gmail +read

SkillCommunication

gws-gmail-read is a skill that lets an AI agent read a Gmail message and extract its body or headers. It gives the person using the agent a way to pull the content of a specific email into the conversation without copying and pasting it by hand.

Use gmail +read in Claude, ChatGPT or Ahel Desktop

Free. Sign in, add gmail +read and connect your AI. About a minute.

Also: Claude Code · Cursor · Codex

Then ask your AI: use the gmail +read skill

Details

Instructions available. Your AI can read the instructions. Execution depends on the setup they require.

Have a Gmail account with the message you want the agent to read.

gmail +readStart free

What your AI can do with it

  • Read a Gmail message by its identifier
  • Extract the body of a Gmail message
  • Extract the headers of a Gmail message
  • Return the extracted content to the agent

Getting started

  1. Have a Gmail account with the message you want the agent to read.
  2. Add the gws-gmail-read skill to your agent's available skills.
  3. Configure the skill with access to that Gmail account.
  4. Ask the agent to read a specific message and extract its body or headers.

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by googleworkspace/cli in skills/gws-gmail-read/SKILL.md and read by Ahel’s review.

PREREQUISITE: Read ../gws-shared/SKILL.md for auth, global flags, and security rules. If missing, run gws generate-skills to create it.

Read a message and extract its body or headers

Usage

gws gmail +read --id <ID>

Flags

FlagRequiredDefaultDescription
--id✓—The Gmail message ID to read
--headers——Include headers (From, To, Subject, Date) in the output
--format—textOutput format (text, json)
--html——Return HTML body instead of plain text
--dry-run——Show the request that would be sent without executing it

Examples

gws gmail +read --id 18f1a2b3c4d
gws gmail +read --id 18f1a2b3c4d --headers
gws gmail +read --id 18f1a2b3c4d --format json | jq '.body'

Tips

  • Converts HTML-only messages to plain text automatically.
  • Handles multipart/alternative and base64 decoding.

See Also

Signals

GitHub stars
31k
Forks
2k
Last commit
Sep 2026

Ahel review

  • S4info
    community integration, published by googleworkspace, not gmail

Automated review, not a security audit. Ruleset v1+k2.

Questions

Can it send or reply to email?
No. This skill only reads a message and extracts its body or headers. It does not send, reply, or modify anything.
Does it read attachments?
No. It extracts the body or headers of a message. Attachments are not mentioned as supported.
What do I need before using it?
A Gmail account with the message you want read, and the skill added and configured for your agent with access to that account.
How do I tell it which message to read?
You give the agent an identifier for the Gmail message, and the skill reads that message and returns its body or headers.
Advanced
Item type
skill
Key
gws-gmail-read
Source
github.com/googleworkspace/cli