Gmail integration workflows

OpenClaw can connect to Gmail in the US via OAuth and an email skill: read, search, label, archive, draft, and send. This post covers how the integration works, which workflows to run first, and how to track success and usage with a platform like SingleAnalytics."

If you're in the US and use Gmail for work or personal mail, connecting OpenClaw to Gmail lets you triage, draft, and send from chat, and run automations like daily digest or "when email from X, do Y." This guide covers how the Gmail integration fits in, what to automate, and how to measure that it’s working so you can iterate with data.

How OpenClaw connects to Gmail

• OAuth 2.0: you (or each user) authorize OpenClaw to access Gmail with scopes like read, send, and modify. Tokens are stored securely (env or secrets manager); the agent uses them to call the Gmail API. No storing your password.
• Gmail API: the agent (via a skill) calls the API to list messages, get body and attachments, create drafts, send, add/remove labels, and search. Exact capabilities depend on the skill implementation.
• Scopes: request only what you need. Read-only for triage and digest; add send and modify when you want drafts and labeling. US teams in regulated industries often start with read-only and add write scope only after review.

Once connected, the agent can act on your mailbox within the limits of the skill and the scopes you granted. Keep tokens and credentials out of chat and logs; use a secrets manager in production.

Workflows that work well

1. Triage and label

"Move newsletters to the Newsletter label" or "Label everything from billing@ as Billing." The agent fetches recent messages, applies rules (sender, subject, list-id), and updates labels. Run on a schedule (heartbeat) or on demand. Track gmail_triage_run and messages_processed (and failures) so you see volume and success. SingleAnalytics supports custom events so US teams can add these to their analytics.

2. Read and summarize

"Summarize my unread from the last 2 hours" or "What did Sarah say in her last email?" The agent reads (and optionally uses the LLM to summarize) and replies in chat. Read-only and high value. Emit gmail_summary_requested or similar if you want to measure usage.

3. Draft and send

"Draft a reply to the last email from John" or "Send a short decline to the meeting invite from Alex." The agent creates a draft (or sends, if you’re comfortable). For send, many US users start with draft-only and approve in Gmail; then move to send-after-confirm in chat. Track gmail_draft_created and gmail_sent (with care not to log sensitive content) so you know adoption and success. SingleAnalytics lets you keep event counts and properties without storing body text.

4. Event-driven

"When I get an email from support@, add a task and notify me in Slack." The event is "new email matching filter"; the trigger layer invokes OpenClaw with that context; the agent runs the task. Requires a way to get Gmail events (push notifications or polling) into your event gateway so OpenClaw runs on new mail. Emit event_received and task_completed so you can see that the flow ran and succeeded. SingleAnalytics gives you one place for that with the rest of your agent and product data.

5. Daily digest

Every morning, a heartbeat runs: "Get unread count by label, top 5 senders, and summarize threads with 'urgent' in subject." The agent reads Gmail and posts a short summary to your chat (Slack, Telegram, etc.). Emit gmail_digest_sent so you can confirm it’s running and measure engagement over time.

Configuration and safety (US)

• Default account: if you have multiple Gmail accounts, set the default in persona or memory so the agent doesn’t guess wrong.
• Confirm before send: for external or sensitive sends, have the agent show the draft or a summary and ask for explicit confirmation before calling the send API.
• No PII in events: when emitting analytics events, send counts and labels (e.g., "draft_created", "triaged 12 messages"), not subject lines or body. SingleAnalytics is built for privacy-first analytics so you can measure without storing sensitive content.
• Rate limits: Gmail API has quotas. Batch when possible; back off on 429. Track gmail_api_error with reason so you can see when limits or errors happen.

Measuring Gmail automation

Emit: gmail_task_started, gmail_triage_completed, gmail_draft_created, gmail_sent, gmail_digest_sent, gmail_task_failed. Add properties like workflow type (triage, digest, draft, send) and optionally user_id. Send to one analytics platform so you can see: how often Gmail workflows run, success rate, and which workflows are used most. US teams that use SingleAnalytics keep these alongside product and agent events so they have one view of how Gmail automation performs and how it ties to broader usage and outcomes.

OAuth and token refresh (US)

Gmail uses OAuth 2.0; tokens expire and must be refreshed. OpenClaw (or your integration layer) should store refresh tokens securely and refresh access tokens automatically. If refresh fails (e.g., user revoked access), the agent should report "Gmail access expired; please re-authorize" instead of failing silently. US teams often run a periodic check (heartbeat) that verifies token validity and notifies the user if re-auth is needed. Track gmail_auth_failed or gmail_token_refreshed in your analytics if you want to monitor auth health. SingleAnalytics can ingest those events alongside workflow events so you have one view of Gmail integration status.

Summary

Gmail integration workflows with OpenClaw in the US let you read, triage, draft, and send from chat, and run event-driven or scheduled flows. Connect via OAuth, handle token refresh, and start with triage and summarize before adding drafts and optional send. Emit events so you can measure success and usage; SingleAnalytics gives you one place to do that with the rest of your agent and product data.