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Communication work is one of the biggest time sinks in any role — triaging inboxes, writing follow-ups, prepping for calls. Connecting Gmail 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.
Gmail and Google Calendar share the same Google OAuth flow. If you’ve already connected Gmail, you can add Calendar access without authorizing from scratch.

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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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Instruction Guardrails

Email actions reach real people immediately. A sent message is in their inbox. This instruction block enforces a draft-first, confirm-before-send pattern: 
For email actions:

1. Draft first, send second. Show me the draft before sending.
2. Confirm recipient and subject before sending.
3. Return message 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 is connected and enabled on your agent:
  • “Summarize my unread high-priority emails and draft replies for each. Don’t send yet.”
  • “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.”
  • “Find the latest thread with this contact and summarize where things stand.”

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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 a send action

Only after the read and draft steps work, test a send action — start with a low-stakes email to yourself 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. 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

Google Calendar

Add scheduling so agents can find open slots, book meetings, and combine calendar context with email history.

Salesforce & HubSpot

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

Slack

Route email summaries to team channels automatically.

Google Drive

Pull document context into email drafts and meeting prep workflows.