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Communication work is one of the biggest time sinks in any role — triaging inboxes, writing follow-ups, finding meeting times, prepping for calls. Connecting Gmail and Google Calendar gives your agents the context and capabilities to handle this work with you, not just alongside you. An agent that can read your last 30 days of email with a contact can draft a follow-up that actually sounds right.

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Connecting Gmail

Scout connects to Gmail using OAuth. You authorize Scout once and it can read threads, draft messages, and — with explicit confirmation — send on your behalf.
1

Open the Integrations page

Go to studio.scoutos.com/integrations and click Connect next to Gmail.
2

Authorize Gmail access

You’ll be redirected to Google’s authorization screen. Review the permissions Scout requests and click Allow. Scout requests the minimum scopes needed for each capability:
ScopeWhat it’s for
gmail.readonlyRead messages and threads
gmail.composeCreate and save drafts
gmail.sendSend messages (only used when you confirm)
gmail.modifyLabel and archive messages
3

Verify and enable tools

Back in Scout, your Gmail account should show as Connected. Open your agent, go to the Tools tab, and toggle on the Gmail tools.
4

Add the communication guardrail

In your agent’s Instructions, add the guardrail snippet from the section below. This ensures the agent drafts before it sends.

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What Your Agent Can Do with Gmail

Once Gmail is connected and enabled on your agent:
  • Read and summarize threads — pull recent email history with a contact or on a topic without opening your inbox
  • Draft replies — write responses grounded in CRM context, prior emails, or documents
  • Triage inboxes — flag high-priority messages and surface what needs a response
  • Generate pre-call briefs — summarize the last 30 days of email with a contact before a meeting
  • Send follow-ups — draft and send post-meeting notes after you confirm the content
A sent email cannot be unsent. Always use the draft-first guardrail (below) for any agent that has Gmail send access. Review drafts before approving a send action.

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Connecting Google Calendar

Google Calendar connects through the same Google OAuth flow. If you’ve already connected Gmail, you can add Calendar access without authorizing from scratch — both services use the same Google account.
1

Open the Integrations page

Go to studio.scoutos.com/integrations and click Connect next to Google Calendar.
2

Authorize Calendar access

Review the permissions and click Allow. Scout requests:
ScopeWhat it’s for
calendar.readonlyRead your events and availability
calendar.eventsCreate and update events
3

Enable tools on your agent

Open your agent’s Tools tab and toggle on the Google Calendar tools.

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What Your Agent Can Do with Google Calendar

Once Google Calendar is connected and enabled on your agent:
  • Check your schedule — read upcoming events, participants, and descriptions
  • Find open slots — identify available windows across a time range or set of participants
  • Create events — book meetings with titles, descriptions, participants, and video links
  • Propose availability — suggest times across timezones based on real calendar data
  • Generate pre-meeting context — combine calendar events with email history and CRM records for a full prep brief

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Instruction Guardrails

Email and calendar actions reach real people immediately. A booked meeting shows up on someone else’s calendar. A sent message is in their inbox. This instruction block enforces a draft-first, confirm-before-send pattern: 
For email and calendar actions:

1. Draft first, send second. Show me the draft before sending.
2. Confirm recipient, subject, and timezone before sending or booking.
3. Include a concise rationale for each scheduling decision.
4. Return message IDs and event IDs after actions complete.
If your agent skips the draft step and sends directly, paste this guardrail block verbatim into the agent’s Instructions. Explicit instructions override default agent behavior.

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Prompt Examples

These prompts work once Gmail and Google Calendar are connected and enabled on your agent:
  • “Summarize my unread high-priority emails and draft replies for each. Don’t send yet.”
  • “Find two 30-minute windows next week for a call with this group. Use Pacific time.”
  • “Create a prep brief for tomorrow’s customer call using the last 30 days of email context.”
  • “Draft a follow-up to today’s product sync and show it to me before sending.”
  • “Flag any emails in my inbox that mention contract renewals or pricing.”
  • “Book a 45-minute kickoff call with these four attendees sometime next week.”

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Testing Your Integration

Run through these steps in order before using the agent in production:
1

Test read access

Ask your agent to summarize your inbox. It should return a readable list of recent messages without sending anything. If this fails, check that Gmail is connected and tools are toggled on.
2

Test draft creation

Ask it to draft a reply to a specific email. Confirm the draft looks right and matches the tone and context you’d expect. Check that it appears as a draft in Gmail.
3

Test calendar read

Ask it to list your events for the next three days. Verify that it reads your calendar correctly and uses the right timezone.
4

Test a send or booking action

Only after the read and draft steps work, test a send or booking action — start with a low-stakes email or a calendar event on your own calendar before involving others.

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Troubleshooting

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Use Cases

Inbox triage — Start your day by asking your agent to flag high-priority emails, identify anything that needs a same-day response, and draft replies to the top three. Review and approve before anything leaves your outbox. Pre-call prep — Before a customer call, ask your agent to pull the last 30 days of email with that contact, combine it with their CRM record, and generate a structured brief with context, open items, and talking points. Scheduling across teams — Ask your agent to find two 45-minute windows next week that work for four people across two timezones and propose them as calendar invites. The agent reads real availability and avoids conflicts. Post-meeting follow-up — After a meeting, paste your notes into the agent and ask it to draft a follow-up email with action items, owners, and next steps. Confirm the draft, then send.

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Next Steps

CRM

Add Salesforce or HubSpot context to outreach drafts and pre-call briefs.

Slack

Route email summaries and calendar digests to team channels automatically.

Google Drive & M365

Pull document context into email drafts and meeting prep workflows.

Integrations Overview

See the full integration stack and recommended connection order.