How to connect Gmail to Claude Cowork

Cowork is Anthropic's AI agent for knowledge work. Think of it as Claude Code for everything else. It works autonomously with your computer, local files, and applications to accomplish complex tasks. This guide walks you through the easiest and most secure way to connect your Gmail account to Cowork via Composio Connect, enabling it to summarize unread emails from this morning, create draft replies to urgent messages, fetch contact details for recent senders, and more such actions on your behalf without compromising your account security.

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Gmail

Oauth2

Gmail is Google's email service with powerful spam protection, search, and G Suite integration. It keeps your inbox organized and makes communication fast and reliable.

61 Tools2 Triggers

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Introduction

Cowork is Anthropic's AI agent for knowledge work. Think of it as Claude Code for everything else. It works autonomously with your computer, local files, and applications to accomplish complex tasks.

This guide walks you through the easiest and most secure way to connect your Gmail account to Cowork via Composio Connect, enabling it to summarize unread emails from this morning, create draft replies to urgent messages, fetch contact details for recent senders, and more such actions on your behalf without compromising your account security.

Also integrate Gmail with

ChatGPT OpenAI Agents SDK Claude Agent SDK Claude Code Codex OpenCode Cursor VS Code OpenClaw Hermes CLI Google ADK LangChain Vercel AI SDK Mastra AI LlamaIndex CrewAI

Connecting Gmail to Claude Cowork

1. Open Customize

In Claude Desktop, click Customize in the left sidebar, then select Connectors and click the + icon at the top.

Claude Desktop connectors screen with Add custom connector selected

2. Add the Composio MCP server

Click Add custom connector and paste in the Composio MCP server URL:

bash

https://connect.composio.dev/mcp

Add custom connector dialog with Composio MCP server URL

3. Authorize in your browser

Click Connect. You'll be redirected to a browser window where you can authorize Composio to continue.

Composio authorization screen for Claude Cowork

4. Connect your Gmail account

Back in Cowork, ask the agent to connect to Gmail or give it any Gmail-related task.

For example, ask Cowork to:

"Summarize unread emails from this morning"
"Create draft replies to urgent messages"
"Fetch contact details for recent senders"

It will prompt you to authenticate and authorize access.

That's it. Composio's tools are now available in Cowork, and your Gmail account is ready to use.

What is Claude Cowork?

Claude Cowork is Anthropic's agent for general knowledge work. It can use your computer, files, and connected applications to complete longer-running tasks across your work tools.

With Composio Connect, Cowork can securely access apps like Gmail through MCP without you sharing account credentials directly with the agent.

What is the Gmail MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Gmail MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Gmail account. It provides structured and secure access to your email, so your agent can search, read, draft, organize, and even manage contacts in your mailbox—all on your behalf.

Advanced email search and retrieval: Effortlessly instruct your agent to fetch emails by sender, subject, label, date, or keywords, and even retrieve full message content or threads.
Automated drafting and sending: Have your agent create new email drafts, craft replies, add CC/BCC, include attachments, and handle threading to streamline communication.
Smart label and inbox organization: Let the agent create new labels, apply or remove labels from emails, and keep your inbox clutter-free by archiving or moving messages.
Contact and thread management: Fetch your Gmail contacts, pull entire conversation threads, or download specific attachments to make follow-ups a breeze.
Email and draft cleanup: Direct your agent to permanently delete emails or drafts, helping you maintain a tidy mailbox with minimal effort.

TOOLS & TRIGGERS

Supported Tools and Triggers

Every Gmail action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Modify email labels

Adds and/or removes specified Gmail labels for a message; ensure `message_id` and all `label_ids` are valid (use 'listLabels' for custom label IDs).

Batch delete Gmail messages

Tool to permanently delete multiple Gmail messages in bulk, bypassing Trash with no recovery possible.

Batch modify Gmail messages

Modify labels on multiple Gmail messages in one efficient API call.

Create email draft

Creates a Gmail email draft.

Create Gmail filter

Tool to create a new Gmail filter with specified criteria and actions.

