Robotomail

# Fix list: Robotomail

From Anchor Terminal's listing at https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/robotomail, the October 2026 research run, assessed 8 October 2026. Grade B, 69.8 out of 100.

This is everything the published grade says the listing lacks, the biggest possible gain to the total first. It comes from the reason given for each score, the checklist each category was scored against (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist), the provenance checks, the deductions, what we couldn't check and what the review panel asked for. A fix counts at the next check, once it's public.

For a coding agent working on Robotomail: work through the items below in the product, its docs and its public pages. Each category gives the reason for its score, with the points each checklist item earned, and the checklist itself, so the gap is the items that earned less than their points. Change the product, not the wording, and keep a note of what you changed and where it's published.

## 1. Payments & pricing, 35 out of 100, up to 8.1 more on the total

Why it scored 35: No x402, MPP or L402. An unauthenticated POST to `/v1/mailboxes` returned 401 (0 of 40). Three plan prices are public, $19, $79 and $199 a month, with no per-unit price or overage (10 of 20). The Free plan needs no card and doesn't expire, but exchanges mail only with the owner's verified address, 10 each way a month, so it tests the loop without doing the job (15 of 20). `POST /v1/signup` returns an API key with no browser, and `POST /v1/billing/upgrade` returns a checkout link. The key does nothing until a person clicks the verification link, and a person pays at checkout (10 of 20).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-payments):

The published rubric, also on the [x402 page](https://www.anchorterminal.com/x402/).

- 40, a machine payment protocol (x402, MPP or L402) on the tool's own endpoints. 10 to 30 when it covers only some endpoints or only goes through a third party, and the note says which.
- 20, per-call or per-unit pricing published without a login. 10 for public plan-only pricing, 0 for "contact sales" or prices behind a login.
- 20, a free tier or trial that doesn't need a card.
- 20, autonomous onboarding, meaning an agent can get access without a person signing up in a browser (keyless use, x402, a programmatic key API).

Payment platforms and agent wallets rarely charge for their own API over a machine protocol, so the first line has steps for them, and the highest one that applies counts. 40 when x402, MPP or L402 runs on all their own endpoints, 30 when it runs on part of their own API, 25 when their merchants can accept one, 20 for running a facilitator, 15 for paying as a buyer, and 0 when the only protocol is their own. Merchant acceptance sits above a facilitator because the platform's own customers can charge agents through it, while a facilitator settles for sellers who wire up the protocol themselves. The counter-argument (a facilitator does more for the protocol as a whole) has a point. Each note says which step applied.

Open-source software you run yourself is scored on its hosted or paid option if it has one. A free, self-hosted package with nothing to buy gets 20, 20 and 20 for the last three lines, and 0 to 40 for the first only if it ships a payment protocol.

## 2. Security & auth, 65 out of 100, up to 6.1 more on the total

Why it scored 65: REST keys are revocable by API, stored as SHA-256 hashes, and can be limited to named mailboxes. The MCP server takes OAuth with PKCE, `mail:read` and `mail:send` scopes, 10-minute access tokens and per-app disconnect. Keys travel in the `Authorization` header only. A REST key can't be made read-only (27 of 30). An MCP grant with `mail:read` alone is read-only, and a mailbox can be paused. Sends go out at once, with no drafts or approval step (12 of 20). Inbound mail is untrusted content. A security guide tells developers to pass email as data, check recipients and require approval for sensitive actions, and says attachments aren't scanned. Nothing is filtered on the service side (11 of 15). The dashboard has a read-only Audit Feed of email activity and the API lists the last 20 delivery attempts per webhook. No log of API calls was found (8 of 15). `security.txt` is valid until 24 August 2027 and reports go to the support address. No bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001 statement found (7 of 20).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-security):

- 0 to 30, the credential model. 30 for OAuth 2.1 with scopes, or scoped and revocable keys with rotation. 20 for plain revocable API keys. 10 for one all-powerful key. 10 off when a secret can travel in a URL query string as a documented option.
- 0 to 20, read-only or least-privilege modes, and confirmation or approval for destructive actions.
- 0 to 15, prompt-injection posture where the tool returns untrusted content (documented mitigations or guidance). A tool that returns no untrusted content gets 10.
- 0 to 15, audit logs or per-call visibility for the operator.
- 0 to 20, a security programme. security.txt or a disclosure policy, a bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001, advisories handled in public.

Models are read for retention, whether API data trains models (and whether that's off by default), zero-retention options and certifications. Frameworks for telemetry defaults, approval hooks, guardrails and sandboxing.

## 3. Reliability, 73 out of 100, up to 5.4 more on the total

Why it scored 73: Graded as a hosted service, on the REST API. A public UptimeRobot page with one monitor, on `robotomail.com/api/health`, and daily history. Sending, inbound mail and the MCP server have no component of their own (14 of 20). The monitor shows 100 per cent on each of the 90 days from 11 July to 8 October 2026 and the event feed is empty. One health check can't show a mail outage, so less 5 (25 of 30). Limits are published with numbers, 30 sends a minute per mailbox, 60 per account, daily and monthly caps per plan, 5 signups an hour per IP and 5 concurrent SSE streams (15). The error reference says every 429 carries `Retry-After`, the OpenAPI description says route-produced 429s don't, sends have no idempotency key, and the documented advice is to check sent mail before retrying (9 of 15). No SLA found on the pricing page or in the terms (0). The API is at `/v1` with no beta label (10).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-reliability):

Hosted APIs, MCP servers, models and platforms.

