google-workspace-guide - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: google-workspace-guide description: Access Google Workspace (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides). Use when asked to "check email", "read inbox", "get calendar", "what's on my schedule", "find in drive", "search drive", "read doc", "open spreadsheet", "show slides", "list emails", "emails from [person]", "send email", "reply to", "schedule meeting", "create event", "cancel meeting", or any query about the user's Google account data. Handles email, calendar, documents, and files.

Google Workspace

Access Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive through the google tool. Translates natural language requests into structured API calls.

When composing emails, drafts or event descriptions on behalf of the user, follow the user's writing voice and prose style guides. The text should sound like the user wrote it.

Authentication

User must run google-auth once to authenticate. Credentials persist in session.

Core Principle: Translate Intent to Actions

When the user makes a natural language request, extract the core intent and parameters, then call the appropriate action.

Gmail - Translating User Intent

"Check my email" / "Recent emails" / "What's in my inbox"

→ search_emails with query: "in:inbox", limit: 10-25

"Find emails from [person]"

→ search_emails with query: "from:person@shopify.com"

If user says first name, add @shopify.com domain
Extract email if provided explicitly

"Find emails about [topic]"

→ search_emails with query: "topic"

Can combine: "from:alice subject:budget" for "emails from Alice about budget"

"Show me that email" / "Read the second one"

→ get_email with id from previous search results

Remember context from previous search_emails response
User may reference by position: "first", "second", "the one from Alice"

"Show me the full conversation" / "Read the thread"

→ get_thread with message_id from current email context

"Reply to that email and say..."

→ send_email with:

to: extract from current email context (the sender)
subject: "RE: " + original subject
body: user's message text
reply_to: current email ID

"Draft an email to [person] about [topic]"

→ create_draft with:

to: parse email address(es)
subject: infer from topic or ask user
body: compose based on user's description

"Send email to [person] saying..."

→ send_email with:

to: parse email address(es)
subject: infer or extract
body: user's message

"Delete that email" / "Archive this message"

→ delete_email or archive_email with id from context

"Move to inbox" / "Unarchive that email"

→ unarchive_email with id from context

"Mark as read/unread"

→ mark_read or mark_unread with id from context

Gmail Search Operators

Build queries using these operators:

from:email - sender
to:email - recipient
subject:text - subject line contains
after:YYYY-MM-DD / before:YYYY-MM-DD - date range
newer_than:7d / older_than:30d - relative dates
has:attachment - has attachments
is:unread / is:starred - status
Space = AND: from:alice subject:budget
OR: from:alice OR from:bob

Calendar - Translating User Intent

"What's on my calendar [timeframe]"

Today: → list_events with start: "today", end: "today"

Tomorrow: → list_events with start: "tomorrow", calculate end as tomorrow EOD

This week / next week: → list_events with calculated start (Monday) and end (Sunday)

Specific date: → list_events with start: "YYYY-MM-DD", end: "YYYY-MM-DD"

"Do I have any meetings I haven't responded to?"

→ list_events for upcoming week, look for ⏳ (needsAction) in results

"Show me details for that meeting" / "What's the third event"

→ get_event with event_id from previous list results

"Schedule [meeting] with [people] [when]"

→ create_event with:

summary: meeting name/purpose
start/end: parse time expressions to ISO datetime
attendees: parse email addresses
location: extract if mentioned

Time parsing:

"tomorrow at 2pm" → calculate ISO datetime for next day 14:00
"next Tuesday 10am" → find next Tuesday, set to 10:00
"March 15th at 3pm for 1 hour" → start at 15:00, end at 16:00
Always include timezone: use user's local timezone

"Move my [time] meeting to [new time]"

→ Two steps:

list_events to find the meeting at specified time
update_event with new start/end times

"Cancel my meeting with [person]" / "Delete that event"

→ delete_event with event_id from context or search

"Accept/decline that meeting invitation"

→ respond_to_event with response: "accepted" or "declined"

"Add [person] to that meeting"

→ update_event with updated attendees list (append to existing)

"What's on [person]'s calendar?" / "Show me Alice's schedule"

→ list_events with:

calendar_id: person's email address
start/end: time window

This shows full event details when the person has shared their calendar with you or org-wide event visibility is enabled. If it fails with a permission error, fall back to check_availability which only needs free/busy access.

"When is [person] free?" / "Check availability for [people]"

→ check_availability with:

attendees: email addresses to check
start/end: time window to check

Your calendar is included automatically. The response shows each person's busy blocks and common free slots where everyone (including you) is available. Supports up to 49 attendees.

The time window can span multiple days (e.g. an entire week). When the user asks to "find a time this week" or "look across next week", use a single call with the full date range rather than one call per day.

"Schedule a meeting with [people] when everyone is free"

→ Two steps:

check_availability to find common free slots
create_event with the chosen slot and attendees

Pick the first free slot that meets the requested duration. When scanning a multi-day range, filter free slots to business hours and skip weekends unless the user says otherwise. The confirmation gate on create_event gives the user final say before invitations go out.

Drive - Translating User Intent

"Find my recent files" / "What's in my Drive?"