Create label

Creates a new label with a unique name in the specified user's Gmail account.

Create Prompt Post

Send a one-shot prompt to the Sanity Content Agent.

Delete Draft

Permanently deletes a specific Gmail draft using its ID with no recovery possible; verify the correct `draft_id` and obtain explicit user confirmation before calling.

Delete Gmail filter

Tool to permanently delete a Gmail filter by its ID.

Delete label from account (permanent)

Permanently DELETES a user-created Gmail label from the account (not from a message).

Delete message

Permanently deletes a specific email message by its ID from a Gmail mailbox; for `user_id`, use 'me' for the authenticated user or an email address to which the authenticated user has delegated access.

Delete thread

Tool to immediately and permanently delete a specified thread and all its messages.

Fetch emails

Fetches a list of email messages from a Gmail account, supporting filtering, pagination, and optional full content retrieval.

Fetch message by message ID

Fetches a specific email message by its ID, provided the `message_id` exists and is accessible to the authenticated `user_id`.

Fetch Message by Thread ID

Retrieves messages from a Gmail thread using its `thread_id`, where the thread must be accessible by the specified `user_id`.

Forward email message

Forward an existing Gmail message to specified recipients, preserving original body and attachments.

Get Gmail attachment

Retrieves a specific attachment by ID from a message in a user's Gmail mailbox, requiring valid message and attachment IDs.

Get Auto-Forwarding Settings

Tool to get the auto-forwarding setting for the specified account.

Get contacts

Fetches contacts (connections) for the authenticated Google account, allowing selection of specific data fields and pagination.

Get Draft

Retrieves a single Gmail draft by its ID.

Get Gmail filter

Tool to retrieve a specific Gmail filter by its ID.

Get label details

Gets details for a specified Gmail label.

Get Language Settings

Tool to retrieve the language settings for a Gmail user.

Get People

Retrieves either a specific person's details (using `resource_name`) or lists 'Other Contacts' (if `other_contacts` is true), with `person_fields` specifying the data to return.

Get Profile

Retrieves Gmail profile information (email address, aggregate messagesTotal/threadsTotal, historyId) for a user.

Get Vacation Settings

Tool to retrieve vacation responder settings for a Gmail user.

Import message

Tool to import a message into the user's mailbox with standard email delivery scanning and classification.

Insert message into mailbox

Tool to insert a message into the user's mailbox similar to IMAP APPEND.

List CSE identities

Tool to list client-side encrypted identities for an authenticated user.

List CSE key pairs

Tool to list client-side encryption key pairs for an authenticated user.

List Drafts

Retrieves a paginated list of email drafts from a user's Gmail account.

List Gmail filters

Tool to list all Gmail filters (rules) in the mailbox.

List forwarding addresses

Tool to list all forwarding addresses for the specified Gmail account.

List Gmail history

Tool to list Gmail mailbox change history since a known startHistoryId.

List Gmail labels

Retrieves all system and user-created labels for a Gmail account in a single unpaginated response.

List send-as aliases

Lists the send-as aliases for a Gmail account, including the primary address and custom 'from' aliases.

List S/MIME configs

Lists S/MIME configs for the specified send-as alias.

List threads

Retrieves a list of email threads from a Gmail account, identified by `user_id` (email address or 'me'), supporting filtering and pagination.

Modify thread labels

Adds or removes specified existing label IDs from a Gmail thread, affecting all its messages; ensure the thread ID is valid.

Trash thread

Moves the specified thread to the trash.

Move to Trash

Moves an existing, non-deleted email message to the trash for the specified user.

Patch Label

Patches the specified user-created label.

Patch send-as alias

Tool to patch the specified send-as alias for a Gmail user.

Reply to email thread

Sends a reply within a specific Gmail thread using the original thread's subject; do not provide a custom subject as it will start a new conversation instead of replying in-thread.

Search People

Searches contacts by matching the query against names, nicknames, emails, phone numbers, and organizations, optionally including 'Other Contacts'.

Send Draft

Sends an existing draft email AS-IS to recipients already defined within the draft.

