OpenClaw Gmail Integration
Connect OpenClaw to Gmail using Expanso pipelines. Triage your inbox, draft replies, build morning digests - all while keeping your email credentials safely on your own machine.
Prerequisites
You need OpenClaw installed (install guide), a free Expanso Cloud account (sign up), and a Gmail account with either an App Password or Google Cloud OAuth credentials.
Two ways to connect Gmail
Choose the method that fits your setup:
IMAP/SMTP
Simplest setup. Uses a Gmail App Password to read (IMAP) and send (SMTP) email. Good for personal accounts and quick testing.
Google Pub/Sub
Real-time push notifications when new email arrives. Uses Google Cloud Pub/Sub. Best for production workflows that need instant response.
Generate a Gmail App Password
App Passwords let you connect to Gmail without exposing your main password.
1.1 Enable 2-Step Verification
Go to Google Account Security and enable 2-Step Verification if you haven't already. App Passwords require this.
1.2 Create an App Password
Go to App Passwords. Select "Mail" and your device, then click Generate. Copy the 16-character password.
1.3 Store credentials securely
# Add to your .env or shell profile
export GMAIL_ADDRESS="[email protected]"
export GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD="abcd efgh ijkl mnop"Deploy the Gmail Pipeline
Create an Expanso pipeline that reads email via IMAP and returns structured data.
2.1 Set up Expanso (if you haven't already)
Follow the Expanso setup guide to create your account and install the CLI.
2.2 Create the email reader pipeline
Open cloud.expanso.io, click New Pipeline, and paste:
# gmail-reader.yaml
# Reads unread emails and returns structured summaries
input:
http_server:
path: /gmail-read
allowed_verbs: [ "POST" ]
pipeline:
processors:
- http:
url: "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/INBOX?unseen=true"
verb: GET
basic_auth:
username: "${GMAIL_ADDRESS}"
password: "${GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD}"
- mapping: |
root.emails = this.messages.map_each(msg -> {
"from": msg.from,
"subject": msg.subject,
"date": msg.date,
"snippet": msg.body.slice(0, 500)
})
root.count = this.messages.length()
output:
sync_response: {}2.3 Create the email sender pipeline
For drafting and sending replies:
# gmail-send.yaml
# Sends email via SMTP
input:
http_server:
path: /gmail-send
allowed_verbs: [ "POST" ]
pipeline:
processors:
- mapping: |
root.to = this.to
root.subject = this.subject
root.body = this.body
output:
smtp:
host: "smtp.gmail.com"
port: 587
auth:
username: "${GMAIL_ADDRESS}"
password: "${GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD}"
from: "${GMAIL_ADDRESS}"
to: "${!this.to}"
subject: "${!this.subject}"2.4 Deploy both pipelines
Click Deploy for each pipeline. They run on your edge node with credentials resolved locally.
Real-time email notifications
For production use, Google Pub/Sub delivers instant push notifications when new emails arrive instead of polling IMAP on a schedule.
How it works:
- Gmail detects new messages and publishes to a Google Cloud Pub/Sub topic
- Expanso subscribes to the Pub/Sub topic and receives the notification
- Expanso fetches the email details and passes them to OpenClaw
- OpenClaw processes the email (categorize, summarize, draft reply) and can route it to Slack or other services
Setup requires:
- A Google Cloud project with Pub/Sub API enabled
- A Pub/Sub topic and subscription
- Gmail API watch configured to publish to your topic
- Service account credentials stored locally
See OpenClaw Gmail Pub/Sub docs for detailed Pub/Sub setup, then use Expanso as the pipeline executor for credential isolation and data transformation.
Connect to OpenClaw
Register the Expanso MCP server so OpenClaw can use your Gmail pipelines.
3.1 Register the MCP server
# Register Expanso pipelines with OpenClaw
expanso-cli mcp add npx @expanso/mcp-pipelines3.2 Test the integration
Open OpenClaw and try these commands:
# Triage your inbox
"Show me my unread emails and categorize by urgency"
# Draft a reply
"Draft a reply to the email from Sarah about the Q4 report"
# Morning digest
"Summarize today's emails and highlight anything with a deadline"
# Cross-platform workflow
"Check my inbox and post urgent items to #alerts on Slack"Common Gmail workflows
📬 Inbox triage
Fetch all unread emails, categorize by sender and urgency, and present a structured summary. OpenClaw reads through Expanso's Gmail pipeline and applies AI categorization. No email content is sent to the cloud - everything runs locally.
☀️ Morning digest
Automated daily email summary grouped by project. Highlights deadlines, flags follow-ups, and surfaces emails from key contacts. Schedule it to post to Slack or your preferred chat channel every morning.
✏️ Smart draft replies
Ask OpenClaw to draft a reply based on the email thread context and your past responses. The draft is sent to a private Slack channel for review before dispatching - you always have final approval.
🏷️ Auto-labeling
Automatically apply Gmail labels based on content analysis. Route newsletters to "Read Later", invoices to "Finance", and customer requests to "Support". Expanso handles the Gmail API calls.
🔔 Priority alerts
Real-time monitoring for emails from VIP contacts or containing specific keywords. When a match is found, OpenClaw sends an instant alert to your phone via Slack, Teams, or Telegram.
Frequently asked questions
Does OpenClaw store my emails?
Is my Gmail App Password safe?
Can OpenClaw send emails without my approval?
What about PII in email content?
Can I connect multiple Gmail accounts?
GMAIL_ADDRESS_WORK, GMAIL_ADDRESS_PERSONAL) and deploy separate pipelines for each. OpenClaw can target specific accounts by pipeline name.Start connecting Gmail
Get your OpenClaw wired up to Gmail in under 10 minutes.