Quickstart: Nylas Connect

Add email, calendar, and contacts to your app in minutes. Just a few lines of code. No token management. Works with your existing auth.

Traditional email integration means weeks of OAuth implementation, token refresh logic, security reviews, and edge case handling. With Nylas Connect, it’s three lines of code.

This quickstart will walk you through integrating Nylas Connect with your existing identity provider (IDP). You’ll authenticate users through your IDP, connect their email accounts, and make API calls using your IDP tokens—no separate Nylas authentication or complex token management required.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

Nylas Developer Account: Sign up here if you don’t have one
Identity Provider Account: Auth0, Clerk, Google Identity, WorkOS, or any IDP with JWKS support
Node.js or Browser Environment: For running the examples

1. Configure your identity provider

First, set up your identity provider. We’ll use Auth0 for this example:

Create an application in your Auth0 Dashboard
Configure these settings:
- Allowed Callback URLs: http://localhost:3000
- Allowed Web Origins: http://localhost:3000
Save your Domain and Client ID

2. Configure Nylas Dashboard

Configure IDP settings in your Nylas Dashboard:

Go to Dashboard → Hosted Authentication → Identity Providers
Add these values:
- Allowed Origins: http://localhost:3000
- Callback URIs: http://localhost:3000

3. Install packages

Install the required packages:

4. Initialize and authenticate

Create your authentication setup:

import { NylasConnect } from "@nylas/connect";
import { Auth0Client } from "@auth0/auth0-spa-js";

// Initialize Auth0
const auth0 = new Auth0Client({
  domain: "<AUTH0_DOMAIN>",
  clientId: "<AUTH0_CLIENT_ID>",
  authorizationParams: {
    redirect_uri: window.location.origin
  }
});

// Initialize Nylas Connect with Auth0 token
const nylasConnect = new NylasConnect({
  clientId: "<NYLAS_CLIENT_ID>",
  redirectUri: window.location.origin + "/callback",
  identityProviderToken: async () => {
    return await auth0.getTokenSilently();
  }
});

// Login with Auth0
await auth0.loginWithPopup();

// Connect email account
const result = await nylasConnect.connect({ method: "popup" });
console.log("Email connected:", result.grantInfo?.email);

import { NylasConnect } from "@nylas/connect";
import { Auth0Client } from "@auth0/auth0-spa-js";

// Initialize Auth0
const auth0 = new Auth0Client({
  domain: "<AUTH0_DOMAIN>",
  clientId: "<AUTH0_CLIENT_ID>",
  authorizationParams: {
    redirect_uri: window.location.origin
  }
});

// Initialize Nylas Connect with Auth0 token
const nylasConnect = new NylasConnect({
  clientId: "<NYLAS_CLIENT_ID>",
  redirectUri: window.location.origin + "/callback",
  identityProviderToken: async () => {
    return await auth0.getTokenSilently();
  }
});

// Login with Auth0
await auth0.loginWithPopup();

// Connect email account
const result = await nylasConnect.connect({ method: "popup" });
console.log("Email connected:", result.grantInfo?.email);

Replace the placeholder values:

<AUTH0_DOMAIN> - Your Auth0 domain (e.g., your-app.us.auth0.com)
<AUTH0_CLIENT_ID> - Your Auth0 Client ID
<NYLAS_CLIENT_ID> - Your Nylas application’s Client ID from the dashboard

5. Make API calls with your IDP token

Once authenticated, make Nylas API calls using your IDP token. One user identity. One token. Access to everything:

// Get the IDP token
const token = await auth0.getTokenSilently();

// Call Nylas API
const response = await fetch(
  'https://api.us.nylas.com/v3/grants/me/messages?limit=5',
  {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}`
    }
  }
);

const messages = await response.json();
console.log("Latest messages:", messages.data);

// Get the IDP token
const token = await auth0.getTokenSilently();

// Call Nylas API
const response = await fetch(
  'https://api.us.nylas.com/v3/grants/me/messages?limit=5',
  {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}`
    }
  }
);

const messages = await response.json();
console.log("Latest messages:", messages.data);

# Get your IDP token and user ID, then:
curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://api.us.nylas.com/v3/grants/me/messages?limit=5' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <IDP_TOKEN>' \
  --header 'X-Nylas-External-User-Id: <USER_ID>'

6. Check connection status

Verify that the email account is connected:

const status = await nylasConnect.getConnectionStatus();
console.log("Connection status:", status);

const session = await nylasConnect.getSession();
if (session?.grantInfo) {
  console.log("Connected as:", session.grantInfo.email);
  console.log("Provider:", session.grantInfo.provider);
}

const status = await nylasConnect.getConnectionStatus();
console.log("Connection status:", status);

const session = await nylasConnect.getSession();
if (session?.grantInfo) {
  console.log("Connected as:", session.grantInfo.email);
  console.log("Provider:", session.grantInfo.provider);
}

What You Just Unlocked

Your IDP user is now connected to their inbox. You can call Nylas APIs using your existing auth token to access:

📧 Email Integration

Read, send, and search messages. Full inbox access across Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and more. Build features like:

Inbox management and threading
Smart search and filtering
Draft handling and attachments
Rich text and HTML email composition

📅 Calendar Access

Schedule, modify, and sync events. Works with Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud, and all major providers:

Create and manage events
Handle availability and scheduling
Sync across multiple calendars
Manage recurring events and reminders

👥 Contact Management

Unified contact lists from all email providers. One API for everything:

Access contacts across providers
Create and update contact information
Search and filter contacts
Manage contact groups

🤖 Meeting Intelligence

AI-powered transcription, summaries, action items, and insights from every meeting:

Automatic meeting transcription
AI-generated summaries and action items
Speaker identification and analytics
Searchable meeting archives

Using React?

If you’re building a React application, use the @nylas/react library for a better developer experience:

import { useNylasConnect } from '@nylas/react/connect';
import { useAuth0 } from '@auth0/auth0-react';

function MyComponent() {
  const { getAccessTokenSilently } = useAuth0();

  const { isConnected, connect } = useNylasConnect({
    clientId: "<NYLAS_CLIENT_ID>",
    redirectUri: window.location.origin + "/callback",
    identityProviderToken: async () => {
      return await getAccessTokenSilently();
    }
  });

  return (
    <button onClick={() => connect({ method: 'popup' })}>
      Connect Email
    </button>
  );
}

See the React IDP integration guide for complete React examples.

Next steps

🎉 Congratulations! You’ve just integrated email, calendar, and contacts into your app without writing a single OAuth flow or token refresh handler.

Dive Deeper

Full IDP Integration Guide - Detailed guides for Auth0, Clerk, Google, WorkOS, and custom IDPs
NylasConnect Class Reference - Complete API reference and configuration options
React Integration - Using Nylas Connect in React applications

Start Building Features

Email API - Work with messages, threads, and attachments
Calendar API - Schedule and manage events
Contacts API - Access and manage contacts

Get Help and Connect

Join our Developer Community - Ask questions and share what you’re building
View Live Demos - See working examples and sample code
API Reference - Complete API documentation