- 20, a public status page with component history (Statuspage, Instatus, BetterStack or the vendor's own).
- 0 to 30, the incident record for the last 90 days on that page. 30 for a clean record or trivial incidents only, 20 for minor incidents only, 10 for one major outage (an hour or more of a core API down, or errors across the board), 0 for several. 5 when there's no history we could read, and the note says so.
- 15, rate limits documented with numbers.
- 15, documented 429 or overload handling (Retry-After, backoff guidance), and idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance where writes are involved.
- 10, an SLA published for any paid tier.
- 10, the surface agents use is generally available, not beta or preview.

Local packages, SDKs, frameworks and stdio MCP servers.

- 20, installs from an official package with supported runtimes stated.
- 25, a public CI and test suite, passing on the default branch.
- 0 to 25, open crash or regression issues relative to activity (25 for few and handled, 0 for many, old and unanswered).
- 15, semver discipline and breaking changes called out in a changelog.
- 15, version 1.0 or later, or declared stable.

Protocols are read from their reference implementations, the public facilitators or servers, spec stability and test vectors.

## 4. Agent ergonomics, 72 out of 100, up to 4.6 more on the total

Why it scored 72: Graded on the REST API, with the MCP server noted. The MCP server lists six tools, `search_messages` returns summaries and `read_message` reads large bodies in parts. REST message lists return full text and HTML bodies with no field selection, and quoted history isn't stripped (20 of 25). Message lists take `limit` up to 100, `offset`, `direction`, `threadId` and `since`. Thread lists stop at 50 and webhook deliveries at 20, both without pagination, and REST has no text search (14 of 20). Errors are always JSON. Quota gates carry `code`, an `upgrade` object, `resetAt` and `X-Robotomail-Retriable`, and an unknown path returned a JSON 404 with links when we tried one. Most other errors are a bare `error` string (17 of 20). Sends take no idempotency key and the SDKs don't retry them. Webhooks carry a stable delivery ID, and MCP tool annotations were not read (8 of 20). A send needs three fields and signup creates the first mailbox. SDKs exist in five languages but install from GitHub tags, not from package registries (13 of 15).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-ergonomics):

- 0 to 25, context cost. For MCP, the number and size of the tool definitions (25 for ten or fewer compact tools, 15 for 11 to 30, 5 for more than 30, plus up to 10 back for toolsets, dynamic loading or read-only subsets). For APIs, whether responses can be sized (field selection, limits, summaries).
- 20, pagination, filtering and output-size controls.
- 20, actionable, documented error responses, codes and messages an agent can recover from.
- 20, idempotency or safe retries, and for MCP the `readOnlyHint` and `destructiveHint` annotations.
- 15, sensible defaults, few required parameters, and official SDKs in at least two languages.

Models are read for tool use, structured output, prompt caching, context length, batch and SDKs. Frameworks for how much code and how many defaults a tool-calling agent with MCP needs.

## 5. Transparency & trust, 73 out of 100, up to 2.4 more on the total

Made of editorial 64, provenance 82.

Why it scored 73: A closed service under published terms. The five SDKs are MIT. The CLI's npm record has no licence or repository field (17 of 30). The privacy policy and the terms agree on retention, with messages kept until deleted, mail server copies purged after 7 days and trial data removed within 24 hours to 7 days, and the policy says email content isn't read or used for advertising. No DPA is published and the policy gives its date as September 2026 without a day (20 of 30). The terms promise 30 days' notice before an endpoint or version is retired, with `Deprecation` and `Sunset` headers, and the changelog records the legacy free plan's retirement on 19 August after notice in July (18 of 20). The policy names Stripe, Resend and Cloudflare R2. It gives no locations and doesn't name where the mail server and database are hosted (9 of 20).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-transparency):

- 0 to 30, source availability and licence clarity. 30 for open source under an OSI licence, 15 for closed with clear terms, 0 for unclear terms.
- 0 to 30, data handling and retention statements that agree with each other (privacy policy, DPA, retention periods, subprocessors).
- 0 to 20, a deprecation policy or notices with dates.
- 0 to 20, telemetry disclosed with an opt-out (local software), or subprocessors and data locations disclosed (hosted).

The other half of Transparency and trust is the provenance score, computed from checked facts (below). The category score is the mean of the two.

