Gws Gmail Read
googleworkspace/cliOfficial
This does exactly what you'd expect: grabs a Gmail message by ID and extracts the body text or headers. It automatically converts HTML-only emails to plain text and handles multipart messages and base64 decoding behind the scenes. You'll reach for this when building email processing workflows or debugging message content issues. The JSON output mode makes it easy to pipe into other tools. One nice touch is the dry-run flag so you can see the actual API request before hitting Gmail's servers.
- installs
- 41.2K
- GitHub stars
- 31.9K
- last updated
- Aug 21, 2026
Install
$ npx -y skills add googleworkspace/cli --skill gws-gmail-read --agent claude-codeInstalls into .claude/skills of the current project.
Files
gmail +read
PREREQUISITE: Read
../gws-shared/SKILL.mdfor auth, global flags, and security rules. If missing, rungws generate-skillsto create it.
Read a message and extract its body or headers
Usage
gws gmail +read --id <ID>
Flags
| Flag | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
--id | ✓ | — | The Gmail message ID to read |
--headers | — | — | Include headers (From, To, Subject, Date) in the output |
--format | — | text | Output format (text, json) |
--html | — | — | Return HTML body instead of plain text |
--dry-run | — | — | Show the request that would be sent without executing it |
Examples
gws gmail +read --id 18f1a2b3c4d
gws gmail +read --id 18f1a2b3c4d --headers
gws gmail +read --id 18f1a2b3c4d --format json | jq '.body'
Tips
- Converts HTML-only messages to plain text automatically.
- Handles multipart/alternative and base64 decoding.
See Also
- gws-shared — Global flags and auth
- gws-gmail — All send, read, and manage email commands
Sponsors
Details
- Repository
- github.com/googleworkspace/cli
- Categories
- CLI & Terminal, Office & Documents
