[BUG] Gmail connector: thread search and message reading fail despite correct OAuth scopes (read works for labels/drafts, not messages

[Ensemble-Studio]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Summary

The Gmail MCP connector shows partial functionality: write operations and
label retrieval work correctly, but thread/message search and reading email
content consistently fail. Claude reports this as a "scope limitation" even
though the required read scopes are fully granted.

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.101
• Platform: macOS
• Connector: Gmail (claude.ai integration)

What's working

• Draft creation (write access)
• Label retrieval

What's not working

• Thread/message search (search_threads)
• Reading email content (get_thread)

Expected behavior

All Gmail connector tools should function once the required OAuth scopes are
granted.

Actual behavior

Read operations on threads and messages fail. Claude attributes this to
missing scopes, but the scope "View your email messages and settings" is
confirmed granted in Google Account settings.

Troubleshooting already performed

• Removed and re-granted Google account access
• Performed a fresh OAuth reconnect
• Tested in incognito session
• Retried across multiple days and sessions

Hypothesis

This appears to be a mismatch between the scopes granted by the user and how
the connector backend passes or validates those scopes when calling Gmail read
endpoints. The fact that write/label operations succeed but message read
operations fail suggests the issue is server-side in the connector
implementation, not a client-side configuration problem.

Additional context

No relevant local config files found in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code — the issue is not caused by local configuration.

What Should Happen?

Claude should be able to read mails in Gmail.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Connect Gmail account via Claude.ai integrations (OAuth flow)
2. Confirm all requested permissions are granted, including
   "View your email messages and settings" in Google Account settings
3. Open Claude Code or Claude.ai and attempt to use the Gmail connector
4. Try creating a draft or retrieving labels — these succeed
5. Try searching threads (e.g. "search my emails for X") — this fails
6. Try reading an email thread — this fails
7. Note that Claude reports the failure as a scope/permission issue
   despite scopes being confirmed as granted

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

2.1.107

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

No response

[github-actions]

Found 2 possible duplicate issues:

1. [BUG] Gmail MCP connector: search_threads returns persistent "Internal error encountered" #47024
2. Gmail MCP connector returns empty error after full re-auth cycle #40225

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

• If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Flurk2818]

i am not a github expert, but i am experiencing this issue as well. gmail_read_message is not working anymore. this immensely messes up my workflow. It now limits user to search_thread and even that does not return full body of the message :(

[harlseldon]

The problem I have, when try to make a call for the api with the mcp and the even mark to return the full content, this return the snippet with truncate content.

[Flurk2818]

So due to getting no update from Anthropic on a fix for this, our company had to move onto alternatives. Recently OpenAI released the ChatGPT agents which also integrate with Gmail and are a perfect drop in replacement for our workflows.

Just a tip for those waiting on an update

[github-actions]

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.