
google-gmail
Read, search, triage, label, archive and send Gmail mail / threads / labels / attachments via the Gmail v1 REST API. Use when the user mentions Gmail, "my inbox", unread mail, recent emails from someone, summarising a thread, downloading an attachment, finding mail by label / query, archiving or labelling a thread, or drafting and sending a reply / new message.
- Installs
- 219
- Last 24h
- —
- Trending rank
- —
- Security
- Not audited
Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/acedatacloud/skills --skill google-gmail- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads google-gmail automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
Drive Gmail via curl + jq. The user's OAuth bearer token is in
$GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN; every call needs it as
Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN. At minimum the token
carries gmail.readonly plus the identity scopes
(openid email profile); if the user opted in to write at install
time it also carries gmail.modify (label / archive / trash) and/or
gmail.send (compose + send). Always assume the narrowest scope
until a write actually fails — don't ask Google for new scopes from
here.
The Gmail API returns standard JSON; failures surface as
{"error": {"code": 401|403|..., "message": "..."}} — show that
error verbatim. 401 means the token expired (re-install). 403 insufficientPermissions means the user didn't grant the write scope
this call needs — explain which scope is missing and suggest
re-installing the connector with the matching write box checked.
Before any destructive write (trashing a thread, sending an email) show the user the exact target / draft and ask them to confirm. Don't fan out across many messages without an explicit go-ahead.
Always start with users/me/profile to confirm the connection works
AND learn which Gmail account you're operating against. Mailbox payloads
can be huge — fetch metadata first, only format=full when the user
actually wants the body of a specific message.
Optional: Google Workspace CLI (gws) for outbound mail
gws is Google's official CLI
(not officially supported — community-maintained on the googleworkspace
org). It dynamically builds its command surface from Google's Discovery
Document, exits non-zero on API errors, and ships hand-crafted helper
commands (prefixed +) that handle the message-encoding boilerplate.
Use gws for sending mail. The Gmail REST API requires every
outbound message to be a fully-formed RFC 822 message, base64url-encoded
into a raw field, with reply / forward threading carried in
In-Reply-To / References / threadId. The +send / +reply / +reply-all / +forward helpers do all of that for you. For everything
else (read, search, labels, attachments) gws and curl are equivalent,
so the curl recipes below are usually shorter — stay on those.
Install
npm install -g @googleworkspace/cli # or: brew install googleworkspace-cli
# Pre-built binaries also at https://github.com/googleworkspace/cli/releases
gws --version
Auth
gws reads its OAuth bearer token from the GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_TOKEN
environment variable. The Gmail token used in this skill is in
$GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN, so re-export it once at the top of every shell
block that calls gws:
export GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_TOKEN="$GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN"
You can confirm the active account with gws gmail users getProfile --params '{"userId":"me"}'.
Send / reply / forward
# New message
gws gmail +send \
--to alice@example.com \
--cc team@example.com \
--subject "Q1 status" \
--body "Numbers attached."
# Reply (handles threadId, In-Reply-To, References automatically;
# To is the original sender, Subject gets the "Re: " prefix)
gws gmail +reply --message-id MSG_ID --body "Thanks — looks good."
# Reply-all
gws gmail +reply-all --message-id MSG_ID --body "+1"
# Forward to new recipients (preserves the original message body
# inline; original headers are summarised in the forward block)
gws gmail +forward --message-id MSG_ID --to bob@example.com
Each helper exits with a non-zero status and a JSON error on stderr if
Google rejects the request — surface that error verbatim. +send /
+reply need the gmail.send scope; if the user only granted
gmail.readonly you'll see 403 insufficientPermissions and should ask
them to re-install the connector with the send box checked.
All the read / list / search / label / attachment recipes below are
intentionally not rewritten to gws — a one-line curl ... | jq is
shorter and easier to compose with shell pipelines.
Recipes
Verify auth (always run first)
curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/profile" \
| jq '{email: .emailAddress, totalMessages, totalThreads, historyId}'
List recent unread inbox
curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
--get "https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages" \
--data-urlencode 'q=is:unread in:inbox newer_than:7d' \
--data-urlencode 'maxResults=20' \
| jq '.messages // [] | .[]'
Always default .messages to [] — Gmail's messages.list omits the
field entirely when there are zero matches (the response is just
{"resultSizeEstimate": 0}), so a bare .messages[] will crash jq
with Cannot iterate over null (null) and exit 5. Same applies to
.threads, .labels, .drafts on their list endpoints. If the result
is empty, tell the user plainly (e.g. "No unread mail in the last 7
days") instead of retrying.
The messages.list endpoint returns only {id, threadId} — you have
to fan out to messages.get for headers / body. Cheap pattern: list
ids → get with format=metadata&metadataHeaders=From,Subject,Date for
each. Use format=full only if the user wants the body.
List + enrich with headers (one-shot inbox triage)
IDS=$(curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
--get "https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages" \
--data-urlencode 'q=is:unread in:inbox' \
--data-urlencode 'maxResults=10' \
| jq -r '.messages // [] | .[].id')
# If $IDS is empty the for-loop below runs zero times — tell the user
# "no unread mail" rather than echoing an empty result.
for ID in $IDS; do
curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
--get "https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/$ID" \
--data-urlencode 'format=metadata' \
--data-urlencode 'metadataHeaders=From' \
--data-urlencode 'metadataHeaders=Subject' \
--data-urlencode 'metadataHeaders=Date' \
| jq '{id: .id, snippet: .snippet, headers: (.payload.headers | map({(.name): .value}) | add), labels: .labelIds}'
done | jq -s '.'
Read a single message body (plain text and html)
ID='18f1a2b3c4d5e6f0'
RESP=$(curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
--get "https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/$ID" \
--data-urlencode 'format=full')
echo "$RESP" | jq '{id, snippet, headers: (.payload.headers | map({(.name): .value}) | add)}'
# Body is base64url-encoded inside payload.parts[].body.data — Gmail
# splits multipart messages, so collect every text/plain or text/html
# leaf and base64url-decode them.
echo "$RESP" | jq -r '
def walk(p):
if (p.parts // null) then (p.parts | map(walk(.)) | add) else [p] end;
walk(.payload)
| map(select(.mimeType=="text/plain" and (.body.data // "") != ""))
| .[].body.data' \
| tr '_-' '/+' | base64 -d 2>/dev/null
If the plain-text leaf is empty, fall back to the text/html leaf
(same walk, swap the mimeType filter) and tell the user it's HTML.
Read a whole thread
THREAD_ID='18f1a2b3c4d5e6f0'
curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
--get "https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/threads/$THREAD_ID" \
--data-urlencode 'format=metadata' \
--data-urlencode 'metadataHeaders=From' \
--data-urlencode 'metadataHeaders=Subject' \
--data-urlencode 'metadataHeaders=Date' \
| jq '{id, historyId, messages: [(.messages // [])[] | {id, snippet, from: (.payload.headers | from_entries.From), date: (.payload.headers | from_entries.Date)}]}'
Search by Gmail query
# Same query DSL the Gmail UI uses: from:, to:, subject:, has:attachment,
# is:unread, label:Work, after:2026/04/01, before:2026/05/01, …
Q='from:boss@example.com subject:OKR newer_than:30d'
curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
--get "https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages" \
--data-urlencode "q=$Q" \
--data-urlencode 'maxResults=20' \
| jq '.messages // []'
q syntax reference: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7190 —
the model-friendly bits are from:, to:, cc:, subject:, label:,
is:unread, is:read, is:starred, has:attachment, filename:pdf,
newer_than:7d, older_than:30d, after:YYYY/MM/DD, before:, in:inbox,
in:trash. Combine with OR / () / -.
List labels (system + user-defined)
curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/labels" \
| jq '.labels[] | {id, name, type, color: .color.backgroundColor}'
The system labels are INBOX, SENT, DRAFT, IMPORTANT, UNREAD,
STARRED, SPAM, TRASH, plus CATEGORY_* (Personal / Social /
Promotions / Updates / Forums).
