gmail-mcp

A local stdio MCP server that gives your local Claude clients three Gmail tools:

Design

• Local stdio — no public endpoint, no OAuth-for-callers, no server to host. Runs as a subprocess of your Claude client.

• Single Google account for both Gmail and Drive.

• Least-privilege scopes — gmail.send, gmail.readonly, drive.file (the app only ever sees Drive files it created).

• Credentials in AWS SSM — the refresh token lives in an SSM SecureString and is fetched at launch; nothing is written to disk. Requires AWS credentials at runtime (e.g. an AWS_PROFILE).

• Attachments upload into a Drive folder named Gmail Attachments by default (created on first use; override per call with the drive_folder argument).

Related MCP server: gmail-mcp

Prerequisites

• uv (manages Python 3.12 + deps).

• AWS credentials with read/write access to the SSM parameter (any standard method — AWS_PROFILE, env vars, instance role). A region from your AWS config, env AWS_REGION, or GMAIL_MCP_AWS_REGION.

• A Google Cloud project with the Gmail API and Google Drive API enabled (Console → APIs & Services → Library).

• A Google OAuth client of type "Desktop app" — download its client_secret.json (Console → APIs & Services → Credentials).

One-time setup: mint the token

Runs a browser consent for the three scopes and stores the credentials in SSM (default param /gmail-mcp/authorized-user-json).

cd /path/to/gmail-mcp

# Using a downloaded Desktop client_secret.json:
AWS_PROFILE=<your-aws-profile> \
  uv run python scripts/mint_token.py --client-secrets-file /path/to/client_secret.json

# ...or reuse an existing Google token already in SSM (its client_id/secret):
AWS_PROFILE=<your-aws-profile> \
  uv run python scripts/mint_token.py --client-secrets-ssm-param /path/to/existing-token

A browser window opens — approve access for the intended account. On success the token is written to SSM and the server can run.

Register with your Claude client(s)

Replace /path/to/gmail-mcp and <your-aws-profile> with your values.

Claude Code

claude mcp add gmail-mcp -s user \
  -e AWS_PROFILE=<your-aws-profile> \
  -- uv run --directory /path/to/gmail-mcp gmail-mcp

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gmail-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/gmail-mcp", "gmail-mcp"],
      "env": { "AWS_PROFILE": "<your-aws-profile>" }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after editing. The three tools appear under the gmail-mcp server.

Usage examples (things to ask Claude)

• "Email alice@example.com with the subject 'Lunch?' and body 'Free tomorrow at 1?'"

• "Search my Gmail for emails with attachments from the last week."

• "Download the PDF attached to that invoice email into my Drive."

Configuration

Security

• The server can send mail as you. Every send is logged (recipients, subject, timestamp). There is no recipient allowlist by default; treat the tool as injection-sensitive.

• The refresh token never touches disk — only an SSM SecureString, fetched in-memory at launch.

• Scopes are least-privilege: read Gmail, send Gmail, and Drive access limited to app-created files.

Development

uv sync
uv run pytest        # unit tests (all mocked; no live Google/AWS calls)
uv run ruff check .  # lint

Layout: src/gmail_mcp/ — auth.py (SSM→credentials), gmail_client.py (send/search/attachments), drive_client.py (folder + upload), attachments.py (orchestration), server.py (FastMCP wiring), bootstrap.py (token mint).