Nylas CLI
May 16, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
Email, calendar, and contacts from your terminal. One CLI for Google, Microsoft, and IMAP -- no SMTP config, no provider SDKs, no boilerplate.
Install
Homebrew (macOS/Linux):
brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas
Go:
go install github.com/nylas/cli/cmd/nylas@latest
Binary: Download from Releases and add to PATH.
Docker:
docker run --rm ghcr.io/nylas/cli:latest --version
See Docker development notes for credential and volume usage.
Get Started
1. Run the setup wizard
nylas init
The wizard walks you through four steps:
- Account -- Create a free Nylas account (via Google, Microsoft, or GitHub SSO), or log into an existing one
- Application -- Select an existing app or create your first one automatically
- API Key -- Generate and activate a key (stored securely in your system keyring)
- Email Accounts -- Detect and sync any email accounts already connected to your app
That's it. You're ready to go:
nylas email list # See your latest emails
nylas calendar events list # See upcoming events
nylas contacts list # See your contacts
Already have an API key?
Skip the interactive wizard entirely:
nylas init --api-key nyl_abc123
# EU region:
nylas init --api-key nyl_abc123 --region eu
Just want to explore first?
Try the demo mode -- no account or API key needed:
nylas tui --demo
Connect an email account later
After setup, you can authenticate additional email accounts at any time:
nylas auth login # Google (default)
nylas auth login --provider microsoft # Microsoft / Outlook
What You Can Do
nylas email list # Recent emails
nylas email read <message-id> # Read a message
nylas email send --to hi@example.com \
--subject "Hello" --body "World" # Send an email
nylas email search "invoice" # Search
Calendar
nylas calendar events list # Upcoming events
nylas calendar availability # Check availability
nylas scheduler # AI-powered scheduling
Contacts
nylas contacts list # All contacts
nylas contacts create --name "Jane" # Create a contact
Webhooks
nylas webhook list # List webhooks
nylas webhook create # Create a webhook
Timezone Tools (works offline, no API key required)
nylas timezone convert --from PST --to IST # Convert times
nylas timezone dst --zone America/New_York # DST transitions
nylas timezone find-meeting --zones "NYC,LON" # Find meeting times
Interfaces
The CLI has three ways to interact with your data:
| Interface | Launch | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | nylas <command> | Standard command-line interface |
| TUI | nylas tui | Interactive terminal UI with vim keys and 9 themes |
| Air | nylas air | Modern web client at localhost:7365 -- email, calendar, contacts in your browser |
AI & MCP Integration
Give your AI coding agent access to email, calendar, and contacts:
nylas mcp # Start the MCP server for AI assistants
nylas ai # Chat with your data
Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, and any MCP-compatible assistant.
Guides
Step-by-step tutorials on cli.nylas.com:
- Give your AI coding agent an email address -- Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, and OpenClaw
- Send email from the command line -- one command, no SMTP
- AI agent email access via MCP -- connect any MCP-compatible assistant
- Manage calendar from the terminal -- events, availability, timezone handling
Configuration
Credentials are stored in your system keyring (macOS Keychain, Linux Secret Service, Windows Credential Manager). Non-secret grant metadata, such as account email/provider and the local default grant, is cached separately for fast local lookup.
nylas auth status # Check what's configured
nylas config # View/edit settings
Config file: ~/.config/nylas/config.yaml
Development
make build # Build binary
make ci # Quality checks (fmt, vet, lint, test, security)
make ci-full # Complete CI (quality + integration tests)
Development Guide | Contributing
License
MIT