Meet Mohammed Faheem - GSoC 2026 Contributor Working on Jenkins Email Notifications using Outlook SMTP with OAuth
Hey everyone!
I’m Mohammed Faheem, a software engineering student and a Google Summer of Code 2026 contributor with Jenkins. This summer, I’ll be working on Jenkins email notifications using Outlook SMTP with OAuth, focused on adding a secure OAuth-based authentication flow for sending email notifications through Microsoft Outlook SMTP, as well as supporting other OAuth providers.
Project Description
This project aims to enhance the Jenkins Email Extension (email-ext) plugin by introducing OAuth support for SMTP using the client credentials flow. As providers continue deprecating legacy username/password authentication, Jenkins users need a modern and reliable way to keep CI/CD notifications working.
The work includes supporting Oauth for SMTP authentication generally across providers, configuration improvements for easier administrator setup, documentation to help users adopt the new authentication approach, and maintaining backwards compatibility. Overall, the project strengthens security and future-proofs Jenkins email delivery for teams that depend on email-ext for build and deployment notifications.
What I did in the Community Bonding Period
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Joined GSoC onboarding calls and connected with mentors and the Jenkins community.
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Discussed project milestones, scope, and implementation direction with mentors.
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Reviewed the existing architecture and flow ahead of the changes.
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Set up the local development environment and resolved a few issues to ensure a smooth start to the coding period.
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Discussed how to handle OAuth scopes and provider requirements within the plugin.
What lies ahead (Coding Period)
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Implement OAuth authentication support for SMTP in email-ext using the client credentials flow.
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Add configuration options in Jenkins to make OAuth setup straightforward for administrators.
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Build integration tests to validate delivery behavior and error handling across common scenarios.
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Write documentation and migration guidance for users transitioning away from legacy SMTP auth.
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Test using a real Entra application to ensure the project works in a production environment.
Future Plans
My long-term goal is to keep contributing to Jenkins beyond GSoC, growing my software engineering and communication skills while giving back to the community. Being part of this project has already been a great learning experience, and I’m looking forward to doing more.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank my mentors, Alex Earl, Kris Stern, and the Jenkins community for this opportunity and for being so welcoming and supportive. I’m excited for what lies ahead.