# How I gave my Grok bots email without giving them Gmail. Source: https://aaronmakelky.com/ai-agent-email-inbox Last updated: 2026-09-02 Aaron Makelky explains how he uses Cloudflare Workers and a domain he owns to give Grok Bot receive-only email addresses without putting the bots inside Gmail. His interoffice-mail model keeps the mail slots portable while Cursor remains an optional clerk. Grok Bot + Cloudflare My bots needed email addresses. I wanted the mail on a domain I own so a rate limit or platform switch could not take the whole system with it. Start here Paste the instructions into an agent that can connect to Cloudflare. It will ask you one setup question at a time. Copy instructions to my agent [Open the GitHub repo](https://github.com/a-makelky/portable-agent-mailroom) Copy instructions to my agent Published September 2, 2026 ยท Transcript-edited v1 Your Grok bots need email. But how do you set that up? I did not want Grok Bot inside my Gmail. My personal inbox is already a mess. I also did not want to create a separate Google account for every bot. That is stupid. Don't do that. So I built my version with Grok Bot, Cloudflare Workers, and a domain I own. The important part is that the mail system survives outside of Grok Bot. If I switch to Hermes or whatever tool is cool three months from now, the work is not stuck inside the old bot. ## Think interoffice mail, not individual inboxes If you're a millennial like me, you probably worked somewhere with interoffice mail envelopes. You put a signed document inside, wrote "from Aaron to Bob" on the outside, and dropped it in the mail room. Someone sorted it to the right office or branch. That became the model for this system. A UPS driver does not need a different street address for every person on every floor. The packages go to one mail room. From there, someone sorts each one into an employee mailbox slot. Giving every Grok bot its own full email account is like giving every cubicle its own street address. Totally unnecessary. ## How my mail room works I use Cloudflare to create receive-only addresses on a domain I own. My bots have addresses, but they cannot send email. I do not have a separate inbox to manage for each one. The mail arrives at the mail room. From there, it can be sorted into the right slot. In my demo, a workshop inquiry belongs in the pipeline slot. A message from the pressure test I ran when I built the system goes to test. The task to make this video goes to creative. Those are mail slots, not Google accounts. Underneath them is Cloudflare storage on my domain. ## The Cursor clerk is optional I use a Cursor automation that runs in the cloud as the clerk. It documents each receipt in GitHub and sorts the message into the right lane. You do not have to do that. Cursor is not the mail room. It is the clerk I can replace. I use it because the GitHub record makes it easier to connect Hermes or whatever tool comes next to the same mail slots. ## Why I used Cloudflare I have moved my sites to Cloudflare. I use it for web hosting and I even buy domains there. It is kind of amazing what you can do for zero to five bucks a month. My version uses the [Cloudflare Workers Paid plan](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/platform/pricing/), which starts at $5 per month. That is the plan I use for this setup. ## The part I actually care about If I cancel Grok Bot or get rate limited, I do not want serious work locked inside it while I wait for it to come back. With this setup, the interoffice mail envelopes are sitting in mail slots I own. I can connect Hermes or another agent tool and pick up where I left off. That is why the domain matters. The current bot can change. The mail system stays. ## Set up your own If you're thinking, "Cool story, Aaron, but how the heck am I gonna set this up?" I turned the setup into a public skill. Use the "Copy instructions to my agent" button on this page, or read the [public GitHub repository](https://github.com/a-makelky/portable-agent-mailroom). Read the prompt before you paste it into your tool. It will walk you through the setup one question at a time. The most important thing is that the system survives any platform or coding agent. If Grok Bot is not the cool thing three months from now, the work you built around it is still portable. Common questions ## Before you hand this to an agent. ### What is an AI agent email inbox? It is a receive-first address for sending work into an agent workflow. The durable part is the inbox and stored receipt, not the bot that reads it. ### Does this require Cursor or another cloud agent? No. The first version receives and stores mail with no hosted agent running. An optional sorter can classify messages or create GitHub files later. ### Can it send email? Not in the starter setup. It is receive-only by design. Sending and automatic replies need a separate approval and security review. ### Does it replace Gmail? No. It gives an agent workflow a separate intake address while leaving your human mailbox alone. ### What do I need to set it up? You need a domain you control, a Cloudflare account, and an agent that can inspect the connected Cloudflare account. The skill checks current plans and features before recommending the build. ### Is the skill tied to one AI platform? No. Agent platforms sit behind replaceable adapters, so the stored mail survives a move to another tool. Open source ## Read the files before you install anything. The full skill, setup interview, architecture, Cloudflare preflight, and optional sorter choices are public on GitHub. [Open the GitHub repo](https://github.com/a-makelky/portable-agent-mailroom) [See more tools](/tools) ## Related pages - [More tools from Aaron](/tools) - [AI field notes](/blog) ## Sources and references - [Portable Agent Mailroom on GitHub](https://github.com/a-makelky/portable-agent-mailroom) - [Cloudflare Email Workers documentation](https://developers.cloudflare.com/email-routing/email-workers/) - [Cloudflare Workers pricing](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/platform/pricing/) ## Common questions ### What is an AI agent email inbox? It is a receive-first address for sending work into an agent workflow. The durable part is the inbox and stored receipt, not the bot that reads it. ### Does this require Cursor or another cloud agent? No. The first version receives and stores mail with no hosted agent running. An optional sorter can classify messages or create GitHub files later. ### Can it send email? Not in the starter setup. It is receive-only by design. Sending and automatic replies need a separate approval and security review. ### Does it replace Gmail? No. It gives an agent workflow a separate intake address while leaving your human mailbox alone. ### What do I need to set it up? You need a domain you control, a Cloudflare account, and an agent that can inspect the connected Cloudflare account. The skill checks current plans and features before recommending the build. ### Is the skill tied to one AI platform? No. Agent platforms sit behind replaceable adapters, so the stored mail survives a move to another tool.