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Overview

Nous connects to your SMTP/IMAP server and syncs your inbox and sent folder every 15 minutes — the same way Gmail works, but for any email provider (Hostinger, Outlook 365, Zoho, custom self-hosted mail, etc.).
  • Inbound emails from contacts are logged as email_received
  • Outbound emails to contacts are logged as email_sent
  • Activities appear on the contact’s timeline just like Gmail events

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Setup

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1. Connect in Nous

Go to Integrations → SMTP / IMAP and enter your credentials:

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2. Test the connection

Click Test connection — Nous will verify your SMTP credentials using a live connection check.
For Gmail accounts, use Google OAuth instead of SMTP. Google blocks basic auth for Gmail.

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3. Done

Nous starts syncing on the next 15-minute cycle. The first sync pulls the last 30 days of email.

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How IMAP sync works

Every 15 minutes, Nous:
  1. Connects to your IMAP server and opens INBOX and Sent (auto-detected via IMAP folder flags — works across all providers)
  2. Fetches messages newer than the last sync timestamp
  3. Matches From / To / Cc addresses against your existing contacts
  4. Logs email_sent (you → contact) or email_received (contact → you) on the matching contact’s timeline
  5. Deduplicates by message ID — replaying the same email is safe
  6. Saves the sync timestamp so the next run only fetches new messages
Nous never creates new contacts from SMTP/IMAP — it only logs activity on contacts that already exist in your workspace.

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Provider-specific notes

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Environment variables

No server-level env vars required for SMTP — credentials are stored per workspace, encrypted at rest.