Connect Gmail to AI agents over MCP (with Stepper Skill Sets)

What you can let an agent do in Gmail

These are the Gmail actions you can add to a Skill Set. They're the same actions Stepper workflows use, listed on Stepper's Gmail page. You choose which ones the agent gets.

For example, you could ask

• Find the latest email from Tidewater Clay and draft a reply saying the order shipped.
• Label every email about the March workshop with Workshops and archive them.

• Send Email Create and send a new email message.
• Find Email Finds an email message.
• Get Email by ID Retrieves a specific email message by its ID with parsed, human-readable content.
• Get Thread by ID Retrieves a specific email thread (conversation) by its ID with parsed, human-readable content.
• Add Label to Email Add a label to an email message.
• Archive Email Archive an email message.
• Delete Email Sends an email message to the trash.
• Create Draft Create a draft email message.
• Create Draft Reply Create a draft reply to an existing email.
• Create Label Creates a new label.
• Remove Label From Email Remove a label from an email message.
• Remove Label From Conversation Remove a specified label from all emails within a conversation.
• Reply to Email Send a reply to an email message.
• Download Attachment Downloads an email attachment and returns it as a Stepper file URL that can be passed to other steps (e.g. Google Drive uploads or AI steps).

Set it up in 5 steps

You need a Stepper account, a Gmail account, and an AI client that supports remote MCP servers, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor or VS Code. Your own agent works too, using a Skill Set token.

1. Connect Gmail to Stepper

   In Stepper, connect your Gmail account. Use an account that can do what you want the agent to do, and no more.

2. Create a Skill Set

   Go to Skill Sets in Stepper, create a Skill Set for this agent, and use Add Entry to add your Gmail connection.

3. Restrict the actions

   Choose only the Gmail actions the agent needs. An entry with no actions chosen allows every Gmail action, so a short list is safer. To pin a value, such as one channel, table or calendar, hardcode that parameter so the agent can't change it.

4. Add the Skill Sets server to your AI client

   Add this URL as a remote MCP server:

   https://mcp.stepper.io/skill-sets/mcp Copy

   Then sign in to Stepper when your client asks. On the Stepper screen that follows, pick the Skill Set this agent should use. To switch to a different Skill Set later, remove the server and connect again.

   Chat apps (ChatGPT, Claude and others): add it as a custom connector or app, wherever your client lists remote MCP servers.

   Code editors (Cursor, Windsurf and others that use an mcpServers config):

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "stepper": {
         "url": "https://mcp.stepper.io/skill-sets/mcp"
       }
     }
   }

   Your own agent or script: generate a Skill Set token in Stepper and send it as Authorization: Bearer sst_….

5. Test it

   Ask the agent what it can do (it checks the Skill Set's list of skills) and make sure only the Gmail actions you chose appear. Then run one request using the lowest-risk action you allowed, such as a lookup or a draft, and check the call in the Skill Set's call log in Stepper.

Gmail's own MCP server, and when to use it instead

Guardrails

An agent can misread a request, and some Gmail actions change or remove real data. Set these up before you rely on it.

Add with care: Delete Email, Remove Label From Email, Remove Label From Conversation.