--- title: "Gmail" description: "Let a playbook search and read Gmail threads and their messages, and list drafts and labels, with the read-only scope. It drafts, labels and sends nothing." url: "https://on.auto/integrations/gmail" last_updated: "2026-11-10T08:19:38Z" --- # Gmail Search and read threads and messages, and list drafts and labels. It sends nothing. A Gmail connection gives a playbook's functions six methods of the Gmail API, from a document Auto ships, all of them reads. You sign in to Google and allow Gmail, and the connection reads your mailbox as you. It asks one scope, `gmail.readonly`, which Google classifies as restricted, and no other: the connection drafts, labels and sends no mail, since those take a wider scope. On Auto Cloud, available once Google's review of Auto completes; on a self-hosted runtime, with your own Google Cloud project, now. * * * ## What a playbook can do with Gmail * Search and list threads, and read a thread with its messages. * Search and list messages, and read one. * List your drafts and your labels. It cannot send, reply, draft, label, archive or delete. A playbook that must send mail uses an [Outlook](https://on.auto/integrations/outlook) connection, or asks a person through a Slack connection instead. The tools, as the connection lists them Tools that read: `gmail.users.threads.list`, `gmail.users.threads.get`, `gmail.users.messages.list`, `gmail.users.messages.get`, `gmail.users.drafts.list` and `gmail.users.labels.list`. * * * ## An example workflow A morning brief of what needs an answer. A schedule trigger runs the workflow at 07:30 on weekdays. A lookup function searches yesterday's threads with the Gmail query the person wrote, `is:unread -category:promotions newer_than:1d`, and reads each thread. A reasoning function reads them with the person's own triage rules in its prompt, which senders always matter, which requests they delegate, what they never answer before a call, and writes the brief: the threads that need a reply today, each with a one-line summary and a suggested answer, and the ones that can wait. An interaction function sends the brief to the person in a Slack direct message through a Slack connection. The person answers in Gmail; the playbook never does. The run's history in Studio keeps the brief and the threads it was built from. * * * ## How to connect Gmail * **Sign in to Google and allow Gmail.** The consent screen shows the permissions listed below. Then: 1. Ask your agent to connect Gmail to Auto, or open **Settings**, **Agents**, **Connections** in [Auto Studio](https://studio.on.auto/) and choose Gmail. On Auto Cloud, Studio lists Gmail once Google's review of Auto completes. 2. On the Studio page, check the service and its access, choose which playbooks may use the connection, and approve it. 3. Have your agent check one small read through the connection before a function depends on it. * * * ## What it needs * A Google account, personal or Workspace, whose mailbox the playbook reads. A Workspace administrator may restrict which apps can read mail. * Your agent connected to Auto and signed in as you, with permission to change your organization, if your agent adds the connection. * On a self-hosted runtime, a Google Cloud project of your own with the Gmail API enabled and an OAuth client registered for the runtime, as [Let people add connections](https://on.auto/docs/self-host/connections) sets out; Google requires its own verification of a project that asks a restricted scope before people outside your organization can allow it. ### Permissions Auto asks for * Read Gmail messages, threads, drafts, labels and settings. * * * ## Good to know What a function reads is the mail itself, and it is kept in the run's history, where people with access to the playbook can read it. Give a Gmail connection to one playbook, under **Only select playbooks**, and add it with content recording off if that history should hold no mail. Auto's use of Gmail data follows Google's Limited Use requirements, as the [Privacy Policy](https://on.auto/privacy#connected-accounts-and-google-user-data) states. * * * [All integrations](https://on.auto/integrations/) · [Outlook](https://on.auto/integrations/outlook) · [Google Drive](https://on.auto/integrations/google-drive) · [Slack](https://on.auto/integrations/slack) · [Bring in business data](https://on.auto/docs/cloud/connections) · [Give a function tools](https://on.auto/docs/guides/tools) · [Pricing](https://on.auto/pricing) · [Gmail documentation](https://developers.google.com/workspace/gmail/api/reference/rest) ## Sitemap See the [full documentation and product sitemap](https://on.auto/sitemap.md) for related pages.