What is Gmail Mcp Server

gmail-mcp-server is a server that integrates with Gmail to facilitate the sending, removing, reading, drafting, and responding to emails using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It allows MCP clients to interact with Gmail while prompting users for confirmation before executing actions.

Use cases

Use cases for gmail-mcp-server include automating responses to customer inquiries, managing unread emails in bulk, integrating email functionalities into applications, and facilitating email communication in business workflows.

How to use

To use gmail-mcp-server, set up a Google Cloud project, enable the Gmail API, configure an OAuth consent screen, and create an OAuth Client ID. After setup, you can utilize various tools such as send-email, trash-email, mark-email-as-read, get-unread-emails, read-email, and open-email to manage emails.

Key features

Key features of gmail-mcp-server include the ability to send emails, move emails to trash, mark emails as read, retrieve unread emails, read specific email content, and open emails in a browser. Each action requires specific inputs and returns relevant status messages.

Where to use

gmail-mcp-server can be used in various fields such as customer support, automated email handling, personal email management, and any application that requires email interaction through an automated system.

Gmail Server for Model Context Protocol (MCP)

This MCP server integrates with Gmail to enable sending, removing, reading, drafting, and responding to emails.

Note: This server enables an MCP client to read, remove, and send emails. However, the client prompts the user before conducting such activities.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5794cd16-00d2-45a2-884a-8ba0c3a90c90

Components

Tools

• send-email

  • Sends email to email address recipient
  • Input:
    • recipient_id (string): Email address of addressee
    • subject (string): Email subject
    • message (string): Email content
  • Returns status and message_id

• trash-email

  • Moves email to trash
  • Input:
    • email_id (string): Auto-generated ID of email
  • Returns success message

• mark-email-as-read

  • Marks email as read
  • Input:
    • email_id (string): Auto-generated ID of email
  • Returns success message

• get-unread-emails

  • Retrieves unread emails
  • Returns list of emails including email ID

• read-email

  • Retrieves given email content
  • Input:
    • email_id (string): Auto-generated ID of email
  • Returns dictionary of email metadata and marks email as read

• open-email

  • Open email in browser
  • Input:
    • email_id (string): Auto-generated ID of email
  • Returns success message and opens given email in default browser

Setup

Gmail API Setup

1. Create a new Google Cloud project
2. Enable the Gmail API
3. Configure an OAuth consent screen
   • Select “external”. However, we will not publish the app.
   • Add your personal email address as a “Test user”.
4. Add OAuth scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail/modify
5. Create an OAuth Client ID for application type “Desktop App”
6. Download the JSON file of your client’s OAuth keys
7. Rename the key file and save it to your local machine in a secure location. Take note of the location.
   • The absolute path to this file will be passed as parameter --creds-file-path when the server is started.

Authentication

When the server is started, an authentication flow will be launched in your system browser.
Token credentials will be subsequently saved (and later retrieved) in the absolute file path passed to parameter --token-path.

For example, you may use a dot directory in your home folder, replacing [your-home-folder].:

Usage with Desktop App

Using uv is recommended.

To integrate this server with Claude Desktop as the MCP Client, add the following to your app’s server configuration. By default, this is stored as ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gdrive": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "[absolute-path-to-git-repo]",
        "run",
        "gmail",
        "--creds-file-path",
        "[absolute-path-to-credentials-file]",
        "--token-path",
        "[absolute-path-to-access-tokens-file]"
      ]
    }
  }
}

The following parameters must be set

Troubleshooting with MCP Inspector

To test the server, use MCP Inspector.
From the git repo, run the below changing the parameter arguments accordingly.

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run [absolute-path-to-git-repo]/src/gmail/server.py --creds-file-path [absolute-path-to-credentials-file] --token-path [absolute-path-to-access-tokens-file]