites

You need the Nylas plugin installed. If you followed The Nylas Plugin for OpenClaw, you're already set.

If not:

openclaw plugins install @nylas/openclaw-nylas-plugin
openclaw config set plugins.entries.nylas.config.apiKey nyl_v0_your_key_here
openclaw gateway restart

Full setup: cli.nylas.com/guides/install-openclaw-nylas-plugin

Step 1: Pull unread emails

Start by asking your agent:

"Show me my unread emails from today."

The agent calls nylas_list_emails with { unread: true } and returns a summary — sender, subject, and a preview of each message.

A typical Monday morning might look like:

#	From	Subject
1	boss@company.com	Q3 planning — need your input by EOD
2	ci@github.com	Build failed on main
3	vendor@saas.io	Your invoice is ready
4	newsletter@techblog.com	This week in distributed systems
5	alice@company.com	Can you review my PR?

Five emails. Three need a reply. One is informational. One is noise.

The same search capabilities work for automated workflows too — like extracting OTP codes from email for test automation.

Step 2: Classify

"Classify these emails: urgent, needs-reply, fyi, or skip."

The agent reads the full body of each message (calling nylas_get_email for each) and categorizes:

Urgent: #1 (boss, deadline today)
Needs reply: #2 (CI failure, team needs to know you're on it), #5 (PR review request)
FYI: #3 (invoice, no action needed right now)
Skip: #4 (newsletter)

No rules engine. No regex. The agent reads context the way you would.

Step 3: Draft replies

"Draft replies for the urgent and needs-reply emails. Keep them short."

The agent calls nylas_create_draft for each one. For more on how sending works under the hood, see the send email guide.

To boss@company.com:

"Got it — I'll have my section ready by 4pm. Want me to drop it in the shared doc or send it over email?"

To ci@github.com:

"Looking into the build failure now. Likely the config change from yesterday — I'll push a fix within the hour."

To alice@company.com:

"I'll review your PR this afternoon. Anything specific you want me to focus on?"

The drafts sit in your Drafts folder. Nothing has been sent yet.

Step 4: Review and send

"Show me the drafts you just created."

The agent lists the drafts. You read them, maybe tweak the wording:

"Change the reply to Alice — say I'll look at it after lunch, not this afternoon."

The agent updates the draft. When you're satisfied:

"Send all three drafts."

The agent calls nylas_send_email for each one. Done.

Making it a daily habit

Once you trust the workflow, you can compress it into a single prompt:

"Check my unread emails. Classify them. Draft short replies for anything urgent or that needs a response. Show me the drafts before sending."

The agent chains all four steps: list → classify → draft → present. You review once, approve once, and move on.

Why drafts matter

Skipping the draft step is tempting. Don't. Here's what goes wrong:

The agent misreads tone. A blunt reply to your boss's email lands badly.
The agent hallucinates a commitment. "I'll have it done by noon" when you meant end of day.
The agent replies-all to something that should've been a DM.

Drafts are the safety net. The agent does the heavy lifting; you keep the final say. If you're building your own triage agent in Python, the AI email triage guide covers the implementation details. For a deeper dive into the architecture, see building an AI email triage agent with the CLI.

Beyond email: adding calendar context

The plugin also has calendar tools. You can layer them in:

"Before drafting the reply to my boss, check my calendar for today. If I have meetings until 3pm, adjust the timeline in the reply."

The agent calls nylas_list_events, sees you're booked until 3pm, and drafts: "I'll have my section ready by 5pm" instead of 4pm. For more on calendar management, see the calendar guide.

This is where single-tool agents fall apart. Email-only tools can't see your calendar. Calendar-only tools can't draft replies. The Nylas plugin gives your agent the full picture.

Prefer the terminal?

If you want to triage email without an agent — just you and the command line — the Nylas CLI gives you the same email, calendar, and contacts access from your terminal. The guides walk through common workflows step by step.

The Nylas Plugin for OpenClaw: Send Email, Manage Calendar, Search Contacts

Qasim Muhammad — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:26:30 +0000

Your OpenClaw agent can browse the web and write code. But it can't check your inbox, create a calendar event, or look up a contact.

One plugin fixes that.

What you'll build

By the end of this post, your OpenClaw agent will be able to:

Send and search emails (Gmail, Outlook, IMAP — any provider)
Create, update, and delete calendar events
Search contacts across connected accounts
Switch between multiple email accounts by name

No SMTP config. No OAuth dance. No provider-specific code.

