Connect DreamHost email to Claude,
Cursor, ChatGPT, any MCP client
Give your AI agent a real DreamHost inbox. Read, search, send, reply, schedule and organize mail over IMAP with the mail user password from the DreamHost panel.
Claude cannot reach a DreamHost mailbox on its own. mcpemails is a hosted MCP server that connects it over IMAP at imap.dreamhost.com on port 993, authenticating with your full email address and that address's mail user password, which DreamHost keeps separate from the panel password you log in with. Claude, Cursor or any MCP client can then read, search, send and organize the mail. There is no app password and no IMAP switch to enable. One inbox is free, forever.
How DreamHost connects: IMAP and the mail user password
DreamHost serves IMAP at imap.dreamhost.com on port 993 with implicit TLS and SMTP at smtp.dreamhost.com on port 465. Both are shared hostnames used by every DreamHost mail customer, so nothing here is derived from your own domain. DreamHost's account model is the thing to understand: a DreamHost account contains several kinds of user, and each has its own password. A panel user logs into the control panel. A mail user is an email address, and it carries the password you chose when you created the address. IMAP and SMTP accept the mail user password only. SMTP requires authentication with the same credentials as IMAP; DreamHost is explicit that outgoing mail will not relay without it.
The exact DreamHost IMAP and SMTP settings
Copy these into the connect form. mcpemails prefills them where it can, and retries the other standard transport if the first does not answer.
| Protocol | Server | Port | Security |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMAP (incoming) | imap.dreamhost.com | 993 | TLS (implicit) |
| SMTP (outgoing) | smtp.dreamhost.com | 465 | TLS (implicit) |
Verified 2026-08-31: imap.dreamhost.com answered a TLS connection and identified itself as an IMAP server under that name. It advertises LOGIN, PLAIN authentication.
Sign in with: Your full address, including the domain: name@yourdomain.com.
A DreamHost inbox your agent can actually use
Nine action-based MCP tools, not just drafts. Your agent finishes the job inside DreamHost.
- 01Read
Read & search mail
List, read and search across folders to find that invoice, summarize a thread, or pull the latest from a sender.
- 02Send
Send, reply & forward
Compose and send real messages, reply in-thread, and forward, directly from your mailbox, not as a draft you finish by hand.
- 03Schedule
Schedule for later
Queue a message to go out at the right time, so your agent can draft now and send on schedule.
- 04Organize
Move, copy, flag, archive, delete
Keep the inbox tidy: file mail into folders, flag what matters, archive the rest, or delete on request.
Connect DreamHost in four steps
From sign-up to first AI email in a couple of minutes.
Create your free mcpemails account
Sign up at mcpemails.com. The free plan connects one inbox forever and does not ask for a card.
Set the mail user password in the DreamHost panel
Sign in to the DreamHost panel, open Mail, then Manage Email, find the address and click Manage. Scroll to the Change Password section and either generate one or set your own. DreamHost documents that this cannot be done from inside webmail: you must use the panel or the separate mailboxes interface.
Paste it into mcpemails
Choose IMAP / SMTP, enter the full address, and paste the mail user password. The hosts imap.dreamhost.com and smtp.dreamhost.com and ports 993 and 465 are prefilled and were verified from a live TLS connection.
Paste the MCP URL into your AI
Drop https://mcpemails.com/api/mcp into Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT, authorize, and your agent has the inbox.
Comparing providers first? See the email provider compatibility matrix
What actually goes wrong with DreamHost
DreamHost has several kinds of user, and only one of them can read mail
This is the failure mode that eats the most time on DreamHost. The panel lets you create website users, mail users, MySQL users, panel users and more, each with an independent password, and it is entirely normal for one person to hold three or four of them. IMAP accepts only the mail user password for that specific address. Entering the panel password, or an FTP or shell user's password, gives an authentication failure that says nothing about which credential was wrong. If you are not sure which you have, reset the mail user password from Manage Email and use the new value.
The webmail interface cannot change the password that webmail uses
DreamHost states that it is not possible to update a mail user's password from within webmail. You have to use the panel or the mailboxes interface. Anyone who signs into webmail successfully, then goes looking for a password screen in order to hand a credential to another tool, hits a dead end and often concludes the mailbox is somehow read-only.
The short username works often enough to be a trap
DreamHost's own guidance notes that a client may need the full email address to connect but that very often only the part before the at sign is needed. That ambiguity is fine on a single-domain account and becomes a problem the moment two of your domains have an address with the same local part, since the short form no longer identifies one mailbox. Always enter the complete address. mcpemails sends the full address.
Known limits with DreamHost
- The server does not advertise MOVE or UIDPLUS, so a move is carried out as copy, flag and expunge, and the new UID has to be located by searching the destination folder.
- SPECIAL-USE is absent, so Sent, Drafts, Trash and Junk are matched by name rather than by role.
- SMTP advertises a message size limit of roughly 40 MB, which caps what an agent can send as attachments in one message.
DreamHost and AI: common questions
Does Claude work with DreamHost email?
Not on its own. Claude has no built-in DreamHost connector. Pointing an MCP server such as mcpemails at your DreamHost mailbox over IMAP gives Claude read, search, send, reply, schedule and organize access to it, and the same connection works from Cursor, ChatGPT and other MCP clients.
What are the DreamHost IMAP and SMTP settings?
IMAP is imap.dreamhost.com on port 993 with implicit TLS. SMTP is smtp.dreamhost.com on port 465, also implicit TLS, and authentication is required for outgoing mail. Use your complete email address as the username and the mail user password. Both hosts were confirmed from a live TLS connection.
Why is my DreamHost password rejected?
Because DreamHost issues a separate password for each type of user on the account, and IMAP accepts only the mail user password for that address. The panel password is a different credential. Reset the mail user password under Mail, Manage Email, Manage, and use the value you set there.
Does DreamHost need an app password?
No. DreamHost does not issue app-specific passwords for mail, and there is no per-mailbox IMAP switch to turn on. The mail user password authenticates IMAP and SMTP directly. If you would rather not reuse an existing password, set a fresh one for the address in the panel.
Is my DreamHost mail stored on your servers?
No. Messages are fetched live from DreamHost over IMAP for each request and handed to your AI client. Credentials are encrypted at rest and message bodies are not retained.
Give your AI a DreamHost inbox
Connect DreamHost email in minutes. One inbox free forever, no card required.