Setup + Prompts

Run your inbox
through Claude

By Dan Donovan, @askdandonovan

Turn on one connector, then paste four prompts. Claude reads, searches, and drafts your email for you, but it can't press send. That part stays yours. Works on a free plan.

~2 min Setup
4 Prompts
Drafts only It never sends
$0 Free plan works
Do this in the next 10 minutes

The morning triage

Once Gmail's connected (Step 1 below), paste this into Claude and watch it pull the few emails that actually need you out of the pile.

Paste into Claude 
Go through my inbox and tell me what actually needs me today. Sort everything into three groups: needs a reply from me, just needs a read, and noise I can ignore. For anything in the first group, give me one line on why it matters and how urgent it is.
What you'll be able to do
Triage your inbox
See only what actually needs you, in seconds
Find any email fast
Describe it in plain English instead of scrolling
Draft replies in your voice
It even flags what you'd have missed
Keep control of send
Everything lands in Drafts, and you press send

What this actually is

Claude has a Gmail connector. You switch it on inside Claude, give it read access to your own inbox, and then talk to your email in plain English. No new app, no forwarding, no copy-paste. It can read, search, label, and draft. It cannot send. Every reply it writes lands in your Gmail Drafts, and you're the one who hits send. That's why it's safe to point at a real inbox.

Before you start: You need a Claude account (a free one is fine) and a Gmail or Google Workspace address. If you're on a work Google account and the connector won't turn on, your admin has to enable it first. Personal Gmail just works.
1

Turn on the Gmail connector

Open Claude on the web or the desktop app at claude.ai.

  • Go to Settings → Connectors
  • Find Gmail under Google Workspace and click Connect
  • Sign in with Google and approve access

That's the whole setup. You can also turn it on mid-chat: click the + in the message box, choose Connectors, and toggle Gmail on for that conversation.

The permission screen looks scarier than it is. Google's approval page mentions sending, but Claude's send function is switched off. It can only create drafts. You'll never find an email gone from your account that you didn't send yourself.
2

Check it can see your inbox

Start a new chat and paste this. If it comes back with your real subject lines, you're connected.

Paste into Claude 
Show me the subject lines of my last 5 emails, oldest first, with who they are from.

Connected? Good. Now the three prompts that do the real work.

The 4 prompts I actually use

Swap anything in [square brackets] for your own details, then paste. Start with triage, finish with the drafting one. That's the one that changes how email feels.

1

Morning triage

Pulls the few emails that need a human out of the pile of notifications, newsletters and codes.

Paste into Claude 
Go through my inbox and tell me what actually needs me today. Sort everything into three groups: needs a reply from me, just needs a read, and noise I can ignore. For anything in the first group, give me one line on why it matters and how urgent it is.
2

Find the email you can't find

For the message you know exists but can't scroll back to. Describe it and Claude finds it.

Paste into Claude 
Find the email where [person] sent me [what they sent, e.g. their list of software costs]. Show me the exact details and the date, and link me straight to the thread.

Fill in: [person] and [what they sent]

3

Draft a reply in your voice

The one that earns its place. It matches your tone and flags anything you'd have skimmed past, then leaves it in Drafts.

Paste into Claude 
Draft a reply to the latest email from [person]. Match the tone of how I have written to them earlier in the thread. Before you write it, read their message for anything ambiguous, unanswered, or that does not add up, and raise it inside the draft as a clear question. Leave it in my Gmail drafts. Do not send.

Fill in: [person]

Why the "flag anything that doesn't add up" line matters: that's the bit that catches the detail you'd have replied straight past: a figure that doesn't match, a question you never answered, a date that's off. Leave it in.
4

Bonus: sort as you go

Let the inbox tidy itself while Claude's already in there.

Paste into Claude 
Label every email in this thread as [label name] so I can find it later. And point me to anything in my inbox that is just a notification, verification code, or newsletter, so I can clear it out.

Fill in: [label name]

This is the exact setup I run on my own business inbox every morning, the same one I use to keep up with clients while running a company solo. No plugins, no automation platform, no code. Just a connector you switch on and four sentences you paste in. The send button stays yours.