gws

One CLI for all of Google Workspace — built for humans and AI agents.
Drive, Gmail, Calendar, and every Workspace API. Zero boilerplate. Structured JSON output. 40+ agent skills included.

Note

Community-maintained fork. This is a fork of googleworkspace/cli, which is no longer maintained upstream (last release April 2026). It is maintained by Cru on a best-effort, internal-first basis — see Maintenance status. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google.

⬇️ Download the latest release for your OS

gws doesn't ship a static list of commands. It reads Google's own Discovery Service at runtime and builds its entire command surface dynamically. When Google Workspace adds an API endpoint or method, gws picks it up automatically.

Important

Inherited from upstream while pre-1.0: expect breaking changes. See Maintenance status for what Cru does and doesn't commit to.

Prerequisites

A Google Cloud project — required for OAuth credentials. You can create one via the Google Cloud Console or with the gcloud CLI or with the gws auth setup command.
A Google account with access to Google Workspace
Rust toolchain — only if building from source

Installation

The recommended way to install gws is to download the pre-built binary for your OS and architecture from the GitHub Releases page. Extract the archive and place the gws binary in your $PATH.

Build from source with cargo:

cargo install --git https://github.com/CruGlobal/gws-cli --locked

A Nix flake is also available:

nix run github:CruGlobal/gws-cli

Note

This fork is not published to npm, crates.io, or Homebrew. Use a release binary, cargo install --git, or the Nix flake.

Quick Start

gws auth setup     # walks you through Google Cloud project config
gws auth login     # subsequent OAuth login
gws drive files list --params '{"pageSize": 5}'

Why gws?

For humans — stop writing curl calls against REST docs. gws gives you --help on every resource, --dry-run to preview requests, and auto‑pagination.

For AI agents — every response is structured JSON. Pair it with the included agent skills and your LLM can manage Workspace without custom tooling.

# List the 10 most recent files
gws drive files list --params '{"pageSize": 10}'

# Create a spreadsheet
gws sheets spreadsheets create --json '{"properties": {"title": "Q1 Budget"}}'

# Send a Chat message
gws chat spaces messages create \
  --params '{"parent": "spaces/xyz"}' \
  --json '{"text": "Deploy complete."}' \
  --dry-run

# Introspect any method's request/response schema
gws schema drive.files.list

# Stream paginated results as NDJSON
gws drive files list --params '{"pageSize": 100}' --page-all | jq -r '.files[].name'

Authentication

The CLI supports multiple auth workflows so it works on your laptop, in CI, and on a server.

Which setup should I use?

I have…	Use
`gcloud` installed and authenticated	`gws auth setup` (fastest)
A GCP project but no `gcloud`	Manual OAuth setup
An existing OAuth access token	`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_TOKEN`
Existing Credentials	`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_CREDENTIALS_FILE`

Interactive (local desktop)

Credentials are encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM) with the key stored in your OS keyring (or ~/.config/gws/.encryption_key when GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_KEYRING_BACKEND=file).

gws auth setup       # one-time: creates a Cloud project, enables APIs, logs you in
gws auth login       # subsequent scope selection and login

gws auth setup requires the gcloud CLI. If you don't have gcloud, use the manual setup below instead.

Warning

Scope limits in testing mode: If your OAuth app is unverified (testing mode), Google limits consent to ~25 scopes. The recommended scope preset includes 85+ scopes and will fail for unverified apps (especially for @gmail.com accounts). Choose individual services instead to filter the scope picker:

gws auth login -s drive,gmail,sheets

Manual OAuth setup (Google Cloud Console)

Use this when gws auth setup cannot automate project/client creation, or when you want explicit control.

Open Google Cloud Console in the target project:
- OAuth consent screen: https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials/consent?project=<PROJECT_ID>
- Credentials: https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials?project=<PROJECT_ID>
Configure OAuth branding/audience if prompted:
- App type: External (testing mode is fine)
Add your account under Test users
Create an OAuth client:
- Type: Desktop app
Download the client JSON and save it to:
- ~/.config/gws/client_secret.json

Important

You must add yourself as a test user. In the OAuth consent screen, click Test users → Add users and enter your Google account email. Without this, login will fail with a generic "Access blocked" error.

Then run:

gws auth login

Browser-assisted auth (human or agent)

You can complete OAuth either manually or with browser automation.

Human flow: run gws auth login, open the printed URL, approve scopes.
Agent-assisted flow: the agent opens the URL, selects account, handles consent prompts, and returns control once the localhost callback succeeds.

If consent shows "Google hasn't verified this app" (testing mode), click Continue. If scope checkboxes appear, select required scopes (or Select all) before continuing.

Headless / CI (export flow)

Complete interactive auth on a machine with a browser.