Filter by label
LABEL_ID='Label_4' # from labels.list above
curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
--get "https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages" \
--data-urlencode "labelIds=$LABEL_ID" \
--data-urlencode 'maxResults=20' \
| jq '.messages // []'
Multiple labelIds query params behave like AND.
Download an attachment
MSG_ID='18f1a2b3c4d5e6f0'
# 1. find the attachment leaf
RESP=$(curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
--get "https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/$MSG_ID" \
--data-urlencode 'format=full')
echo "$RESP" | jq '
def walk(p):
if (p.parts // null) then (p.parts | map(walk(.)) | add) else [p] end;
walk(.payload)
| map(select(.body.attachmentId? != null))
| .[] | {filename, mimeType, attachmentId: .body.attachmentId, size: .body.size}'
# 2. fetch the attachment by id
ATT_ID='ANGjdJ-abc123'
OUT=/tmp/attachment.bin
curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/$MSG_ID/attachments/$ATT_ID" \
| jq -r .data | tr '_-' '/+' | base64 -d > "$OUT"
file "$OUT"
Pagination
PAGE_TOKEN=''
while : ; do
RESP=$(curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
--get "https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages" \
--data-urlencode 'q=in:inbox' \
--data-urlencode 'maxResults=100' \
${PAGE_TOKEN:+--data-urlencode "pageToken=$PAGE_TOKEN"})
echo "$RESP" | jq -c '.messages[]?'
PAGE_TOKEN=$(echo "$RESP" | jq -r '.nextPageToken // empty')
[ -z "$PAGE_TOKEN" ] && break
done
Write recipes
These all need gmail.modify (label / archive / trash) or
gmail.send (compose + send). If the user only granted
gmail.readonly at install you'll get 403 insufficientPermissions
— surface that and ask them to re-install with the write boxes
checked.
Mark a message read / unread, star it, archive it (gmail.modify)
MSG_ID='18f1a2b3c4d5e6f0'
# Mark as read = remove the UNREAD label
curl -sS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{"removeLabelIds":["UNREAD"]}' \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/$MSG_ID/modify"
# Star it = add the STARRED label
curl -sS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{"addLabelIds":["STARRED"]}' \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/$MSG_ID/modify"
# Archive = remove from INBOX (keeps in All Mail)
curl -sS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{"removeLabelIds":["INBOX"]}' \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/$MSG_ID/modify"
The modify endpoint takes addLabelIds and removeLabelIds
together — useful for atomic "archive + label" moves. Use the same
shape on /threads/$THREAD_ID/modify to apply across a whole thread.
Apply a custom label
# 1. find or remember the label id from labels.list
LABEL_ID='Label_4'
MSG_ID='18f1a2b3c4d5e6f0'
curl -sS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data "{\"addLabelIds\":[\"$LABEL_ID\"]}" \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/$MSG_ID/modify"
Creating a brand-new label needs the same scope:
curl -sS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{"name":"Follow up","messageListVisibility":"show","labelListVisibility":"labelShow"}' \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/labels" \
| jq '{id, name}'
Trash a message or thread
MSG_ID='18f1a2b3c4d5e6f0'
curl -sS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/$MSG_ID/trash"
# Whole thread:
THREAD_ID='18f1a2b3c4d5e6f0'
curl -sS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/threads/$THREAD_ID/trash"
Use /untrash (same shape) to restore. Never use
messages.delete — it permanently deletes and needs a higher scope
that we don't request.
Send a brand-new email (gmail.send)
Gmail wants the message as a base64url-encoded RFC 2822 string.
# Compose the message
TO='alice@example.com'
SUBJECT='Quick hello'
BODY='Hi Alice,
Just a quick test note from the AceDataCloud Gmail connector.
