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Someone on Twitter put it well:
That's not an exaggeration.
Google dropped gws : a free, open-source CLI that gives you (and your AI agents) direct access to Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Sheets, Docs, Chat, and everything else in Workspace.
It works without Zapier, Make, or any visual automation layer.
Wire it into OpenClaw and you have an AI agent that can act inside your Google Workspace. This guide covers both: standalone CLI setup, and the OpenClaw integration.
Spotlight: A 2-Day AI Engineering Mastermind
Before we get into the setup, something worth flagging if you're a engineer, professional working in tech or want to get into it:
The schedule is as follows:
Session 1: 13th March | 7:00–11:00 PM IST
Introduction to LLMs, OpenAI APIs & Prompt Engineering.
Session 2: 14th March | 10:00 AM–2:00 PM IST
Advanced AI Applications & Automation.
Session 3: 14th March | 3:00–7:00 PM IST
Multi-Agent AI Systems.
Dev Tools of the Week
MCP server that gives your AI coding agent full bug context from console logs, network requests, screen recordings, environment info, etc so it stops hallucinating fixes. Works with Claude, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.
2. Axel
Native macOS task manager for AI coding agents. Queue tasks, dispatch them to Claude Code, Codex, or OpenCode, and approve/deny actions from a single inbox. Agents run in parallel git worktrees so nothing collides. Keyboard-driven, built with SwiftUI, inspired by Things.
3. Snap
Floating macOS dock for AI coding workflows. Smart screenshot numbers every UI element so your AI knows exactly what you mean, prompt optimizer turns "fix the sidebar" into structured prompts with file paths in under 200ms, and an agent session manager tracks cost/tokens/context across Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor in real time.
What gws Is
gws reads Google's Discovery Service at runtime and builds its command surface dynamically. When Google adds a new API endpoint, gws picks it up automatically with no update required.
Every response is structured JSON, and it ships a built-in MCP server.
That server exposes every Workspace API as a structured tool that any MCP-compatible client can call. OpenClaw is one of those clients.
Part 1: Setup
Prerequisites: OpenClaw installed and running. Node.js 18+.
Install
This installs a compiled native binary for your OS. No Rust toolchain needed.
Authenticate
The interactive TUI wizard walks you through creating a Google Cloud project, enabling the necessary APIs, and setting up OAuth. If you have gcloud installed, it automates most of this.
If you don't, it walks you through the Cloud Console manually. Budget about 15 minutes.
One step most people skip: Google puts new OAuth apps in "testing mode" by default. Only accounts you explicitly list as test users can authenticate.
Skip this and you get a cryptic "Access blocked" error with no explanation.
Google Cloud Console > OAuth consent screen > Test users > Add users > enter your own email. Then:
The "Google hasn't verified this app" warning during login is normal. This is your own OAuth app talking to your own account. Click Advanced > proceed.
Once you're through, credentials are stored AES-256 encrypted on disk, locked to your OS keyring. You can add multiple Google accounts and switch between them with --account.
Verify
Structured JSON of your five most recent Drive files means you're good.
Part 2: Wiring gws into OpenClaw
Add this to your OpenClaw MCP config:
Restart OpenClaw after updating the config.
Each service adds roughly 10 to 80 tools. Most MCP clients cap out at 50 to 100 tools total. Keep the list to what you actually need.
Once reconnected, OpenClaw can address Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and Sheets directly through natural language. No custom integration code. No webhooks.
Part 3: Automations with OpenClaw
Automation 1: Daily Inbox Brief
Prompt OpenClaw:
Every morning at 9am, pull my unread emails from the last 24 hours, group them by sender or project, and drop a summary into a Google Doc called Daily Brief with today's date. Flag anything that looks like it needs a reply.
OpenClaw handles the JSON construction and chaining. You wake up to a doc in Drive.
Automation 2: Meeting Prep Package
Prompt OpenClaw:
I have a meeting with [client name] tomorrow. Pull all their emails from the last 30 days, find any Drive files we've shared, check my calendar for what we covered last time, and put together a one-page brief.
Three gws calls chained together: Gmail search, Drive search, Calendar lookup. OpenClaw synthesizes the output into a structured doc.
Twenty minutes of manual context-gathering before every call, replaced by one prompt.
Automation 3: Client Email Tracker
Prompt OpenClaw:
Every Friday, find all emails from my clients this week and add them to my Client Comms spreadsheet. Date, from, subject, one-line summary.
OpenClaw pulls the emails, summarizes each one, and writes the structured rows to Sheets.
Automation 4: Drive Cleanup Audit
Prompt OpenClaw:
"Find everything in my Drive I haven't touched since September 2025. Group it by file type and flag anything over 100MB."
The --page-all flag handles pagination automatically and streams results as NDJSON. OpenClaw reads the full stream and structures it.
Part 4: Using gws Without OpenClaw
Search emails:
Create a calendar event:
Search Drive for old files:
Write data to Sheets:
Two flags worth knowing:
-dry-run prints the exact HTTP request it would make without actually sending it. Use this before any write operation you're not sure about.
-page-all automatically paginates through all results and streams them as NDJSON. You'll want this for any Drive search or large Gmail query.
Few caveats
It's pre-1.0. The project is moving fast. Pin your version if you need stability:
OAuth setup is genuinely annoying.
The wizard helps, but needing a Google Cloud project is genuine friction. Budget 15 to 20 minutes the first time. The test users step alone has tripped up a lot of people.
Not an official Google product.
It lives under the googleworkspace GitHub org and was built with Google DevRel involvement, but Google doesn't officially support or maintain it. The community is active, but plan accordingly.
Tool limits are real. Exposing only what you use keeps you inside the limits.
My take
Google's Workspace APIs have been capable of all of this for years.
Calendar, Gmail, Drive, Sheets are all fully programmable, documented, and sitting there completely ignored by anyone who wasn't getting paid to deal with them.
The path to using them was just provision a GCP project, enable the right APIs, navigate the OAuth consent screen, write a discovery client, parse the response, handle pagination, deal with rate limits.
A full day's work before you wrote a single line of business logic. So people paid Zapier instead.
The setup cost was the problem, not the APIs.
gws removes that cost.
Install: npm install -g @googleworkspace/cli
Until next time,
Vaibhav 🤝🏻
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