Skip to content
Get packs

Gmail Message Reader

Lets an agent read a Gmail message's body or headers via the gws CLI.

Source Download skill
Repository
googleworkspace/cli
Stars
32,059
Licence
Apache-2.0
Files
1 file

What it does

Once installed, the agent can open a specific Gmail message by its ID and pull out its text (or HTML) body and, optionally, its From, To, Subject and Date headers. It runs the gws command-line tool to make this request, so it can summarise or work with an email's contents without you copying and pasting it. The skill only covers reading; it does not send or change email.

Great for

  • People who want an AI agent to summarise or extract details from a known Gmail message
  • Developers scripting Gmail lookups through the gws CLI and piping output into tools like jq

Skip it if

  • Sending, deleting or organising email, since this skill only reads (use the broader gws-gmail skill instead)
  • Searching a whole inbox without a message ID, since the skill requires --id

Try asking

  • “Read the body of Gmail message 18f1a2b3c4d and summarise it”
  • “Show the From, To, Subject and Date headers for this Gmail message ID”
  • “Get the HTML version of this email so I can inspect its formatting”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Gmail Message ReaderInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 1 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.

    gws-gmail-read.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip gws-gmail-read.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip gws-gmail-read.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Run the --dry-run flag first to see the request that would be sent before executing it.
  • Use --format json when you need structured output for further processing.
  • Run gws generate-skills if the required gws-shared skill file is missing.

What's inside

  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from googleworkspace/cli under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.