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Email & messaging32k · #6268

gws-gmail-reply

Helps your agent reply to an email, keeping the conversation history. Makes direct and organized communication easy.

What it does

This tool sends a reply to an existing Gmail message. It automatically handles keeping the conversation organized by including the original message in your reply.

When to use it

  • ✓When you want to reply to a specific email.
  • ✓To add more people to the To or BCC fields in the reply.
  • ✓If you need to send the reply as a draft instead of sending it immediately.

Example of what to ask your AI

“Reply to the email with ID '123abc456def' saying 'Thanks for the information, I received it.'”

Want more? Open the sections below.

How to use

The easiest way: copy the message below and paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any AI. It reads the skill and follows the instructions.

Skill link

https://github.com/googleworkspace/cli/blob/main/skills/gws-gmail-reply/SKILL.md

Ready-to-paste message

Use this skill to help me: https://github.com/googleworkspace/cli/blob/main/skills/gws-gmail-reply/SKILL.md Read the SKILL.md file at that link and follow its instructions for my task.
View on GitHub ↗Raw file
How it works

You provide the ID of the email you want to reply to and the text of your message. The tool inserts the text and sends the reply, maintaining the conversation history.

Installation

Easiest way: copy the skill link and paste it into Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor asking it to follow the instructions.

In the terminal (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor), in your project folder:

npx skills add googleworkspace/cli --skill gws-gmail-reply

Or download just the file:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleworkspace/cli/main/skills/gws-gmail-reply/SKILL.md -o SKILL.md
Technical content (original SKILL.md)

Original text by the author, straight from GitHub.

gmail +reply

PREREQUISITE: Read ../gws-shared/SKILL.md for auth, global flags, and security rules. If missing, run gws generate-skills to create it.

Reply to a message (handles threading automatically)

Usage

gws gmail +reply --message-id <ID> --body <TEXT>

Flags

Flag Required Default Description
--message-id ✓ — Gmail message ID to reply to
--body ✓ — Reply body (plain text, or HTML with --html)
--from — — Sender address (for send-as/alias; omit to use account default)
--to — — Additional To email address(es), comma-separated
--attach — — Attach a file (can be specified multiple times)
--cc — — CC email address(es), comma-separated
--bcc — — BCC email address(es), comma-separated
--html — — Treat --body as HTML content (default is plain text)
--dry-run — — Show the request that would be sent without executing it
--draft — — Save as draft instead of sending

Examples

gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body 'Thanks, got it!'
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body 'Looping in Carol' --cc carol@example.com
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body 'Adding Dave' --to dave@example.com
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body '<b>Bold reply</b>' --html
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body 'Updated version' -a updated.docx
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body 'Draft reply' --draft

Tips

  • Automatically sets In-Reply-To, References, and threadId headers.
  • Quotes the original message in the reply body.
  • --to adds extra recipients to the To field.
  • Use -a/--attach to add file attachments. Can be specified multiple times.
  • With --html, the quoted block uses Gmail's gmail_quote CSS classes and preserves HTML formatting. Use fragment tags (<p>, <b>, <a>, etc.) — no <html>/<body> wrapper needed.
  • With --html, inline images in the quoted message are preserved via cid: references.
  • Use --draft to save the reply as a draft instead of sending it immediately.
  • For reply-all, use +reply-all instead.

See Also

FAQ

How does the tool know which email to reply to?

You need to provide a unique code called 'message-id' that identifies each email.

Can I add attachments?

Yes, you can use the '--attach' option to add files to your reply.

How do I reply to more people?

You can add extra email addresses using the '--to', '--cc', or '--bcc' options.

Details

Original description by the author

Gmail: Reply to a message (handles threading automatically).

repo: googleworkspace/cli

Popularity

GitHub stars
32k
Ranking position
#6268
License
Apache-2.0
Updated
10/6/2026

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