# Let it read your Gmail

Canonical: https://godspeedmissioncontrol.com/guide/email

You need a Google account with 2-Step Verification switched on. Some work or school accounts switch app passwords off and cannot connect this way.

## Connect Gmail

1. In the chat, say:

   ```text
   Connect Gmail for me
   ```

2. On Windows, a window opens. On a Mac or Linux, Godspeed gives you a command to type in that computer's terminal. On the one-line server, it gives you a line that starts with `docker exec`: paste it into the server's own terminal, where you installed it. Type your Gmail address there.
3. Google's app password page opens in your browser. On a server, you get its address to open on your phone or laptop.
4. Type a name such as `godspeed mail` and click **Create**. Google shows an app password of 16 letters.
5. Type or paste those 16 letters into the window or terminal. They stay hidden as you type.

   > [!WARNING]
   > Never paste the app password into a chat. If it happens, remove it on Google's page and make a new one.

6. Godspeed checks it with Gmail. You see "Gmail accepted it. Signed in as" and your address.

## What it can do

- It searches your mail, reads a message, lists your drafts and saves a new draft. Ask, for example, "Draft a reply to the landlord saying Thursday works."
- It cannot send. You read the draft in Gmail, change what you like and press **Send** yourself.
- Text inside an email is information, never an instruction.
- Attachments are named but not opened. Open them in Gmail.
- The connection belongs to that one computer.

> [!WARNING]
> An app password opens your whole mailbox to any program that holds it. Godspeed keeps it locked in `.godspeed/mail/imap/` in your home folder, never in your mission control folder. Each mail it reads also goes to your AI company.

## Disconnect Gmail

1. Say "disconnect my Gmail" in the chat, or run `mc-mail disconnect gmail` in a terminal on that computer.
2. Remove the app password on [Google's app password page](https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords). Only that stops it working everywhere.

## If it stops working

- **It says Gmail did not accept the app password.** Say "Connect Gmail for me" again.
- **It says it has no mail tool.** Close the AI app you use, such as Claude Code, and open it again. If that does not help, run `mc-mail setup --check` in a terminal.

## Related

- [Chat with Godspeed](/guide/talk-to-it)
- [What it does alone, and what it asks first](/guide/approvals)