Enabling Email for Yarvis

How it works #

Once enabled, Yarvis gets its own email address (e.g. yarvis@yourcompany.com ) through a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox. Anyone in your organization can CC that address on an email thread and Yarvis will join the conversation, just like it does in Teams.

For example, if someone is emailing a client about scheduling a meeting, they can CC Yarvis. Yarvis reads the thread, finds available times across all attendees’ calendars, and replies with options.

Yarvis uses application permissions (not delegated), so there is no per-user consent required. Once an admin configures it, the email channel works for everyone. Yarvis only has access to its own shared mailbox (e.g. yarvis@yourcompany.com ), not to any other user’s email.

Prerequisites #

• Azure AD admin access to grant application permissions
• Microsoft 365 admin access to create a shared mailbox
• Yarvis must already be installed and working in Microsoft Teams

Step 1: Grant email permissions #

The process depends on how Yarvis was installed. Pick the path that matches your setup.

Marketplace install - Open Microsoft Teams and ask Yarvis to enable email:

Enable email inbox

Yarvis will reply with a link to Microsoft’s admin consent screen. Click the link and approve the permissions listed below.

Self-hosted install - Go to Azure Portal , navigate to App registrations, select your Yarvis app, then go to API permissions > Add a permission > Microsoft Graph > Application permissions. Add the permissions listed below and click Grant admin consent for [your tenant].

Both paths require the same three permissions:

Step 2: Create a shared mailbox #

1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center .
2. Navigate to Teams & groups > Shared mailboxes.
3. Click Add a shared mailbox.
4. Set the display name (e.g. “Yarvis”) and the email address (e.g. yarvis@yourcompany.com ).
5. Click Save.

Step 3: Configure the shared mailbox #

Open Microsoft Teams and send Yarvis a message:

Set up email with shared mailbox yarvis@yourcompany.com

Replace the address with the shared mailbox you created. Yarvis verifies it can access the mailbox and enables the email channel. If permissions have not been granted yet, Yarvis replies with a link to the consent page.

You must be a Yarvis admin to run this command. Yarvis automatically detects Azure AD admin roles (Global Administrator, Teams Administrator, Exchange Administrator), so if you hold one of those roles, you are already a Yarvis admin.

Step 4: Restrict mailbox access #

Open Exchange Online PowerShell and run:

# Create a mail-enabled security group
New-DistributionGroup -Name "Yarvis Mailbox Access" -Type Security

# Add the shared mailbox to the group
Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "Yarvis Mailbox Access" -Member "yarvis@yourcompany.com"

# Create the access policy
New-ApplicationAccessPolicy `
  -AppId "3d437b94-acd4-43b4-b0ae-e3e08ebe6ce8" `
  -PolicyScopeGroupId "Yarvis Mailbox Access" `
  -AccessRight RestrictAccess `
  -Description "Restrict Yarvis to shared mailbox only"

The policy can take up to 30 minutes to propagate.

Verifying the setup #

Send an email to the shared mailbox address (or CC it on a thread). Yarvis should:

1. Receive the email via Graph webhook
2. Process it and draft a reply

If emails are not arriving, check the Troubleshooting section below.

How your team uses it #

Your team does not need to do anything special. They just CC the Yarvis email address on any email thread where they want Yarvis to help:

• Schedule a meeting - CC Yarvis on a thread with attendees and say “find a time for us to meet next week”
• Book a room - Forward a meeting invite to Yarvis and ask it to find and book a room
• Any workplace request - Yarvis handles the same requests over email as it does in Teams

Yarvis will reply to the email thread with its response, visible to all recipients.

Troubleshooting #