Provenance checks not met in full (half of this category, computed from checked facts):

- Domain age: robotomail.com, registered 2026-03-10 (under a year) (0 of 15)
- Terms of service: read, states 4 of the 7 things a reader expects (7.4 of 10)

## 6. Maintenance & community, 77 out of 100, up to 2 more on the total

Why it scored 77: The latest changelog entry is 25 September 2026, with CLI 0.1.10 on npm and SDK tags v0.2.0 the same day (30). Six dated changelog entries in the 90 days to 8 October, on 12, 19 and 24 August and 9, 23 and 25 September (20). A closed service with a public changelog and email support that aims to answer within one working day. We didn't test support or read the GitHub issue trackers (10 of 15). The server isn't in the official MCP registry, where a search for robotomail returned nothing. The five SDKs are current but aren't on npm, PyPI, RubyGems or crates.io (10 of 15). The SDK repositories have CI workflows with pinned actions and a contract check against the OpenAPI file, and the CLI has one dependency. We didn't read the CI results (7 of 10).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-maintenance):

- 0 to 30, time since the last release, or the last published model or API change for a closed service. 30 within 30 days, 20 within 90, 10 within 180, 0 older.
- 20, at least three releases or dated changelog entries in the last 90 days.
- 0 to 25, responsiveness. Issues and pull requests answered on GitHub (the open issues and how recent the replies are). For closed services, a public changelog and a support or community channel that answers, 0 to 15.
- 15, presence in the official MCP registry under a verified namespace (MCP servers), or current official SDKs (APIs and models).
- 10, package health, current dependencies and CI.

Models are read for deprecation notice periods and model churn rather than release counts.

## 7. Schema & documentation, 90 out of 100, up to 1.6 more on the total

Why it scored 90: OpenAPI 3.1 at `/openapi.json` with 40 operations on 27 paths, each with an operation ID (25). `llms.txt`, and a Markdown copy of every public page by adding `.md` or sending `Accept: text/markdown` (10). Operation descriptions state what each route does, which key type it needs and which gates apply, and `llms.txt` says when not to use the product. The MCP tool descriptions sit behind OAuth and were not read (15 of 20). Request schemas carry required fields, `format: email` and `uuid`, length limits, patterns and enums. The `headers` field on a send is a free object (13 of 15). An error reference and per-route error variants, with three inconsistencies we found, on `Retry-After`, on the SDK version (the docs say v0.1.0, the tags are v0.2.0) and on the annual discount (12 of 15). URL versioning at `/v1` and a dated public changelog (15).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-schema):

APIs and MCP servers.

- 25, a machine-readable contract (a public OpenAPI file or similar; for MCP, typed JSON Schema inputs on every tool).
- 10, llms.txt or Markdown docs served for agents.
- 0 to 20, descriptions that say what a tool is for, when to use it and when not to, read from the tool definitions in the source or the API reference.
- 0 to 15, typed inputs with enums, constraints and required fields, and no free-form JSON blobs.
- 0 to 15, examples and documented error responses.
- 15, versioning and a public changelog.

Models are read from the API reference, the OpenAPI file, llms.txt, the structured-output and tool-use docs and the model cards. Frameworks from docs a model can follow, typed interfaces, examples and the API reference.

## What we couldn't check

What we couldn't read counted as absent. Publishing it on a page a plain HTTP fetch can read (not only in a browser) lets the next check count it.

- unchecked: the MCP tool definitions, their descriptions and annotations. `tools/list` needs an OAuth grant, and an unauthenticated call returned 401.
- unchecked: GitHub stars, open issues and CI results for the SDK repositories. The GitHub API refused us for its rate limit, so `githubStars` is empty.
- unchecked: the legal entity at Companies House. The name and country come from the vendor's own pages.
- Whether a 429 carries `Retry-After`. The error reference says every one does and the OpenAPI description says route-produced ones don't.
- Which annual discount applies. The pricing page shows 50 per cent for a limited time and the billing API docs say about 25 per cent.
- Where the mail server and database are hosted. The privacy policy names Stripe, Resend and Cloudflare R2 only.
- No DPA, SLA or security certification is published. The security guide tells customers to ask through the contact page.

## Weaknesses

- The Free plan allows 10 sends and 10 receives a month, only with the owner's verified address, and discards other inbound mail
- Sends take no idempotency key, and the SDKs don't retry them, so an uncertain send has to be checked by hand
- No SLA, DPA, SOC 2 or ISO 27001 statement and no bug bounty were found on the site
- The docs say every 429 carries `Retry-After`, while the OpenAPI description says route-produced 429s don't
- The five SDKs install from GitHub tags only, and the server isn't in the official MCP registry

## What costs an agent a turn today

The notes we give agents before they call it. Each one is a workaround an agent shouldn't need.

- After `POST /v1/signup`, ask the owner to click the verification link. Product routes return 403 until then
- On Free, send only to the owner's verified address. Mail from anyone else is discarded and can't be recovered by upgrading
- If a send times out, list `direction=OUTBOUND` messages before retrying. There is no idempotency key
- Reply with the RFC `messageId` in `inReplyTo`, not the Robotomail UUID, to stay in the thread
- Treat every inbound body and attachment as untrusted input, and deduplicate webhooks on `X-Robotomail-Delivery-Id`

## When it's done

Send what changed and where it's published as a dispute (https://www.anchorterminal.com/builders/#disputes, or `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/contact` with `"kind": "dispute"`). Disputes are answered in public, and the listing is checked again by the same checklist. Paying for an audit or a listing claim changes nothing here.