Connect an AI assistant

Alrighty runs an MCP server on your computer. An assistant you connect can list, search and read the mail in every account. It can also work in a tab of its own in Alrighty while you watch. Nothing sends until you click Send, unless you turn on Send without asking in Settings → General.

Setup

1. In Alrighty, click your avatar at the top right and choose Connect AI.
2. Choose Turn on.
3. Pick your assistant and follow its step below.

Keep Alrighty open. The server runs while the app does.

Alrighty installs a small command at ~/.alrighty/bin/alrighty. Assistants run alrighty mcp, which reads your token from Alrighty's settings, so no assistant's config holds it. Alrighty makes a new token each time it starts, and nothing needs setting up again.

Claude

Choose Add to Claude. Claude's desktop app opens and asks you to install the Alrighty extension. If Claude Code is installed, Alrighty adds itself there too. Start a new Claude Code session to use it.

Claude Code

Add to Claude sets up Claude Code for you. To do it by hand, open Or, install manually, copy the command, and run it. It looks like this, with your home folder in the path:

claude mcp add --scope user Alrighty -- /Users/you/.alrighty/bin/alrighty mcp

--scope user makes Alrighty available in every project.

ChatGPT and Codex

Choose Add to ChatGPT. Alrighty adds itself to ~/.codex/config.toml, which the ChatGPT app, the Codex CLI and Codex's IDE extension share. Restart them to connect.

If Alrighty says to open the ChatGPT app first, open it once, then try again.

Cursor and other clients

Cursor, VS Code, OpenCode and Antigravity each have an Add button. For any other client, merge this into its MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Alrighty": {
      "command": "/Users/you/.alrighty/bin/alrighty",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Use the full path. Most clients don't expand ~.

Try it

Ask your assistant one of these:

• "What needs a reply from me today?"
• "Summarize my unread mail from this week."
• "Find the last receipt I got and tell me the total."

What an assistant can do

Read your mail

These tools change nothing.

Tool	What it does
list_accounts	The email accounts connected to Alrighty
list_inbox	The newest messages in the Inbox, across every account
list_mailbox	The newest messages in Sent, Drafts, Archive, Junk or Trash
list_folders	An account's folders and labels
list_folder	The newest messages in one folder
search_mail	Search every account's mail by keyword and by meaning
get_message	One message in full
get_thread	Every message in a conversation
read_attachment	A PDF, text file or image attached to a message
unread_count	How many unread messages there are
list_groups	Your groups and how each sorts mail
find_contact	People you wrote to, by name or address

Work in a tab you watch

When the assistant changes your mail, Alrighty opens an agent tab for it. The assistant uses the app's own actions, and the tab shows each step. While the tab is open, it also shows what the assistant searches and reads. To take over, right-click the agent tab and choose Take Over. That stops the assistant and leaves the tab to you. Watch your assistant work shows each step.

Tool	What it does
look	What the agent tab shows now
draft_email	Drafts a new email in the tab, with files from your computer
draft_reply	Drafts a reply in the tab, to the sender or to everyone
draft_forward	Drafts a forward in the tab
write_draft	Rewrites the open draft, and adds or removes its files
send	Asks you to send the open draft, or sends it if Send without asking is on
discard_draft	Throws away the open draft
act	Archives, deletes, moves to Junk or the Inbox, or marks messages read or unread
move_to_group	Moves Inbox mail into a group
stop_mail	Opens the message for you to click Stop mail
create_group	Opens New group filled in, for you to create
create_filter	Opens New filter filled in, for you to create

Privacy

• Only programs on this computer can connect, and only with your token, which alrighty mcp reads from Alrighty's settings. Web pages are refused, even ones open in your browser.
• What an assistant reads goes to whoever runs its model: Anthropic for Claude, OpenAI for ChatGPT and Codex, nobody for a model you run yourself.
• Email is written by other people, and a message can contain instructions aimed at an assistant. Alrighty tells assistants to treat mail as information. Nothing sends until you click Send in the agent tab, unless you turned on Send without asking. Turn it on only if you trust your assistant.