get_thread
Retrieve a specific Gmail conversation thread by its unique ID to view email exchanges and manage message organization.
Instructions
Get a specific thread by ID
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Yes | The ID of the thread to retrieve | |
| includeBodyHtml | No | Whether to include the parsed HTML in the return for each body, excluded by default because they can be excessively large |
Implementation Reference
- src/index.ts:729-751 (handler)The core handler implementation for the 'get_thread' MCP tool. It calls the Gmail API to retrieve a thread by ID with full format, processes each message's payload (decoding bodies if text/plain or html, filtering headers), and formats the response as JSON string in content.server.tool("get_thread", "Get a specific thread by ID", { id: z.string().describe("The ID of the thread to retrieve"), includeBodyHtml: z.boolean().optional().describe("Whether to include the parsed HTML in the return for each body, excluded by default because they can be excessively large") }, async (params) => { return handleTool(config, async (gmail: gmail_v1.Gmail) => { const { data } = await gmail.users.threads.get({ userId: 'me', id: params.id, format: 'full' }) if (data.messages) { data.messages = data.messages.map(message => { if (message.payload) { message.payload = processMessagePart(message.payload, params.includeBodyHtml) } return message }) } return formatResponse(data) }) } )
- src/index.ts:731-734 (schema)Input schema for get_thread tool using Zod: requires thread 'id', optional 'includeBodyHtml' boolean.{ id: z.string().describe("The ID of the thread to retrieve"), includeBodyHtml: z.boolean().optional().describe("Whether to include the parsed HTML in the return for each body, excluded by default because they can be excessively large") },
- src/index.ts:729-751 (registration)Registration of the get_thread tool on the MCP server.server.tool("get_thread", "Get a specific thread by ID", { id: z.string().describe("The ID of the thread to retrieve"), includeBodyHtml: z.boolean().optional().describe("Whether to include the parsed HTML in the return for each body, excluded by default because they can be excessively large") }, async (params) => { return handleTool(config, async (gmail: gmail_v1.Gmail) => { const { data } = await gmail.users.threads.get({ userId: 'me', id: params.id, format: 'full' }) if (data.messages) { data.messages = data.messages.map(message => { if (message.payload) { message.payload = processMessagePart(message.payload, params.includeBodyHtml) } return message }) } return formatResponse(data) }) } )
- src/index.ts:50-80 (helper)Shared helper function used by get_thread (and all tools) to handle OAuth2 authentication, create Gmail client, execute the API call, and handle auth errors gracefully.const handleTool = async (queryConfig: Record<string, any> | undefined, apiCall: (gmail: gmail_v1.Gmail) => Promise<any>) => { try { const oauth2Client = queryConfig ? createOAuth2Client(queryConfig) : defaultOAuth2Client if (!oauth2Client) throw new Error('OAuth2 client could not be created, please check your credentials') const credentialsAreValid = await validateCredentials(oauth2Client) if (!credentialsAreValid) throw new Error('OAuth2 credentials are invalid, please re-authenticate') const gmailClient = queryConfig ? google.gmail({ version: 'v1', auth: oauth2Client }) : defaultGmailClient if (!gmailClient) throw new Error('Gmail client could not be created, please check your credentials') const result = await apiCall(gmailClient) return result } catch (error: any) { // Check for specific authentication errors if ( error.message?.includes("invalid_grant") || error.message?.includes("refresh_token") || error.message?.includes("invalid_client") || error.message?.includes("unauthorized_client") || error.code === 401 || error.code === 403 ) { return formatResponse({ error: `Authentication failed: ${error.message}. Please re-authenticate by running: npx @shinzolabs/gmail-mcp auth`, }); } return formatResponse({ error: `Tool execution failed: ${error.message}` }); } }
- src/index.ts:94-108 (helper)Helper function to recursively process message parts: decode base64 bodies for text/* mime types (unless html and not includeBodyHtml), recurse into parts, filter headers to common ones like Date, From, To, etc.const processMessagePart = (messagePart: MessagePart, includeBodyHtml = false): MessagePart => { if ((messagePart.mimeType !== 'text/html' || includeBodyHtml) && messagePart.body) { messagePart.body = decodedBody(messagePart.body) } if (messagePart.parts) { messagePart.parts = messagePart.parts.map(part => processMessagePart(part, includeBodyHtml)) } if (messagePart.headers) { messagePart.headers = messagePart.headers.filter(header => RESPONSE_HEADERS_LIST.includes(header.name || '')) } return messagePart }