Best,
YOUR_NAME'
# Multi-line subject lines need MIME encoded-word for non-ASCII; ASCII is fine raw.
RAW=$(printf 'To: %s\r\nSubject: %s\r\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\r\nMIME-Version: 1.0\r\n\r\n%s' \
"$TO" "$SUBJECT" "$BODY" \
| base64 | tr -d '\n' | tr '+/' '-_' | tr -d '=')
curl -sS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data "{\"raw\":\"$RAW\"}" \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/send" \
| jq '{id, threadId, labelIds}'
For non-ASCII subjects (Chinese / emoji), use MIME encoded-word:
SUBJECT_RAW='你好,季度复盘草稿'
SUBJECT_ENCODED="=?UTF-8?B?$(printf %s "$SUBJECT_RAW" | base64)?="
Reply in-thread (keeps the thread together)
Reply by setting the In-Reply-To and References headers to the
Message-Id of the message you're replying to, and pass the
Gmail thread id in the API body:
ORIG_MSG_ID='18f1a2b3c4d5e6f0'
ORIG=$(curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
--get "https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/$ORIG_MSG_ID" \
--data-urlencode 'format=metadata' \
--data-urlencode 'metadataHeaders=Message-ID' \
--data-urlencode 'metadataHeaders=Subject' \
--data-urlencode 'metadataHeaders=From')
MID=$(echo "$ORIG" | jq -r '.payload.headers | from_entries | .["Message-ID"] // .["Message-Id"]')
FROM=$(echo "$ORIG" | jq -r '.payload.headers | from_entries | .From')
SUBJ=$(echo "$ORIG" | jq -r '.payload.headers | from_entries | .Subject')
TID=$(echo "$ORIG" | jq -r .threadId)
RAW=$(printf 'To: %s\r\nSubject: Re: %s\r\nIn-Reply-To: %s\r\nReferences: %s\r\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\r\nMIME-Version: 1.0\r\n\r\n%s' \
"$FROM" "$SUBJ" "$MID" "$MID" \
'Replying inline — will follow up later today.' \
| base64 | tr -d '\n' | tr '+/' '-_' | tr -d '=')
curl -sS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data "{\"raw\":\"$RAW\",\"threadId\":\"$TID\"}" \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/send" \
| jq '{id, threadId}'
Without the threadId in the body Gmail starts a brand-new thread
even with the right In-Reply-To headers.
Save a draft instead of sending
Same raw payload, different endpoint — still costs gmail.send
(drafts shares the send scope under the hood for write):
curl -sS -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data "{\"message\":{\"raw\":\"$RAW\"}}" \
"https://gmail.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/drafts" \
| jq '{id, message: {id: .message.id, threadId: .message.threadId}}'
Common error codes
| HTTP | meaning | what to tell the user |
|---|---|---|
401 UNAUTHENTICATED | token expired / revoked | "Reconnect the Gmail connector on the Connections page." |
403 insufficientPermissions | scope missing | identify which scope (gmail.modify for label/archive/trash, gmail.send for sending) and suggest re-installing the connector with that box checked. |
403 userRateLimitExceeded / 429 | quota / throttling | back off ~5s, then retry once. |
404 notFound | wrong message / thread / attachment id | double-check the id, or fall back to messages.list with the right query. |
400 invalidQuery | malformed q | print the q you sent + the error back to the user. |
Never log or echo $GOOGLE_GMAIL_TOKEN — treat it as a secret.
FAQ
What does the google-gmail skill do?
Read, search, triage, label, archive and send Gmail mail / threads / labels / attachments via the Gmail v1 REST API. Use when the user mentions Gmail, "my inbox", unread mail, recent emails from someone, summarising a thread, downloading an attachment, finding mail by label / query, archiving or labelling a thread, or drafting and sending a reply / new message.
How do I install google-gmail?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/acedatacloud/skills --skill google-gmail in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/google-gmail/ (personal) or .claude/skills/google-gmail/ (project).
Which AI agents can use google-gmail?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is google-gmail safe to install?
No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.
Who maintains google-gmail?
It is published by acedatacloud in acedatacloud/skills. It has 219 recorded installs.