→ list_files (no params = recent files, default limit 25)

"Find [file type] about [topic]"

→ list_files with:

query: topic keywords
type: map to "doc", "sheet", "slides", "pdf"

File type mapping:

"document" / "doc" / "Google Doc" → type: "doc"
"spreadsheet" / "sheet" / "Excel" → type: "sheet"
"presentation" / "slides" / "PowerPoint" → type: "slides"
"PDF" → type: "pdf"

"Open [URL]" / "Show me that doc"

→ get_file with:

url: if user provided Google URL
id: if referencing previous search result

"My files" / "Files I own"

→ list_files with owner: "me"

"Files [person] shared with me"

→ list_files with shared: true, owner: "person@shopify.com"

"Files modified this quarter" / "Recent docs since March"

→ list_files with modified_after: "YYYY-MM-DD" (and optionally modified_before). Dates are YYYY-MM-DD; the API converts to RFC 3339 internally.

"Search our team drive for [topic]"

→ Two steps:

list_shared_drives to find team drives
list_files with shared_drive_id and query

"Show me comments on that doc"

→ get_file with:

include_comments: true
comments_filter: "unresolved" (default to unresolved unless user says "all")

Context Management

Remember Previous Results

Email context: After search_emails, remember the message list. User may say:

"Show me the first one" → use messages[0].id
"Open the one from Alice" → find by sender
"Delete that" → use most recently viewed email

Calendar context: After list_events, remember the event list. User may say:

"Show details for the 2pm" → match by time
"Cancel the third one" → use events[2].id
"Accept that" → use most recently viewed event

Drive context: After list_files, remember the file list. User may say:

"Open the first one" → use files[0].id
"Show comments on that spreadsheet" → use most recently viewed file

Maintain Conversation State

Track what the user is currently working with:

Current email being read
Current document open
Current event being discussed

This enables follow-ups like:

"Reply to it" → send_email with reply_to from current email
"Accept it" → respond_to_event with current event
"Show comments" → get_file with include_comments for current doc

Date and Time Handling

Parse Relative Dates

"today" → current date
"tomorrow" → current date + 1 day
"next Monday" → find next Monday
"this week" → Monday to Sunday of current week
"next week" → Monday to Sunday of next week

Convert to ISO Format

Always use ISO datetime with timezone:

"2026-03-10T14:00:00-05:00" (EDT)
"2026-03-10T15:00:00-04:00" (EST)

Get timezone from system or default to user's location.

Infer Duration

If user doesn't specify end time:

Meetings: default to 30 minutes
"for 1 hour" → add 60 minutes to start
"all day" → use date only (no time)

Response Interpretation

Email Search Results

Response includes:

Markdown list with subjects, senders, dates
details.messages[] array with full metadata
details.nextPageToken if more results exist

Use message IDs for follow-up actions (get_email, delete, reply).

Calendar Results

Response includes:

Events grouped by date
Status indicators: ✓ accepted, ✗ declined, ❓ tentative, ⏳ needs response
details.events[] array with full metadata

Use event IDs for follow-up actions (update, delete, respond).

Drive Results

Response includes:

File list with icons 📝📊📽️📁
Metadata: size, owner, modified date
details.files[] array

Use file IDs or URLs for follow-up (get_file).

Document Content

Docs/Sheets/Slides rendered as markdown:

Docs: formatted text with headings, all tabs included
Sheets: markdown tables (one per sheet)
Slides: outline format

Comments (if requested) appear at the end with status and replies.

Google Docs Tabs

Google Docs can contain multiple tabs (like sheets in a spreadsheet). The get_file action automatically fetches all tabs in a document:

Multi-tab documents: each tab renders under its own ## 📑 Tab Title heading with a tab ID. Child tabs use deeper headings (###, ####, #####) matching their nesting level. A tab count appears in the metadata.
Single-tab documents: the content renders flat with no extra heading.
Tab links: when a URL contains a tab=t.XXXXX parameter (from "Copy link" on a tab), the response includes a "Linked tab" hint identifying which tab was referenced.
Tab content: available in details.content.tabs[], each with id, title, body, and nestingLevel (0 for root tabs, 1+ for subtabs).

When the user asks about a specific tab, reference it by its title. When summarising a multi-tab document, mention all tabs by name.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

DON'T ask user for email addresses when replying - extract from context:

// ❌ Bad: asking for recipient
"Who should I send this to?"

// ✅ Good: infer from context
google({
  action: "send_email",
  to: [current_email_sender],
  subject: "RE: " + current_email_subject,
  reply_to: current_email_id
})

DON'T make user specify exact ISO datetime format - parse natural language:

// ❌ Bad: asking for ISO format
"Please provide the start time in ISO 8601 format"

// ✅ Good: parse "tomorrow at 2pm"
google({
  action: "create_event",
  start: "2026-03-10T14:00:00-05:00",  // calculated from "tomorrow at 2pm"
  end: "2026-03-10T14:30:00-05:00"     // inferred 30min duration
})

DON'T forget to use page tokens when user asks for "more results":

// User: "show me more"
google({
  action: "search_emails",
  query: same_query_as_before,
  page_token: previous_response_details.nextPageToken
})

Pagination Pattern

Default limit: 25 results. If response includes nextPageToken:

// First page
const result1 = google({ action: "search_emails", query: "..." })

// If user asks for more
const result2 = google({
  action: "search_emails",
  query: same_query,
  page_token: result1.details.nextPageToken
})

Multi-Account

If user has multiple Google accounts:

Default account is used unless specified
User can say "check my personal email" → add account: "personal"
List accounts: user runs google-auth --list