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
Setup
1. Connect in Nous
Go to Settings → Integrations → SMTP / IMAP and enter your credentials:
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Host | Your SMTP server hostname (e.g. smtp.hostinger.com) |
| Port | Usually 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (SSL) |
| Username | Your email address or SMTP username |
| Password | Your email password or app password |
| IMAP host (optional) | Override IMAP hostname if different from SMTP. Nous auto-derives it by replacing smtp. → imap. if not set. |
| IMAP port (optional) | Defaults to 993 |
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. If you use Outlook / Office 365, set IMAP host explicitly to outlook.office365.com — the auto-derive logic handles this automatically, but double-check if sync fails.
3. Done
Nous starts syncing on the next 15-minute cycle. The first sync pulls the last 30 days of email.
How IMAP sync works
Every 15 minutes, Nous:
- Connects to your IMAP server and opens
INBOX and Sent (auto-detected via IMAP folder flags — works across all providers)
- Fetches messages newer than the last sync timestamp
- Matches
From / To / Cc addresses against your existing contacts
- Logs
email_sent (you → contact) or email_received (contact → you) on the matching contact’s timeline
- Deduplicates by message ID — replaying the same email is safe
- 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.
Provider-specific notes
| Provider | SMTP host | IMAP host | Notes |
|---|
| Hostinger | smtp.hostinger.com | imap.hostinger.com | Auto-derived correctly |
| Outlook 365 | smtp-mail.outlook.com | outlook.office365.com | Auto-derived correctly |
| Zoho | smtp.zoho.com | imap.zoho.com | Auto-derived correctly |
| Custom / self-hosted | Your host | Your IMAP host | Set IMAP host explicitly if different |
Environment variables
No server-level env vars required for SMTP — credentials are stored per workspace, encrypted at rest.