Get started

Sign up at dashboard-v3.nylas.com and create an API key
Connect at least one email account under Grants → Add Account
Install the plugin:

openclaw plugins install @nylas/openclaw-nylas-plugin
openclaw config set plugins.entries.nylas.config.apiKey nyl_v0_your_key_here
openclaw gateway restart

Verify: openclaw nylas status

New to the Nylas CLI? The getting started guide walks through installation and first-time setup. Full plugin setup with troubleshooting: cli.nylas.com/guides/install-openclaw-nylas-plugin

Try it out

Once installed, you talk to your agent naturally.

Send an email

"Send an email to alice@example.com with the subject 'Meeting tomorrow' and ask if 2pm works."

Behind the scenes, the plugin calls nylas_send_email — your agent never touches SMTP. For a deeper look at sending email from the command line, see the send email guide.

Search your inbox

"Find all unread emails from the engineering team in the last 3 days."

The plugin uses nylas_list_emails with folder, sender, date, and unread filters.

Create a calendar event

"Create a 30-minute meeting called 'Design Review' tomorrow at 2pm with alice@example.com."

The plugin calls nylas_create_event with attendees, time, and duration. It handles timezone conversion using your configured timezone (defaults to UTC). See the calendar management guide for more on managing events.

Check availability

"Am I free Thursday between 10am and 4pm?"

nylas_check_availability queries your calendar and returns open slots.

Record a meeting

The plugin handles calendar events, but you can also record meetings directly from the terminal — capture Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams calls without leaving the command line.

Search contacts

"Find the email address for someone named Chen at Acme Corp."

nylas_list_contacts searches across all connected accounts.

Prefer the terminal over agents?

If you want email, calendar, and contacts directly from the command line (no agent required), check out the Nylas CLI. Same Nylas API, terminal-native interface. The guides cover everything from sending your first email to managing Google Calendar from the shell.

Multiple accounts

If your API key has multiple grants (work Gmail + personal Outlook), the plugin handles it:

openclaw config set plugins.entries.nylas.config.grants '{"work":"grant-id-1","personal":"grant-id-2"}'
openclaw gateway restart

Then tell your agent which account to use:

"Send this from my work account."
"Check my personal calendar for Friday."

The plugin resolves the grant by name.

What's under the hood

The plugin exposes 16 tools to your agent:

Category	Tools
Email	list, get, send, draft, threads, folders
Calendar	list calendars, list/get/create/update/delete events, check availability
Contacts	list, get
Discovery	auto-discover grants

All tools use the Nylas API v3 through the official Node SDK. The plugin auto-discovers your grant ID, client ID, and organization from just the API key — so there's nothing else to configure.

Standalone usage in your own projects

Don't use OpenClaw? The package works as a regular npm module too:

import { createNylasClient } from "@nylas/openclaw-nylas-plugin";

const client = await createNylasClient({
  apiKey: "nyl_v0_your_key_here",
});

// Send an email
await client.sendMessage({
  email: "recipient@example.com",
  subject: "Hello from code",
  body: "<p>Sent with @nylas/openclaw-nylas-plugin</p>",
});

// List recent emails
const emails = await client.listMessages({ limit: 10 });

// List calendar events
const events = await client.listEvents({ calendarId: "primary" });

Turn Your Inbox into CRM Intelligence — Export Email Data to Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive

Qasim Muhammad — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:14:47 +0000

Your CRM is only as good as the data in it. Most sales teams lose deals because contacts go stale, emails aren't logged, and relationship context lives in individual inboxes instead of the CRM.

Manually copy-pasting email data into Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive doesn't scale. Native email sync features from CRM vendors are expensive add-ons. Building custom integrations against Gmail API or Microsoft Graph takes weeks.

Nylas CLI extracts structured email and contact data from any provider (Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, Yahoo, iCloud, IMAP) and exports it in formats every CRM can ingest — CSV for bulk import, JSON for API sync, or direct API calls.