Export credentials:

gws auth export --unmasked > credentials.json

On the headless machine:

export GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_CREDENTIALS_FILE=/path/to/credentials.json
gws drive files list   # just works

Service Account (server-to-server)

Point to your key file; no login needed.

export GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_CREDENTIALS_FILE=/path/to/service-account.json
gws drive files list

Pre-obtained Access Token

Useful when another tool (e.g. gcloud) already mints tokens for your environment.

export GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_TOKEN=$(gcloud auth print-access-token)

Precedence

Priority	Source	Set via
1	Access token	`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_TOKEN`
2	Credentials file	`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_CREDENTIALS_FILE`
3	Encrypted credentials	`gws auth login`
4	Plaintext credentials	`~/.config/gws/credentials.json`

Environment variables can also live in a .env file.

No-Auth Mode

For deployments that sit behind a credential-injecting network proxy — e.g. gapx's principal-bound grants, fronted by an Agent Proxy that strips any client-set Authorization header and injects its own — set:

export GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_AUTH=none

With this set, gws skips credential loading and token acquisition entirely (any GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_TOKEN, credentials file, or ADC is ignored) and sends every request with no Authorization header — not an empty bearer token. Trust lives entirely in the network path; the proxy is expected to authenticate the request. gws auth status reports "auth_method": "none" in this mode rather than inspecting local credential files.

Typically paired with GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_DISCOVERY_BASE_URL (see Environment Variables) so both discovery documents and API calls route through the proxy.

AI Agent Skills

The repo ships 100+ Agent Skills (SKILL.md files) — one for every supported API, plus higher-level helpers for common workflows and 50 curated recipes for Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar, and Sheets. See the full Skills Index for the complete list.

# Install all skills at once
npx skills add https://github.com/CruGlobal/gws-cli

# Or pick only what you need
npx skills add https://github.com/CruGlobal/gws-cli/tree/main/skills/gws-drive
npx skills add https://github.com/CruGlobal/gws-cli/tree/main/skills/gws-gmail

OpenClaw setup

# Symlink all skills (stays in sync with repo)
ln -s $(pwd)/skills/gws-* ~/.openclaw/skills/

# Or copy specific skills
cp -r skills/gws-drive skills/gws-gmail ~/.openclaw/skills/

The gws-shared skill includes an install block so OpenClaw auto-installs the CLI via npm if gws isn't on PATH.

Gemini CLI Extension

Authenticate the CLI first:
```
gws auth setup
```

Install the extension into the Gemini CLI:

gemini extensions install https://github.com/CruGlobal/gws-cli

Installing this extension gives your Gemini CLI agent direct access to all gws commands and Google Workspace agent skills. Because gws handles its own authentication securely, you simply need to authenticate your terminal once prior to using the agent, and the extension will automatically inherit your credentials.

Advanced Usage

Multipart Uploads

gws drive files create --json '{"name": "report.pdf"}' --upload ./report.pdf

Pagination

Flag	Description	Default
`--page-all`	Auto-paginate, one JSON line per page (NDJSON)	off
`--page-limit <N>`	Max pages to fetch	10
`--page-delay <MS>`	Delay between pages	100 ms

Google Sheets — Shell Escaping

Sheets ranges use ! which bash interprets as history expansion. Always wrap values in single quotes:

# Read cells A1:C10 from "Sheet1"
gws sheets spreadsheets values get \
  --params '{"spreadsheetId": "SPREADSHEET_ID", "range": "Sheet1!A1:C10"}'

# Append rows
gws sheets spreadsheets values append \
  --params '{"spreadsheetId": "ID", "range": "Sheet1!A1", "valueInputOption": "USER_ENTERED"}' \
  --json '{"values": [["Name", "Score"], ["Alice", 95]]}'

Helper Commands

Some services ship hand-crafted helper commands alongside the auto-generated Discovery surface. Helper commands are prefixed with + so they are visually distinct and never collide with Discovery-generated method names.

Time-aware helpers (+agenda, +standup-report, +weekly-digest, +meeting-prep) automatically use your Google account timezone (fetched from Calendar Settings API and cached for 24 hours). Override with --timezone/--tz on +agenda, or set the --timezone flag for explicit control.

