| name | connect-gmail |
| description | Connect Gmail to the brain — the easy connector way (browser sign-in, no key) or as a saved local copy via the gws CLI. Use when the user wants their email readable by the brain. |
Connect: Gmail
You're connecting the user's email. There are two ways. The user is not
technical, so start with the connector — it's a browser sign-in, no keys, and
an agent can read Gmail live. Use the gws path only if they want a permanent
local copy in raw/. Never have them paste a password or token into the chat.
Option A — Connector (easiest, recommended)
A live connection: Claude reads Gmail when it works; nothing is saved to disk.
- Have them open the Anthropic connector directory:
https://claude.ai/directory (or https://claude.ai/customize/connectors).
- Find Gmail, add it, and sign in with their Google account in the browser.
- If they're logged into Claude Code with the same Claude account, it shows
up automatically. Confirm inside Claude Code with
/mcp — Gmail should be
listed.
Terminal alternative: claude mcp add --transport http <name> <url>, then /mcp
to finish the sign-in. Claude registers itself, so there's no OAuth app to create.
Option B — Local copy in raw/ (via gws)
Use this when they want emails saved to disk — to ingest in bulk, search offline,
or keep history. This is the Google Workspace CLI path: run /connect-gws, which
installs gws, signs in (gws auth login -s gmail), and writes into raw/gmail.
Which to pick
- "I just want my agent to see my email" → Option A.
- "I want my email in the brain, saved and ingested" → Option B.
Either is fine, and they can add the other later.
Close
Mark the Email row in sources.md with today's date and whether it's connector
or local-copy. Then ask if they want the next source or to stop here.