Send Email

Sends an email via Gmail API using the authenticated user's Google profile display name.

Get IMAP Settings

Retrieves the IMAP settings for a Gmail user account, including whether IMAP is enabled, auto-expunge behavior, expunge behavior, and maximum folder size.

Get POP settings

Tool to retrieve POP settings for a Gmail account.

Get send-as alias

Tool to retrieve a specific send-as alias configuration for a Gmail user.

Stop watch notifications

Tool to stop receiving push notifications for a Gmail mailbox.

Untrash Message

Tool to remove a message from trash in Gmail.

Untrash thread

Tool to remove a thread from trash in Gmail.

Update draft

Updates (replaces) an existing Gmail draft's content in-place by draft ID.

Update IMAP settings

Tool to update IMAP settings for a Gmail account.

Update Label

Tool to update the properties of an existing Gmail label.

Update Language Settings

Tool to update the language settings for a Gmail user.

Update POP settings

Tool to update POP settings for a Gmail account.

Update send-as alias

Tool to update a send-as alias for a Gmail user.

Update User Attributes Values

Update user attribute values for a resource.

Update Vacation Settings

Tool to update vacation responder settings for a Gmail user.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Gmail MCP Agent with another framework

ChatGPT

Use Gmail MCP with ChatGPT

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Gmail MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK

Use Gmail MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code

Use Gmail MCP with Claude Code

Codex

Use Gmail MCP with Codex

Cursor

Use Gmail MCP with Cursor

OpenClaw

Use Gmail MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes

Use Gmail MCP with Hermes

CLI

Use Gmail MCP with CLI

Google ADK

Use Gmail MCP with Google ADK

LangChain

Use Gmail MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK

Use Gmail MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI

Use Gmail MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex

Use Gmail MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI

Use Gmail MCP with CrewAI

OpenCode

Use Gmail MCP with OpenCode

VS Code

Use Gmail MCP with VS Code

MORE TOOLKITS

Explore Other Toolkits

Toolkit marketplace

Outlook

Oauth2S2s Oauth2

Outlook is Microsoft's email and calendaring platform for unified communications and scheduling. It helps users stay organized with powerful email, contacts, and calendar management.

Slack

Oauth2

Slack is a channel-based messaging platform for teams and organizations. It helps people collaborate in real time, share files, and connect all their tools in one place.

Gong

BasicOauth2

Gong is a platform for video meetings, call recording, and team collaboration. It helps teams capture conversations, analyze calls, and turn insights into action.

Microsoft teams

Oauth2S2s Oauth2

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform that combines chat, meetings, and file sharing within Microsoft 365. It keeps distributed teams connected and productive through seamless virtual communication.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone Gmail MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Gmail tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Gmail and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Yes, you can. Claude Cowork fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Gmail tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Gmail scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Gmail data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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Customer stories

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Karan skipped his own birthday party to fix our critical issue. It was 10pm and he diverted his Waymo to help us instead. This really sets the bar — it shows the commitment you need when users rely on your software.

Harsha Gaddipati

Co-founder, Slashy

A lot of students tell us that the moment their connected tools start talking to each other inside Opennote feels almost magical. The agent just knows them, and it's immensely helped keep new users on the platform.

Abhi Arya

Co-founder, Opennote

We chose Composio over Pipedream because it delivered depth where it mattered — niche tools and tricky edge cases other platforms simply ignored. That gave us confidence to scale without compromising.

Nirman Dave

CEO, Zams

As a solo builder, shipping fast is life or death. The only way I can outcompete incumbents is by outmanoeuvring them. Getting bogged down managing agent auth would have been a death sentence.

Ryan Yu

Founder, Extra Thursday

Before Composio, adding tool integrations was slow and resource-intensive. Each one could take weeks of engineering time, and maintaining them meant constantly keeping up with API changes.

Tomisin Jenrola

Founder & CEO, SwarmZero

With hands-on help from their founder, we integrated Gmail and Google Drive in just 30 minutes. This level of personal support and commitment is exactly what startups should strive for.

Jerome Leclanche

Co-Founder, Ingram Technologies