Gmail Server for Model Context Protocol (MCP)
About
This MCP server integrates with Gmail to enable sending, removing, reading, drafting, and responding to emails. The MCP client prompts the user before conducting such activities.
Details
- Author
- MCP-Mirror
- Downloads
- 327
- Categories
- Communication
Jump to
- Send emails to a recipient with subject and content
- Move emails to trash by ID
- Mark emails as read by ID
- Retrieve a list of unread emails
- Fetch full content of a specific email (marks as read)
- Open an email in the default browser by ID
Setting up with Highlight
This MCP is not yet compatible with Highlight’s one-click setup. However, you can still use it with Highlight by following these steps:
- Download and install Highlight from highlightai.com/download
- Navigate to the plugins tab and select "Add Custom Plugin"
-
Configure the plugin with the settings below
Plugin Name
Gmail Server for Model Context Protocol (MCP)Command (node, npx, python, etc.)Please refer to the README for specific instructions on how to obtain API keys or other required environment variables.
- Enable "Start Automatically" if you want the plugin to start when Highlight launches
From the repository
First, set up a Google Cloud project, enable the Gmail API, configure an OAuth consent screen with test user, add OAuth scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail/modify, and create an OAuth Client ID for a Desktop App. Download the JSON credentials file and note its absolute path. Then configure an MCP client (e.g., Claude Desktop) using uv with parameters --creds-file-path and --token-path. On startup, a browser-based authentication flow saves token credentials to the specified token path.
Claude Desktop / Cursor
Paste into your MCP client config file to install this server.
{
"mcpServers": {
"gmail server for model context protocol (mcp)": {
"jasonsum_gmail-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"@modelcontextprotocol/inspector",
"uv",
"run",
"[absolute-path-to-git-repo]/src/gmail/server.py",
"--creds-file-path",
"[absolute-path-to-credentials-file]",
"--token-path",
"[absolute-path-to-access-tokens-file]"
]
}
}
}
}McpServers
{
"jasonsum_gmail-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"@modelcontextprotocol/inspector",
"uv",
"run",
"[absolute-path-to-git-repo]/src/gmail/server.py",
"--creds-file-path",
"[absolute-path-to-credentials-file]",
"--token-path",
"[absolute-path-to-access-tokens-file]"
]
}
}Gmail Server for Model Context Protocol (MCP)
This MCP server integrates with Gmail to enable sending, removing, reading, drafting, and responding to emails.
> Note: This server enables an MCP client to read, remove, and send emails. However, the client prompts the user before conducting such activities.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5794cd16-00d2-45a2-884a-8ba0c3a90c90
Components
Tools
- send-email
- Sends email to email address recipient
- Input:
- recipient_id (string): Email address of addressee
- subject (string): Email subject
- message (string): Email content
- Returns status and message_id
- trash-email
- Moves email to trash
- Input:
- email_id (string): Auto-generated ID of email
- Returns success message
- mark-email-as-read
- Marks email as read
- Input:
- email_id (string): Auto-generated ID of email
- Returns success message
- get-unread-emails
- Retrieves unread emails
- Returns list of emails including email ID
- read-email
- Retrieves given email content
- Input:
- email_id (string): Auto-generated ID of email
- Returns dictionary of email metadata and marks email as read
- open-email
- Open email in browser
- Input:
- email_id (string): Auto-generated ID of email
- Returns success message and opens given email in default browser
Setup
Gmail API Setup
1. Create a new Google Cloud project
2. Enable the Gmail API
3. Configure an OAuth consent screen
- Select "external". However, we will not publish the app.
- Add your personal email address as a "Test user".
4. Add OAuth scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail/modify
5. Create an OAuth Client ID for application type "Desktop App"
6. Download the JSON file of your client's OAuth keys
7. Rename the key file and save it to your local machine in a secure location. Take note of the location.
- The absolute path to this file will be passed as parameter --creds-file-path when the server is started.
Authentication
When the server is started, an authentication flow will be launched in your system browser.
Token credentials will be subsequently saved (and later retrieved) in the absolute file path passed to parameter --token-path.
For example, you may use a dot directory in your home folder, replacing [your-home-folder].:
| Parameter | Example |
|-----------------|--------------------------------------------------|
| --creds-file-path | /[your-home-folder]/.google/client_creds.json |
| --token-path | /[your-home-folder]/.google/app_tokens.json |
Usage with Desktop App
Using uv is recommended.
To integrate this server with Claude Desktop as the MCP Client, add the following to your app's server configuration. By default, this is stored as ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json.
{
"mcpServers": {
"gdrive": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"[absolute-path-to-git-repo]",
"run",
"gmail",
"--creds-file-path",
"[absolute-path-to-credentials-file]",
"--token-path",
"[absolute-path-to-access-tokens-file]"
]
}
}
}
The following parameters must be set
| Parameter | Example |
|-----------------|--------------------------------------------------|
| --directory | Absolute path to gmail directory containing server |
| --creds-file-path | Absolute path to credentials file created in Gmail API Setup. |
| --token-path | Absolute path to store and retrieve access and refresh tokens for application. |
Troubleshooting with MCP Inspector
To test the server, use MCP Inspector.
From the git repo, run the below changing the parameter arguments accordingly.
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run [absolute-path-to-git-repo]/src/gmail/server.py --creds-file-path [absolute-path-to-credentials-file] --token-path [absolute-path-to-access-tokens-file]
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