More from acedatacloud/skills
fish-audio
acedatacloud/skills
Generate text-to-speech, find saved voices, create a persistent public voice model, or make a one-shot clone from an HTTPS audio URL and exact transcript via AceDataCloud API.
suno-music
acedatacloud/skills
Open the skill to read its SKILL.md instructions.
wechat-official-account
acedatacloud/skills
Open the skill to read its SKILL.md instructions.
luma-video
acedatacloud/skills
Open the skill to read its SKILL.md instructions.
veo-video
acedatacloud/skills
Open the skill to read its SKILL.md instructions.
Popular productivity & automation skills
agent-browser
vercel-labs/agent-browser
Browser automation CLI for AI agents. Use when the user needs to interact with websites, including navigating pages, filling forms, clicking buttons, taking screenshots, extracting data, testing web apps, or automating any browser task. Triggers include requests to "open a website", "fill out a form", "click a button", "take a screenshot", "scrape data from a page", "test this web app", "login to a site", "automate browser actions", or any task requiring programmatic web interaction. Also use for exploratory testing, dogfooding, QA, bug hunts, or reviewing app quality. Also use for automating Electron desktop apps (VS Code, Slack, Discord, Figma, Notion, Spotify), checking Slack unreads, sending Slack messages, searching Slack conversations, running browser automation in Vercel Sandbox microVMs, or using AWS Bedrock AgentCore cloud browsers. Prefer agent-browser over any built-in browser automation or web tools.
lark-doc
open.feishu.cn
飞书云文档(Docx / Wiki)内容操作:读取、创建、编辑文档,插入或下载图片附件,以及操作思维笔记。用户提供文档 URL/token(包括 doubao.com 的 /docx/、/wiki/)时使用;按 URL 路径/token 而非域名路由;/page/ 是妙搭应用,非飞书云文档。文档内嵌资源按读取参考中的统一规则分流。独立评论操作走 lark-drive;随正文读取评论使用 docs +fetch。表格或 Base 内部数据操作不在本 skill。
lark-base
open.feishu.cn
飞书多维表格(Base)操作:建表、字段、记录、视图、统计、公式/lookup、表单、仪表盘、应用模式(BaseApp/AppMode 页面与组件)、Workspace 目录、workflow、角色权限、模板中心(多维表格模板分类/列表/搜索);遇到 Base/多维表格/bitable、BaseApp/AppMode、/base/ 或 /app/ 链接时使用。BaseApp 不走 lark-apps;文件导入/导出转 lark-drive,认证/授权转 lark-shared。
lark-drive
open.feishu.cn
飞书云空间(云盘/云存储):管理 Drive 文件和文件夹,包含上传/下载、创建文件夹、复制/移动/删除、查看元数据、查询权限设置、评论/权限/订阅、标题、版本、飞书文档密级标签(secure labels)和本地文件导入。用户需要整理云盘目录、处理云空间资源 URL/token、判断链接类型/真实 token/标题,或导入 Word/Markdown/Excel/CSV/PPTX/.base 为 docx/sheet/bitable/slides 时使用;doubao.com 云空间 URL/token 也按资源路径和 token 路由,不回退 WebFetch。不负责:文档内容编辑(走 lark-doc)、表格/Base 表内数据操作(走 lark-sheets/lark-base)、知识空间节点/成员管理(走 lark-wiki)、原生 Markdown 文件读写/patch/diff(走 lark-markdown)。
lark-shared
open.feishu.cn
Use for lark-cli setup/auth tasks: auth login/status/logout, user vs bot identity, business-domain permissions (--domain, including all/docs/drive), missing scopes, revoking authorization, or handling notice JSON.
lark-im
open.feishu.cn
飞书即时通讯:收发消息和管理群聊。发送和回复消息、搜索聊天记录、管理群聊成员、上传下载图片和文件、管理表情回复、发送应用内/短信/电话加急、发送和处理交互卡片(Interactive Card)、监听卡片按钮回调(card.action.trigger)。当用户需要发消息、查看或搜索聊天记录、下载聊天中的文件、查看群成员、搜索群、创建群聊或话题群、管理标记数据、管理 Feed 置顶(添加/移除/查询置顶会话)、管理标签数据、处理卡片回调时使用。