send-email-programmatically

Send Email Programmatically

Send emails via SMTP, free APIs (Mailgun, SendGrid free tier), or privacy-focused services. Essential for notifications, alerts, automated reports, and user communication.

When to use

• Use case 1: When the user asks to send email notifications or alerts
• Use case 2: When you need to deliver automated reports or summaries
• Use case 3: For error logging and monitoring alerts
• Use case 4: When building user communication workflows (confirmations, updates)

Required tools / APIs

• curl — For API-based email sending (pre-installed on most systems)
• sendmail / msmtp — For SMTP email sending
• Mailgun API — Free tier: 5,000 emails/month (requires API key)
• SendGrid API — Free tier: 100 emails/day (requires API key)
• mail.tm — Temporary email API (no API key required)

Install options:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install -y curl msmtp msmtp-mta

# macOS (postfix is pre-installed, or use msmtp)
brew install msmtp

# Node.js
npm install nodemailer

Skills

send_email_via_smtp_curl

Send email using SMTP via curl (works with Gmail, Outlook, custom SMTP servers).

# Gmail SMTP example (requires app password)
SMTP_SERVER="smtp.gmail.com:587"
FROM_EMAIL="[email protected]"
TO_EMAIL="[email protected]"
SUBJECT="Test Email"
BODY="This is a test email sent via SMTP."
APP_PASSWORD="your-app-password"

# Send email
curl -v --url "smtp://${SMTP_SERVER}" \
  --mail-from "${FROM_EMAIL}" \
  --mail-rcpt "${TO_EMAIL}" \
  --user "${FROM_EMAIL}:${APP_PASSWORD}" \
  --upload-file - <<EOF
From: ${FROM_EMAIL}
To: ${TO_EMAIL}
Subject: ${SUBJECT}

${BODY}
EOF

# Outlook/Office365 SMTP
curl --url "smtp://smtp.office365.com:587" \
  --mail-from "[email protected]" \
  --mail-rcpt "[email protected]" \
  --user "[email protected]:your-password" \
  --ssl-reqd \
  --upload-file - <<EOF
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Hello from Outlook

This is an automated email.
EOF