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How to use Gmail with VS Code

You want Gmail inside VS Code so it can clear a backlogged inbox, draft replies you would have written yourself, find the one thread you half-remember, and chase the things waiting on other people — without you copy-pasting between tabs. Here is the whole setup, once.

Create your Gmail gateway

The gateway is the thing VS Code connects to, and it is where you decide which Gmail tools an agent may use. You create it once and every client reuses it.

  1. Create an Arcade account

    Sign up and open the dashboard. The free tier is enough to follow this through.

  2. Create an MCP Gateway and select your Gmail tools

    In the dashboard, create a gateway and pick the Gmail tools you want to expose. The gateway is what your client connects to, and it is where tool access is decided.

  3. Copy your gateway URL

    Every client below needs it.

    https://api.arcade.dev/mcp/<YOUR-GATEWAY-SLUG>

Create a Gmail gateway Opens the gateway builder in your Arcade dashboard.

Connect the gateway to VS Code

  1. Add the server

    VS Code 1.107.0 or higher. Command Palette → MCP: Add Server… → choose HTTP, paste your gateway URL, and name it something like mcp-arcade.

  2. Start it and authenticate

    Click Start next to the server in mcp.json or under Extensions → MCP Servers - Installed, then approve the Arcade sign-in and consent screens.

  3. Try it out

    Open the chat pane, switch to Agent mode, and ask it to use one of your Gmail tools.

Full VS Code guide in the docs steps verified 2026-08-13

Get started with these Gmail prompts

VS Code can now act on your Gmail account. Click a prompt to copy it.

Thinking “this is one prompt injection away from my inbox leaking”? So do we. That is what Contextual Access policies are for — approval before anything is sent or deleted, redaction on the message bodies that never needed to reach the model.

Ready to actually ship your agent?

Free to start. Ready for enterprise when you are.

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