Run gws <service> --help to see both Discovery methods and helper commands together.

gws gmail --help      # shows +send, +reply, +reply-all, +forward, +triage, +watch …
gws calendar --help   # shows +insert, +agenda …
gws drive --help      # shows +upload …

Full helper reference:

Service	Command	Description
`gmail`	`+send`	Send an email
`gmail`	`+reply`	Reply to a message (handles threading automatically)
`gmail`	`+reply-all`	Reply-all to a message
`gmail`	`+forward`	Forward a message to new recipients
`gmail`	`+triage`	Show unread inbox summary (sender, subject, date)
`gmail`	`+watch`	Watch for new emails and stream them as NDJSON
`sheets`	`+append`	Append a row to a spreadsheet
`sheets`	`+read`	Read values from a spreadsheet
`docs`	`+write`	Append text to a document
`chat`	`+send`	Send a message to a space
`drive`	`+upload`	Upload a file with automatic metadata
`calendar`	`+insert`	Create a new event
`calendar`	`+agenda`	Show upcoming events (uses Google account timezone; override with `--timezone`)
`script`	`+push`	Replace all files in an Apps Script project with local files
`workflow`	`+standup-report`	Today's meetings + open tasks as a standup summary
`workflow`	`+meeting-prep`	Prepare for your next meeting: agenda, attendees, and linked docs
`workflow`	`+email-to-task`	Convert a Gmail message into a Google Tasks entry
`workflow`	`+weekly-digest`	Weekly summary: this week's meetings + unread email count
`workflow`	`+file-announce`	Announce a Drive file in a Chat space
`events`	`+subscribe`	Subscribe to Workspace events and stream them as NDJSON
`events`	`+renew`	Renew/reactivate Workspace Events subscriptions
`modelarmor`	`+sanitize-prompt`	Sanitize a user prompt through a Model Armor template
`modelarmor`	`+sanitize-response`	Sanitize a model response through a Model Armor template
`modelarmor`	`+create-template`	Create a new Model Armor template

Examples:

# Send an email
gws gmail +send --to alice@example.com --subject "Hello" --body "Hi there"

# Reply to a message
gws gmail +reply --message-id MESSAGE_ID --body "Thanks!"

# Append a row to a spreadsheet
gws sheets +append --spreadsheet SPREADSHEET_ID --values "Alice,95"

# Show today's calendar agenda
gws calendar +agenda

# Upload a file to Drive
gws drive +upload ./report.pdf --name "Q1 Report"

# Morning standup summary
gws workflow +standup-report

# Show today's agenda in a specific timezone
gws calendar +agenda --today --timezone America/New_York

Model Armor (Response Sanitization)

Integrate Google Cloud Model Armor to scan API responses for prompt injection before they reach your agent.

gws gmail users messages get --params '...' \
  --sanitize "projects/P/locations/L/templates/T"

Variable	Description
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_SANITIZE_TEMPLATE`	Default Model Armor template
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_SANITIZE_MODE`	`warn` (default) or `block`

Environment Variables

All variables are optional. See .env.example for a copy-paste template.

Variable	Description
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_TOKEN`	Pre-obtained OAuth2 access token (highest priority)
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_CREDENTIALS_FILE`	Path to OAuth credentials JSON (user or service account)
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_AUTH`	Set to `none` to disable client-side auth entirely — no credentials are loaded and requests carry no `Authorization` header. See No-Auth Mode
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_CLIENT_ID`	OAuth client ID (alternative to `client_secret.json`)
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_CLIENT_SECRET`	OAuth client secret (paired with `CLIENT_ID`)
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_CONFIG_DIR`	Override config directory (default: `~/.config/gws`)
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_DISCOVERY_BASE_URL`	Fetch discovery docs (and thus all API traffic) from this base instead of Google (e.g. a proxy)
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_SANITIZE_TEMPLATE`	Default Model Armor template
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_SANITIZE_MODE`	`warn` (default) or `block`
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_LOG`	Log level for stderr (e.g., `gws=debug`). Off by default.
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_CLI_LOG_FILE`	Directory for JSON log files with daily rotation. Off by default.
`GOOGLE_WORKSPACE_PROJECT_ID`	GCP project ID override for quota/billing and fallback for helper commands

Environment variables can also be set in a .env file (loaded via dotenvy).

Exit Codes

gws uses structured exit codes so scripts can branch on the failure type without parsing error output.

Code	Meaning	Example cause
`0`	Success	Command completed normally
`1`	API error	Google returned a 4xx/5xx response
`2`	Auth error	Credentials missing, expired, or invalid
`3`	Validation error	Bad arguments, unknown service, invalid flag
`4`	Discovery error	Could not fetch the API schema document
`5`	Internal error	Unexpected failure

gws drive files list --params '{"fileId": "bad"}'
echo $?   # 1 — API error

gws unknown-service files list
echo $?   # 3 — validation error (unknown service)

Architecture

gws uses a two-phase parsing strategy:

Read argv[1] to identify the service (e.g. drive)
Fetch the service's Discovery Document (cached 24 h)
Build a clap::Command tree from the document's resources and methods
Re-parse the remaining arguments
Authenticate, build the HTTP request, execute

All output — success, errors, download metadata — is structured JSON.

Troubleshooting

"Access blocked" or 403 during login

Your OAuth app is in testing mode and your account is not listed as a test user.