Install and authenticate

brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas
nylas auth login

Full setup: Getting Started with Nylas CLI

Extract contacts from your inbox

Every email contains contact data. Pull it out:

# Get all unique senders from recent emails
nylas email list --json --limit 500 | \
  jq -r '.[].from[0] | "\(.email),\(.name // "")"' | \
  sort -u > contacts.csv

# Get contacts with email frequency (who emails you most)
nylas email list --json --limit 1000 | \
  jq -r '.[].from[0].email' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn > contact-frequency.csv

For advanced contact enrichment from email signatures: Parse Email Signatures for Contact Enrichment

Group emails by company domain

Identify which organizations email you most:

# Extract corporate domains (filter out freemail)
nylas email list --json --limit 500 | \
  jq -r '.[].from[0].email' | \
  awk -F@ '{print $2}' | \
  grep -vE 'gmail|yahoo|hotmail|outlook\.com' | \
  sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

Full guide: Group Inbox by Corporate Email Domain

Export to Salesforce

CSV import (bulk)

# Generate Salesforce-compatible Lead CSV
nylas email list --json --limit 500 | \
  jq -r '.[].from[0] | [.name // "", .email, (.email | split("@")[1])] | @csv' \
  > salesforce-leads.csv

# Add headers
sed -i '1i\Name,Email,Company' salesforce-leads.csv

Upload via Salesforce Data Import Wizard or Data Loader.

API sync (real-time)

import subprocess
import json
import requests

# Fetch recent contacts from email
result = subprocess.run(
    ["nylas", "email", "list", "--json", "--limit", "100"],
    capture_output=True, text=True
)
emails = json.loads(result.stdout)

# Upsert to Salesforce
for email in emails:
    sender = email["from"][0]
    requests.post(
        "https://your-instance.salesforce.com/services/data/v58.0/sobjects/Lead/",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SF_TOKEN}"},
        json={
            "Email": sender["email"],
            "LastName": sender.get("name", "Unknown"),
            "Company": sender["email"].split("@")[1]
        }
    )

Full guide: Export Email Data to Salesforce

Export to HubSpot

# Upsert contacts to HubSpot
for email in emails:
    sender = email["from"][0]
    requests.post(
        "https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/objects/contacts",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {HUBSPOT_TOKEN}"},
        json={
            "properties": {
                "email": sender["email"],
                "firstname": sender.get("name", "").split()[0] if sender.get("name") else "",
                "lastname": sender.get("name", "").split()[-1] if sender.get("name") else "",
                "company": sender["email"].split("@")[1]
            }
        }
    )

Full guide: Export Email Data to HubSpot

Export to Pipedrive

Full guide: Export Email Data to Pipedrive

Export to Zoho CRM

Full guide: Export Email Data to Zoho CRM

Export to Dynamics 365

Full guide: Export Email Data to Dynamics 365

Build org charts from CC patterns

Who CCs whom reveals reporting lines. A manager is usually CC'd on reports from their team:

# Extract CC relationships
nylas email list --json --limit 500 | \
  jq -r '.[] | select(.cc != null) | 
    .from[0].email as $from | 
    .cc[].email as $cc | 
    "\($from) -> \($cc)"' | \
  sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Full guide: Reconstruct Org Charts from Email CC Patterns

Score relationship strength

Not all contacts are equal. Measure relationship strength by email frequency, response time, and recency:

# Emails per contact in the last 30 days
nylas email list --after "30 days ago" --json --limit 1000 | \
  jq -r '.[].from[0].email' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Full guide: Visualize Communication Patterns Between Organizations

Automate outbound with mail merge

Once your CRM data is enriched, send personalized outreach:

# Bulk send from CSV
while IFS=, read -r email name company; do
  nylas email send \
    --to "$email" \
    --subject "Quick question about $company" \
    --body "Hi $name, I noticed we've been exchanging emails..." \
    --yes
  sleep 2
done < outreach-list.csv

Full guide: CLI Mail Merge

For draft-based workflows with review steps: Automate Email Draft Creation

Build a fuzzy email autocomplete

Speed up email composition with contact autocomplete:

# Generate a contact frequency list for autocomplete
nylas email list --json --limit 2000 | \
  jq -r '.[].from[0] | "\(.name // "") <\(.email)>"' | \
  sort | uniq -c | sort -rn > ~/.email-contacts

Full guide: Build Shell-Integrated Email Autocomplete

Graph analysis with Neo4j

For advanced relationship mapping, import email data into a graph database:

# Export sender-recipient pairs for Neo4j import
nylas email list --json --limit 1000 | \
  jq -r '.[] | .from[0].email + "," + (.to[0].email // "unknown")' \
  > email-edges.csv

Full guide: Model Email as a Graph: Neo4j and Network Analysis

Works with any email provider

All CRM workflows work across Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, Yahoo, iCloud, and IMAP. No provider-specific code:

Full guide with company mapping, relationship scoring, and CRM sync patterns: CRM Email Workflows

Related guides:

All guides: cli.nylas.com/guides