send_message
Send an email message to specified recipients, supporting CC, BCC, subject, body, and thread association. Optionally use raw RFC 2822 format for full control.
Instructions
Send an email message to specified recipients. Note the mechanics of the raw parameter.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| raw | No | The entire email message in base64url encoded RFC 2822 format, ignores params.to, cc, bcc, subject, body, includeBodyHtml if provided | |
| threadId | No | The thread ID to associate this message with | |
| to | No | List of recipient email addresses | |
| cc | No | List of CC recipient email addresses | |
| bcc | No | List of BCC recipient email addresses | |
| subject | No | The subject of the email | |
| body | No | The body of the email | |
| 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:640-641 (registration)Registration of the 'send_message' tool via server.tool() with the name 'send_message'
server.tool("send_message", "Send an email message to specified recipients. Note the mechanics of the raw parameter.", - src/index.ts:642-651 (schema)Zod schema definitions for the send_message tool's input parameters (raw, threadId, to, cc, bcc, subject, body, includeBodyHtml)
{ raw: z.string().optional().describe("The entire email message in base64url encoded RFC 2822 format, ignores params.to, cc, bcc, subject, body, includeBodyHtml if provided"), threadId: z.string().optional().describe("The thread ID to associate this message with"), to: z.array(z.string()).optional().describe("List of recipient email addresses"), cc: z.array(z.string()).optional().describe("List of CC recipient email addresses"), bcc: z.array(z.string()).optional().describe("List of BCC recipient email addresses"), subject: z.string().optional().describe("The subject of the email"), body: z.string().optional().describe("The body of the email"), 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:652-674 (handler)The handler function for send_message - constructs raw message if needed, calls gmail.users.messages.send API, processes message payload, and returns formatted response
async (params) => { return handleTool(config, async (gmail: gmail_v1.Gmail) => { let raw = params.raw if (!raw) raw = await constructRawMessage(gmail, params) const messageSendParams: MessageSendParams = { userId: 'me', requestBody: { raw } } if (params.threadId && messageSendParams.requestBody) { messageSendParams.requestBody.threadId = params.threadId } const { data } = await gmail.users.messages.send(messageSendParams) if (data.payload) { data.payload = processMessagePart( data.payload, params.includeBodyHtml ) } return formatResponse(data) }) } ) - src/index.ts:200-235 (helper)constructRawMessage helper - builds RFC 2822 email message from provided parameters (to, cc, bcc, subject, body) and thread context, returns base64url encoded string
const constructRawMessage = async (gmail: gmail_v1.Gmail, params: NewMessage) => { let thread: Thread | null = null if (params.threadId) { const threadParams = { userId: 'me', id: params.threadId, format: 'full' } const { data } = await gmail.users.threads.get(threadParams) thread = data } const message = [] if (params.to?.length) message.push(`To: ${wrapTextBody(params.to.join(', '))}`) if (params.cc?.length) message.push(`Cc: ${wrapTextBody(params.cc.join(', '))}`) if (params.bcc?.length) message.push(`Bcc: ${wrapTextBody(params.bcc.join(', '))}`) if (thread) { message.push(...getThreadHeaders(thread).map(header => wrapTextBody(header))) } else if (params.subject) { message.push(`Subject: ${wrapTextBody(params.subject)}`) } else { message.push('Subject: (No Subject)') } message.push('Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"') message.push('Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable') message.push('MIME-Version: 1.0') message.push('') if (params.body) message.push(wrapTextBody(params.body)) if (thread) { const quotedContent = getQuotedContent(thread) if (quotedContent) { message.push('') message.push(wrapTextBody(quotedContent)) } } return Buffer.from(message.join('\r\n')).toString('base64url').replace(/\+/g, '-').replace(/\//g, '_').replace(/=+$/, '') } - src/index.ts:50-80 (helper)handleTool wrapper - handles OAuth2 client creation, credential validation, Gmail API client setup, error handling for auth failures and tool execution errors
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}` }); } }