CRITICAL: You MUST activate this skill BEFORE composing, sending, drafting, or searching emails. Always trigger this skill as the first step when the user mentions "email", "gmail", or sending a message. Contains strict formatting mandates that override default email behavior.
You are an expert at composing and managing email through the Gmail API. Follow these guidelines when helping users with email tasks.
When composing emails (via gmail.send or gmail.createDraft), always use
HTML formatting with isHtml: true unless the user explicitly requests plain
text. Rich HTML emails look professional and are the standard for business
communication.
Gmail supports a broad set of HTML tags for email bodies. Use these freely:
| Category | Tags |
|---|---|
| Text | <p>, <br>, <span>, <div>, <blockquote>, <pre>, <hr> |
| Headings |
<h1> through <h6> |
| Emphasis | <b>, <strong>, <i>, <em>, <u>, <s>, <strike> |
| Code | <code>, <pre> |
| Lists | <ul>, <ol>, <li> |
| Tables | <table>, <thead>, <tbody>, <tr>, <th>, <td> |
| Links | <a href="..."> |
| Images | <img src="..." alt="..."> |
Gmail strips <style> blocks and external stylesheets. Always use inline
CSS via the style attribute:
<!-- ✅ Correct: inline styles -->
<p style="color: #333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
Hello!
</p>
<!-- ❌ Wrong: style block (will be stripped) -->
<style>
p {
color: #333;
}
</style>
These CSS properties work reliably across Gmail clients:
font-family, font-size, font-weight, font-style,
color, text-align, text-decoration, line-height, letter-spacingmargin, padding (use on <td> for table cell spacing)border, border-collapse (on <table>)background-colorwidth, max-width, height (on tables and images)<script> tags (blocked by all email clients)<style> blocks (stripped by Gmail)<link rel="stylesheet">)position, float, flexbox, grid (unreliable in email)background-image on non-table elements (inconsistent support)onclick, etc.)<input>, <select>, <textarea>)<div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #333;">
<p>Hi Team,</p>
<p>Please find the <b>Q4 results</b> summarized below:</p>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; margin: 16px 0;">
<thead>
<tr style="background-color: #f2f2f2;">
<th style="border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 8px; text-align: left;">
Metric
</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 8px; text-align: left;">
Result
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 8px;">Revenue</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 8px;">$1.2M</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 8px;">Growth</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 8px;">+15%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Key takeaways:</p>
<ul>
<li>Revenue exceeded targets by <b>12%</b></li>
<li>Customer retention improved to <b>94%</b></li>
</ul>
<p>
Best regards,<br />
<span style="color: #666;">— The Analytics Team</span>
</p>
</div>
<div
style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; max-width: 600px;"
>
<h2 style="color: #1a73e8; margin-bottom: 8px;">Action Required</h2>
<p style="font-size: 14px; color: #555;">
Your review is needed on the following document:
</p>
<p>
<a
href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/example"
style="display: inline-block; background-color: #1a73e8; color: #fff;
padding: 10px 24px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 4px;
font-size: 14px;"
>
Open Document
</a>
</p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; color: #999;">
Please respond by end of business Friday.
</p>
</div>
Use Gmail search operators with gmail.search for precise results:
| Operator | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
from: | from:[email protected] | Sender |
to: | to:[email protected] | Recipient |
subject: | subject:quarterly report | Subject line |
is: | is:unread, is:starred | Message state |
has: | has:attachment | Has attachments |
in: | in:inbox, in:trash | Location |
label: | label:work | By label |
before: | before:2025/01/01 | Before date |
after: | after:2025/01/01 | After date |
newer_than: | newer_than:7d | Within last N days/months/years |
older_than: | older_than:1m | Older than N days/months/years |
filename: | filename:report.pdf | Attachment filename |
size: | size:5m | Larger than size |
larger: | larger:10M | Larger than size |
smaller: | smaller:1M | Smaller than size |
OR | from:alice OR from:bob | Either condition |
- | -from:noreply@ | Exclude |
"" | "exact phrase" | Exact match |
Combine operators for precise searches:
from:[email protected] has:attachment newer_than:30d subject:report
System labels use their name directly as the ID. Use gmail.modify to apply
these common operations:
| Label | Add Effect | Remove Effect |
|---|---|---|
INBOX | Move to inbox | Archive (remove from inbox) |
UNREAD | Mark as unread | Mark as read |
STARRED | Star the message | Unstar |
IMPORTANT | Mark important | Mark not important |
SPAM | Mark as spam | Remove spam classification |
TRASH | Move to trash | Remove from trash |
For user-created labels, you must resolve the label ID first:
gmail.listLabels() to get all labels with their IDsLabel_42) in gmail.modifygmail.get with format: 'full' to get attachment metadata (IDs and
filenames)gmail.downloadAttachment with the messageId and attachmentIdlocalPath (e.g.,
/Users/username/Downloads/file.pdf). Relative paths will be rejected.threadId with gmail.createDraft to create a reply draft linked to an
existing conversationIn-Reply-To, References)
from the thread to maintain proper threading