This directory contains practical examples of how to use Gmail MCP Server with Claude Desktop.
All examples assume you've already:
- Set up authentication (
node dist/index.js auth) - Configured Claude Desktop with the server
- Restarted Claude Desktop
Simply copy the prompts below and use them in Claude Desktop!
- Basic Email Operations
- Email Organization
- Automation & Filters
- Advanced Use Cases
- Productivity Workflows
Prompt:
Send an email to john@example.com with subject "Meeting Tomorrow"
and body "Hi John, Just confirming our meeting at 2 PM tomorrow. Thanks!"
Prompt:
Send an email to client@company.com with subject "Q4 Report"
and attach the file /Users/username/Documents/Q4-Report.pdf
Body: "Please find the Q4 report attached for your review."
Prompt:
Create a draft email to team@company.com with subject "Weekly Update"
Body: "This week we accomplished: [I'll fill this in later]"
Prompt:
Find the email from boss@company.com with subject "Project Update"
and reply with: "Thanks for the update! I'll have the report ready by Friday."
Prompt:
Search for all emails from newsletter@medium.com from the last 3 months,
then archive them all.
Prompt:
Find all unread emails from boss@company.com and label them as "Important"
Prompt:
Search for all emails with subject containing "Bitcoin" or "Crypto"
from the last month and delete them
Prompt:
Find all unread emails from notifications@github.com and mark them as read
Prompt:
Create a filter that automatically adds the "Important" label to
all emails from boss@company.com
Prompt:
Create a filter to automatically archive all emails from
newsletter@company.com and add the "Newsletters" label
Prompt:
Create a filter for emails with attachments larger than 10MB
and forward them to archive@company.com
Prompt:
Create a filter that adds the "Invoices" label to any email
with "Invoice" or "Receipt" in the subject line
Prompt:
Search for all emails with subject containing "invoice" from the last year,
then download all PDF attachments to /Users/username/Documents/Invoices
Prompt:
Search for all emails from client@company.com in the last month
and summarize: how many emails, main topics discussed, and any action items
Prompt:
Create labels for "Project-Alpha", "Project-Beta", and "Project-Gamma"
Then search for emails mentioning each project and apply the appropriate labels
Prompt:
1. Archive all read emails older than 30 days
2. Delete all emails in trash
3. Create a filter to auto-archive promotional emails
4. Show me what's left in my inbox
Prompt:
Good morning! Help me organize my inbox:
1. Show me all unread important emails
2. Archive all newsletters
3. Label urgent emails from my team as "Today"
4. Summarize what needs my attention
Prompt:
Weekly cleanup:
1. Archive all read emails from last week
2. Download all important attachments to my Archive folder
3. Delete old promotional emails
4. Show me a summary of action items for next week
Prompt:
For emails from client@company.com:
1. Create a "Client-CompanyName" label if it doesn't exist
2. Apply this label to all their emails
3. Search for any unanswered emails from them
4. Draft responses for any pending questions
Prompt:
I'm going on vacation. Help me prepare:
1. Search for any emails with "urgent" or "deadline" from my team
2. Create an out-of-office draft
3. Forward any time-sensitive emails to mycolleague@company.com
4. Archive everything else
Prompt:
Find the email thread about "Budget 2024" and give me:
1. A summary of the discussion
2. Who's involved
3. Any decisions made
4. Action items assigned to me
Prompt:
Find all emails with Excel attachments from finance@company.com
in the last quarter, and download them to
/Users/username/Documents/Finance-Reports
Prompt:
I'm switching from an old email. For all emails from oldclient@oldcompany.com:
1. Update my contact
2. Send them my new email
3. Label historical emails as "Legacy-OldCompany"
Prompt:
Search for emails I sent in the last week that haven't received replies.
Create a list and draft follow-up emails for each.
Prompt:
Create a comprehensive newsletter system:
1. Create a "Newsletters" label
2. Create filters for common newsletter domains
(substack.com, medium.com, mailchimp.com)
3. Auto-archive and label these emails
4. Set them to skip inbox but keep unread for later reading
Prompt:
Set up labels and filters for my team:
1. Create labels: "Team-Dev", "Team-Design", "Team-Marketing"
2. Create filters to auto-label emails from each team
3. Star emails with "urgent" from any team member
4. Show me the current state of team communications
Prompt:
For new client newclient@company.com:
1. Create label "Client-NewCompany"
2. Send welcome email with onboarding info
3. Create filter to auto-label future emails from them
4. Set up filter to forward urgent emails from them to me via SMS
Bad:
Download the attachment to my Downloads folder
Good:
Download the attachment to /Users/username/Downloads
Bad:
Find old emails
Good:
Find emails from January 2024 to March 2024
Bad:
Find emails from boss
[Wait for response]
Now archive them
Good:
Find all read emails from boss@company.com and archive them
Bad:
Find important emails
Good:
Find unread emails with "urgent" in subject or body from my team
Find [criteria] and [action]
Examples:
- "Find all starred emails from last month and export to PDF"
- "Find emails with attachments from client@company.com and download them"
- "Find all emails with label 'Old-Project' and delete them"
Create [resource] and apply to [target]
Examples:
- "Create a 'Urgent' label and apply it to unread emails from my boss"
- "Create a filter for newsletters and apply it to existing emails"
- "Create a 'Clients' label and organize all client emails under it"
For all [criteria], [action]
Examples:
- "For all unread promotional emails, mark as read and archive"
- "For all emails with PDF attachments from last year, download to Archive"
- "For all emails in 'Old-Project' label, remove label and archive"
Prompt:
Find all emails tagged "Ideas" and create a summary I can paste into my notes:
- Date
- From
- Subject
- Key points
Prompt:
Search for emails with words like "meeting", "call", or "schedule"
from the last week that I haven't responded to yet.
List them with suggested times to reply.
Prompt:
Find emails marked "TODO" and create a task list:
- Priority level (based on sender and subject)
- Due date (if mentioned)
- Brief description
- Email link
Try:
Use the absolute path: /Users/username/Documents/file.pdf
Not relative paths like: ~/Documents/file.pdf or ./file.pdf
Try:
Be more specific or use different criteria:
- Instead of "find important emails" → "find emails with label:IMPORTANT"
- Instead of "recent emails" → "emails from the last 7 days"
- Instead of "from John" → "from john@company.com"
Try:
Process smaller batches:
- Instead of "archive all emails from last year"
- Try "archive all emails from January 2024"
- Then repeat for other months
- API Reference: See docs/API.md for all available operations
- Troubleshooting: Check docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md
- Issues: GitHub Issues
Have a great use case? Share it!
- Fork the repository
- Add your example to this file
- Submit a pull request
Template:
### Your Use Case Title
**Prompt:**
\`\`\`
Your example prompt here
\`\`\`
**What it does:**
Brief explanation
**Why it's useful:**
The problem it solves
\`\`\`Happy automating! 🚀