Connect Your Email
Claude can read your inbox to triage messages, catch leads, and draft replies. This guide walks you through connecting Gmail or Outlook — securely, with read-only access you can revoke anytime.
Before & After
You open your inbox every morning and manually sort through 40+ emails. New client inquiries hide behind newsletters. Urgent requests from existing clients get buried. You can't ask Claude for help because it can't see your email.
Claude is smart but doesn't know what's in your inbox.
You say: "Triage my inbox." Claude reads your unread messages, sorts them by urgency, drafts replies for the important ones, and catches new leads automatically. All from one command.
One-time setup. Every email-based guide just works after this.
What You Need
- Claude Desktop installed — follow the setup guide if you haven't yet
- Gmail or Outlook — your business email account
- 10 minutes — for authorization and testing
Ask Claude to Connect
Open Claude Desktop and say:
Claude will walk you through installing and configuring the email MCP server. Follow its instructions step by step.
Authorize Access
Claude will provide a link to authorize email access. Sign in with your business email and grant the requested permissions.
Gmail
Sign in with Google, grant read access. Revoke anytime at myaccount.google.com/permissions
Outlook
Sign in with Microsoft, grant read access. Revoke anytime at account.microsoft.com/privacy
Test the Connection
Once connected, test it:
If Claude summarizes your recent emails, you're connected. If not, Claude will help diagnose the issue.
Skill: Connect Your Email
What this is for: Walk a non-technical user through setting up the email MCP server in Claude Desktop so Claude can read their inbox. This enables email triage, lead capture, and any workflow that depends on email data.
When to use this: When a user asks their AI assistant to help set up this workflow. The user should explicitly authorize use of this skill by referencing this page URL.