Fix: Open the OAuth consent screen in your GCP project → Test users → Add users → enter your Google account email. Then retry gws auth login.

"Google hasn't verified this app"

Expected when your app is in testing mode. Click Advanced → Go to <app name> (unsafe) to proceed. This is safe for personal use; verification is only required to publish the app to other users.

Too many scopes / consent screen error

Unverified (testing mode) apps are limited to ~25 OAuth scopes. The recommended scope preset includes many scopes and will exceed this limit.

Fix: Select only the scopes you need:

gws auth login --scopes drive,gmail,calendar

`gcloud` CLI not found

gws auth setup requires the gcloud CLI to automate project creation. You have three options:

Install gcloud and use gcloud directly.
Re-run gws auth setup which wraps gcloud calls.
Skip gcloud entirely — set up OAuth credentials manually in the Cloud Console

`redirect_uri_mismatch`

The OAuth client was not created as a Desktop app type. In the Credentials page, delete the existing client, create a new one with type Desktop app, and download the new JSON.

API not enabled — `accessNotConfigured`

If a required Google API is not enabled for your GCP project, you will see a 403 error with reason accessNotConfigured:

{
  "error": {
    "code": 403,
    "message": "Gmail API has not been used in project 549352339482 ...",
    "reason": "accessNotConfigured",
    "enable_url": "https://console.developers.google.com/apis/api/gmail.googleapis.com/overview?project=549352339482"
  }
}

gws also prints an actionable hint to stderr:

💡 API not enabled for your GCP project.
   Enable it at: https://console.developers.google.com/apis/api/gmail.googleapis.com/overview?project=549352339482
   After enabling, wait a few seconds and retry your command.

Steps to fix:

Click the enable_url link (or copy it from the enable_url JSON field).
In the GCP Console, click Enable.
Wait ~10 seconds, then retry your gws command.

Tip

You can also run gws auth setup which walks you through enabling all required APIs for your project automatically.

Development

cargo build                       # dev build
cargo clippy -- -D warnings       # lint
cargo test                        # unit tests
./scripts/coverage.sh             # HTML coverage report → target/llvm-cov/html/

Maintenance status

This is a community-maintained fork of googleworkspace/cli, maintained by Cru primarily for our own use. We publish it openly so our changes are available to others, but:

Best-effort, no SLA. Fixes are prioritized over features; we merge what we have time for.
Internal-first. Changes are driven by what Cru needs; we may not adopt every feature request.
Issues and PRs are welcome, but triage may be slow. Bug-fix PRs are far more likely to land than large features.
The CLI auto-updates its command surface from Google's Discovery Service at runtime, so it keeps working as Workspace APIs change without code changes here.

If a more active community successor emerges, we may converge on it.

License

Apache-2.0. This is a fork of the original googleworkspace/cli by Google LLC. Upstream copyright and license notices are retained; see LICENSE and NOTICE.

Disclaimer

Caution

This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google, and is not an officially supported Google product. "Google", "Google Workspace", and related marks are trademarks of Google LLC.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.agent		.agent
.changeset		.changeset
.claude		.claude
.gemini		.gemini
.github		.github
.vscode		.vscode
art		art
crates		crates
docs		docs
npm		npm
scripts		scripts
skills		skills
.env.example		.env.example
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
CONTEXT.md		CONTEXT.md
Cargo.lock		Cargo.lock
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
LICENSE		LICENSE
NOTICE		NOTICE
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
demo.gif		demo.gif
deny.toml		deny.toml
flake.lock		flake.lock
flake.nix		flake.nix
gemini-extension.json		gemini-extension.json
lefthook.yml		lefthook.yml
package.json		package.json
pnpm-lock.yaml		pnpm-lock.yaml

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gws

Contents

Prerequisites

Installation

Quick Start

Why gws?

Authentication

Which setup should I use?

Interactive (local desktop)

Manual OAuth setup (Google Cloud Console)

Browser-assisted auth (human or agent)

Headless / CI (export flow)

Service Account (server-to-server)

Pre-obtained Access Token

Precedence

No-Auth Mode

AI Agent Skills

Gemini CLI Extension

Advanced Usage

Multipart Uploads

Pagination

Google Sheets — Shell Escaping

Helper Commands

Model Armor (Response Sanitization)

Environment Variables

Exit Codes

Architecture

Troubleshooting

"Access blocked" or 403 during login

"Google hasn't verified this app"

Too many scopes / consent screen error

gcloud CLI not found

redirect_uri_mismatch

API not enabled — accessNotConfigured

Development

Maintenance status

License

Disclaimer

About

Resources

Code of conduct

Contributing

Security policy

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

Packages

Used by

Contributors

Languages

`gcloud` CLI not found

`redirect_uri_mismatch`

API not enabled — `accessNotConfigured`