Gmail MCP server

This MCP Gmail server provides a bridge between Claude Desktop (or any MCP client) and your Gmail account, allowing you to search emails, retrieve message content, and download attachments directly through Claude.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (install via brew install node)
• Gmail account
• Google Apps Script deployment
• Claude Desktop (install from https://claude.ai/desktop)

Setup Instructions

Step 1: Deploy the Google Apps Script

• Visit Google Apps Script and create a new project
• Copy the entire contents of code.gs and paste it into the script editor
• Click on "Deploy" > "New deployment"
• Select "Web app" as the deployment type
• Configure the deployment settings:
  • Execute as: Me
  • Who has access: Anyone
  • Click "Deploy"
• Copy the deployment URL that appears after successful deployment
• Generate a random API key to secure your deployment

Step 2: Grant Gmail Access Permissions

When first deploying and running the script, you'll need to grant Gmail access:

1. Click "Review Permissions" when prompted
2. Select your Google account
3. If you see a warning, click "Advanced"
4. Click "Go to [Your Project Name] (unsafe)"
5. Click "Allow" to grant the necessary Gmail permissions

Step 3: Configure Claude Desktop

1. Open your Claude Desktop configuration file located at: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

   (You can access this through Claude Desktop by clicking Claude in the Mac menu bar → Settings → Developer)

2. Add the Gmail tool configuration to your file:

{
  "tools": {
    "gmail": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@kazuph/mcp-gmail-gas"],
      "env": {
        "GAS_ENDPOINT": "YOUR_DEPLOYMENT_URL",
        "VALID_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Be sure to replace YOUR_DEPLOYMENT_URL with the URL from your Google Apps Script deployment and YOUR_API_KEY with your generated API key.

Using Gmail with Claude

Once configured, Claude can interact with your Gmail account using the following capabilities:

Search Messages

You can search for emails using Gmail search query syntax:

Search for emails with the subject "Meeting" from the last day

Claude will use the gmail_search_messages tool which supports standard Gmail search operators such as:

• subject: - Search for words in the subject line
• from: - Search for emails from a specific sender
• to: - Search for emails sent to a specific recipient
• newer_than: - Search for emails newer than a time period (e.g., 1d for 1 day)
• older_than: - Search for emails older than a time period
• has:attachment - Search for emails with attachments

Read Message Content

Once you've found an email of interest, Claude can retrieve its full content:

Show me the content of that email about the project update

Claude will use the gmail_get_message tool to retrieve the full email including subject, sender, date, and body content.

Download Attachments

Claude can also download and process attachments from emails:

Download the PDF attached to that invoice email

This uses the gmail_download_attachment tool to retrieve any attachments from a specific email.

Security Considerations

The API key you set in your configuration helps ensure that only authorized clients can access your Gmail through the Apps Script deployment. Always keep your VALID_API_KEY secret and never share your configuration file with others.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "gmail" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","@kazuph/mcp-gmail-gas"],"env":{"GAS_ENDPOINT":"YOUR_DEPLOYMENT_URL","VALID_API_KEY":"YOUR_API_KEY"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "gmail": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@kazuph/mcp-gmail-gas"
            ],
            "env": {
                "GAS_ENDPOINT": "YOUR_DEPLOYMENT_URL",
                "VALID_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "gmail": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@kazuph/mcp-gmail-gas"
            ],
            "env": {
                "GAS_ENDPOINT": "YOUR_DEPLOYMENT_URL",
                "VALID_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect