📬️ Gmail MCP Server

Overview

This project is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI assistants like Claude to interact with Gmail accounts. This server provides tools for reading unread emails and creating draft replies, allowing seamless email management through natural language conversations.

• Built for: MCP Foundation Project Assessment

• Tech Stack: Python 3.11+, Python MCP SDK, Gmail API, OAuth2

• Target: Claude Desktop Integration (compatible with any MCP client)

Core Features

• Email Retrieval: Fetch unread emails from Gmail.

• Draft Creation: Create draft replies for selected emails.

• Message Management: Mark emails as read or unread, delete emails.

• AI-Assisted Email Drafting: Professional writing guidelines and templates via MCP resources and prompts.

• Google Docs Integration: Optionally fetch email guidelines from Google Docs for centralized management.

MCP Capabilities

Tools

• get_unread_emails: Returns sender, subject, body/snippet, and email/thread ID

• create_draft_reply: Creates correctly threaded draft replies from original email/thread ID and reply body

Resources

• file:///email-guidelines/7cs-communication.md: The 7 Cs of Effective Communication framework

• file:///email-guidelines/personal-templates.md: 11 personal email templates for common tasks

• file:///email-guidelines/ai-drafting-directive.md: Comprehensive AI email drafting directive with persona and persuasion tactics

Stretch Goals

1. Professional Writing Framework via MCP Resources

Exposed three comprehensive resources that Claude can access when drafting emails:

• 7 Cs of Communication (file:///email-guidelines/7cs-communication.md)

  • Professional framework ensuring emails are: Clear, Concise, Correct, Coherent, Complete, Courteous, and Concrete

  • Automatically applied when using the draft_professional_reply prompt

• Personal Email Templates (file:///email-guidelines/personal-templates.md)

  • 11 ready-to-use templates for common scenarios (appointments, quotes, neighbor communications, etc.)

  • Accessible via the suggest_template prompt with AI-powered matching

• AI Drafting Directive (file:///email-guidelines/ai-drafting-directive.md)

  • Incorporates principles from Dale Carnegie, Robert Cialdini, and Stephen Covey

  • Defines persona, tone mapping, and ethical persuasion tactics

  • Ensures consistent voice across all communications

2. Advanced MCP Prompts with Prompt Engineering

Implemented three sophisticated prompts demonstrating different prompt engineering techniques:

3. Google Docs Integration (Optional)

• Fetch email guidelines directly from Google Docs for centralized, team-shareable documentation

• Automatic fallback to local markdown files if Google Docs unavailable

• Supports collaborative guideline updates without code changes

• Configurable via settings.toml with document IDs

4. Google Calendar Integration (Optional)

• Real-time availability checking via Google Calendar API

• The schedule_meeting_reply prompt automatically proposes times when you're actually free

• Follows the "always offer 2 time slot options" protocol from the AI directive

Impact: These enhancements transform basic email drafting into a sophisticated, context-aware system that maintains professional standards and personal voice while saving time.

Project Milestones

Core Requirements

• Gmail API Setup: Google Cloud project, OAuth2 configuration, scopes

• MCP Server: Python implementation with mcp SDK

• Authorization: OAuth2 authentication for Gmail API

• Email Retrieval Tool: get_unread_emails with required fields

• Draft Reply Tool: create_draft_reply with threading

• Claude Desktop Integration: Local server configuration and testing

• Documentation: Setup instructions, example prompts, screenshots

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+

• Google Cloud Project with Gmail API enabled

• OAuth2 credentials (not app passwords)

• Claude Desktop

Gmail API Setup

1. Create Google Cloud Project

2. Enable Gmail API

3. Configure OAuth2 (scopes: gmail.readonly, gmail.compose)

4. Download credentials.json

Claude Desktop Configuration

Step 1: Locate Your Config File

The config file location depends on your operating system:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Step 2: Add MCP Server Configuration

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

Important: Replace the paths with your actual absolute paths:

1. Find your project directory: pwd (when in the gmail-mcp directory)

2. Update both the command path (to Python in .venv) and args path (to main.py)

Example (macOS):

Example (Windows):

Step 3: Restart and Authenticate

1. Save the config file

2. Restart Claude Desktop completely (quit and reopen)

3. Verify connection: Look for the 🔌 icon in Claude Desktop indicating MCP servers are connected

4. First-time authentication: On first use, a browser window will open asking you to:

   • Sign in to your Google account

   • Grant permissions for Gmail read and compose access

   • The server will save a token.json file in the credentials/ directory

Troubleshooting

Server not connecting?

• Verify paths are absolute (not relative like ~/ or ./)

• Check Python virtual environment is activated and dependencies installed

• Look at Claude Desktop logs: ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log (macOS)

Authentication failing?

• Ensure credentials.json is in the credentials/ directory

• Delete credentials/token.json and retry to re-authenticate

• Verify Gmail API is enabled in Google Cloud Console

• Check OAuth scopes include gmail.readonly and gmail.compose

Server crashes on startup?

• Run manually to see errors: .venv/bin/python main.py

• Check all dependencies installed: uv sync

Email Writing Guidelines (MCP Resources)

This server exposes comprehensive email writing guidelines as MCP resources. Claude can access these when drafting emails to ensure professional, consistent communication.

Available Resources

Three resources are available at fixed URIs:

1. file:///email-guidelines/7cs-communication.md - The 7 Cs of Effective Communication

   • Framework for professional emails (Clarity, Conciseness, Correctness, Coherence, Completeness, Courtesy, Concreteness)

   • Ensures all emails meet professional standards

2. file:///email-guidelines/personal-templates.md - Personal Email Templates

   • 11 templates for common personal tasks (appointments, quotes, birthday wishes, neighbor communications, etc.)

   • Ready-to-use formats for everyday email scenarios

3. file:///email-guidelines/ai-drafting-directive.md - AI Email Drafting Directive

   • Comprehensive guidelines incorporating Dale Carnegie, Robert Cialdini, and Stephen Covey principles

   • Persona definition, tone mapping by category, ethical persuasion tactics

How Resources Work

Claude Desktop automatically makes these resources available to Claude when the MCP server is connected. Claude can:

• Access automatically - Resources are discoverable through the MCP protocol

• Reference when needed - Claude can read resources to understand your email writing standards

• Apply guidelines - Use the 7 Cs framework and templates when drafting replies

Using Resources

Simply ask Claude to draft emails - the resources are available automatically:

Or explicitly reference specific resources:

Optional: Google Docs Integration

By default, resources are read from local markdown files in the docs/ directory. You can optionally configure the server to fetch these from Google Docs instead.

Why use Google Docs?

• Centralized, shareable guidelines

• Update without modifying code

• Collaborate with team members

• Version history

Setup:

1. Upload your three guideline documents to Google Docs

2. Get document IDs from URLs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/YOUR_DOCUMENT_ID/edit

3. Configure in src/gmail_mcp_server/configs/settings.toml:

   [default.google_docs] 7cs_doc_id = "YOUR_7CS_DOCUMENT_ID" templates_doc_id = "YOUR_TEMPLATES_DOCUMENT_ID" directive_doc_id = "YOUR_DIRECTIVE_DOCUMENT_ID"

4. Add Google Docs scope to settings.toml:

   google_scopes = [ "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.calendarlist.readonly", "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events.freebusy", "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly", "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly", "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.compose" ]

5. Delete credentials/token.json and restart server to re-authenticate

Fallback: If Google Docs fetch fails, the server automatically falls back to local files.

Local Development

Setup

1. Clone the repository

2. Install dependencies: uv install

3. Configure your Gmail API credentials (see docs/gcp-setup.md)

4. Run the server: uv run gmail-mcp-server

Testing with MCP Inspector

For debugging and testing:

Sample Prompts

Prompt 1: Read and Summarize Unread Emails

Prompt 2: Draft Reply with Guidelines

Prompt 3: Use Personal Email Template

Prompt 4: Draft Reply Following All Guidelines

Note: After drafting, check your Gmail drafts folder to review before sending.

For more example prompts, see docs/example-prompts.md

Demo Video

Watch the Gmail MCP Server in action:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/demo_mcp.mov

The demo shows:

• Getting unread emails from Gmail

• Creating draft replies with threading

Screenshots

MCP Server Connected in Claude Desktop

Fetching Unread Emails

Drafting Professional Reply with 7 Cs Framework

Using Personal Email Templates

MCP Prompts in Action

Draft Reply Created in Gmail

MCP Prompts

This server provides three sophisticated prompts that leverage advanced prompt engineering techniques:

1. draft_professional_reply - Multi-Step Chain + Role Prompting

Purpose: Generate professional email replies following the 7 Cs framework and your personal AI directive using chain of thought reasoning.

Arguments:

• thread_id (required): The email thread ID to reply to

• key_points (optional): Key points to include in the reply

• tone (optional): Desired tone - formal, professional, or friendly (default: professional)

Prompt Engineering Technique: Chain of Thought

• 7-step reasoning process from context retrieval to draft creation

• Applies consistent persona from AI directive

• Validates against 7 Cs checklist

• UK English formatting

Example Usage:

2. schedule_meeting_reply - Contextual + Calendar Integration

Purpose: Draft meeting acceptance or proposal with real-time calendar availability context.

Arguments:

• thread_id (required): The meeting request email thread ID

• date_range_start (required): Start date for availability check (ISO format: YYYY-MM-DD)

• date_range_end (required): End date for availability check (ISO format: YYYY-MM-DD)

• proposed_times (optional): Optional specific times to propose

Prompt Engineering Technique: Contextual Prompting

• Integrates live calendar availability data

• Enforces AI directive's "2 time slots" scheduling protocol

• UK date/time format with timezone (BST/GMT)

• Contextual reasoning based on meeting request

Example Usage:

3. suggest_template - Few-Shot Learning

Purpose: Analyze an email and suggest the most appropriate personal template from your collection of 11 templates.

Arguments:

• thread_id (required): The email thread ID to analyze

Prompt Engineering Technique: Few-Shot Learning

• Pattern matching against 11 personal templates

• Confidence scoring (0-100%)

• Explains reasoning for template selection

• Shows customization fields needed

• Provides populated template preview

Example Usage:

Resource Usage Matrix

Summary:

• All prompts access at least 2 resources

• draft_professional_reply uses 3 resources (7 Cs, AI directive, optionally templates)

• schedule_meeting_reply uses 3 resources (7 Cs, AI directive, calendar availability)

• suggest_template uses 1 primary resource (email templates)

Project Status: 🧪 Testing

All core requirements and stretch goals have been successfully implemented and tested.