How to Connect OpenClaw to Gmail

• Read and summarize emails across your inbox
• Draft replies based on email context and your instructions
• Find important or urgent messages without manual searching
• Create follow-up tasks from email content
• Organize inbox workflows using labels, filters, and rules
• Send emails on your behalf — only when you explicitly approve this permission

• A running OpenClaw setup — OpenClaw must be installed and active on your machine, VPS, or managed hosting platform. The integration will not work if OpenClaw is offline during the connection process, because the OAuth callback has nowhere to land.
• A Gmail or Google Workspace account — Any standard personal Gmail account works. Google Workspace accounts work too. You will use this account to authenticate OpenClaw through Google's consent screen.
• OpenClaw dashboard or gateway access — You need to reach your OpenClaw interface to navigate to the integrations section and initiate the Gmail connection. If you cannot access your dashboard, resolve that first.
• A chosen Gmail connection method — OpenClaw supports several ways to connect Gmail: OAuth via the Gmail API, Composio Gmail MCP, IMAP/SMTP, or managed connector setup depending on your hosting. Know which method your setup uses before you start.
• Clear Gmail permissions decision — Before the consent screen appears, decide whether you need read-only access, send access, or label management. Starting narrow and expanding later is safer than approving everything upfront.
• Defined approval rules for sensitive actions — Decide in advance whether OpenClaw needs approval before sending, deleting, or archiving emails. Setting this expectation before connecting prevents unintended inbox changes.
• Secure HTTPS access if using a remote server — Google OAuth requires a valid HTTPS callback URL for remote setups. If your OpenClaw runs on a VPS or cloud server, make sure SSL is configured before starting the flow.

• Daily inbox summaries — Get a clear picture of what arrived without reading every message yourself. Useful for starting the day with context instead of scrolling.
• Faster access to urgent emails — Instead of hunting through a cluttered inbox, ask OpenClaw to surface messages that need immediate attention based on content and sender.
• Reply drafts from context — OpenClaw reads the email thread and writes a reply that fits the conversation, ready for your review before it goes anywhere.
• Email-to-task conversion — Any email that requires action becomes a task with the relevant context extracted, so nothing falls through the cracks.
• Client follow-up tracking — OpenClaw monitors unanswered emails and flags threads that have gone quiet for too long, keeping client relationships and project timelines on track.
• Newsletter and report summaries — Newsletters, reports, and digests get summarized so you stay informed without committing to reading them in full.
• Cross-tool workflow connections — Gmail events can trigger actions in other tools. Connect email with Google Calendar, a CRM, Slack, or Todoist so that a single email can kick off a full workflow without manual copying.

The entire process is a conversation with your bot. You ask, it guides you, you provide what it needs, and the connection is live.

• "Summarize my unread Gmail emails." — Verifies read access is working and gives you an overview of your current inbox.
• "Find important emails from today." — Tests OpenClaw's ability to filter and surface relevant messages based on content and recency.
• "Draft a reply to this client email." — Paste or describe the email content and confirm OpenClaw can write a contextually appropriate response for your review.
• "Create follow-up tasks from my recent emails." — Tests whether OpenClaw can extract action items from email content and turn them into organized tasks.
• "Show emails that need urgent action." — Confirms OpenClaw can filter your inbox for messages requiring a response or decision based on urgency signals in the content.
• "Find emails with invoices from this week." — Tests subject and content-based search across recent messages, which is useful for financial and administrative workflows.

• Daily inbox summary — Schedule OpenClaw to deliver a morning overview of your unread emails to your Telegram channel or any connected messaging app. You start the day with context instead of opening Gmail and staring at a wall of unread counts.
• Email to task workflow — Any email that requires action gets automatically converted into a task with the relevant context extracted from the message body, so nothing actionable gets buried or forgotten.
• Client follow-up reminders — OpenClaw monitors unanswered client emails and sends reminders through your preferred channel so leads and active relationships do not go cold because you forgot to follow up.
• Meeting email summaries — Emails containing meeting requests, agendas, preparation notes, or post-meeting summaries get condensed so you arrive at meetings prepared without rereading entire threads.
• Lead email tracking — OpenClaw watches for inbound emails that look like new leads, extracts contact details and context, and flags them for follow-up before they get buried under newsletters and automated messages.
• Support email triage — Incoming support or inquiry emails get read and categorized so urgent issues surface immediately and routine questions get handled without requiring your direct attention every time.
• Newsletter and report summaries — Instead of reading newsletters and reports in full, OpenClaw extracts the key points and delivers a brief digest to your Discord server or another channel so you stay informed without the scroll. This alone saves a surprising amount of time each week.

• Grant only the permissions OpenClaw needs — Start with read-only access. Add send permission only when your workflow genuinely requires OpenClaw to send emails on your behalf. Never approve more access than your current use case requires.
• Use OAuth instead of sharing your Gmail password — Always connect through Google's OAuth flow. Never enter your Gmail password directly into any OpenClaw configuration field. OAuth tokens can be revoked; passwords cannot be un-shared.
• Avoid giving delete or archive access unless needed — Bulk delete or archive operations triggered by an AI agent can cause irreversible inbox changes. Only enable these if your workflow specifically requires it and you have tested it carefully first.
• Require approval before OpenClaw sends emails — Configure your agent to present draft replies for your review rather than sending automatically. This is the safer default until you fully trust the workflow and the output quality.
• Do not expose your OpenClaw gateway publicly without protection — If your gateway is accessible over the internet, require authentication before anyone can interact with it. An open, unauthenticated gateway is a serious security risk regardless of what integrations are connected.
• Use trusted hosting and HTTPS — Run OpenClaw on infrastructure you control or a managed platform with a clear security posture. Ensure your gateway is served over HTTPS, especially for remote setups where the OAuth callback URL must be secure.
• Review and revoke Google permissions regularly — Visit myaccount.google.com and check Third-party apps with account access every few months. Remove access for any app you no longer use, including older OpenClaw setups you have replaced or abandoned.