How to connect Grok Bot to Gmail

How a Bot connects

Gmail connector authorised as the Bot user. Read scope for triage routines; send scope only on routines with an approval gate.

1. Create a company-owned Bot address rather than reusing a person's mailbox.
2. Delegate only the shared inboxes required by the first workflow.
3. Authorise read access first and confirm the Google Workspace consent screen.
4. Test classification and drafts against one safe thread and one ambiguous thread.
5. Add send access only after the approval owner confirms the exact boundary.

If Google blocks authorisation, use the Google Workspace consent fix. If replies appear to come from a person, correct the identity using Gmail is sending as you.

The Bot's identity

Bot-owned Gmail on your domain. Shared inboxes delegated to it. Never a human's mailbox. Don't reuse a human's login. If you did, see shared computer cleanup.

Routines we've run

• Daily — inbox zero pass on a shared inbox: label, archive newsletters, draft replies
• Daily — 'waiting on' tracker: threads where we replied and got nothing back in 3 days; draft nudges
• On demand — thread summariser for long threads forwarded to the Bot

Each routine follows the four-part shape: when it runs, what it reads (bounded), what it produces, when it stops. See routines best practices.

The thing to gate

Replying to the wrong thread as the wrong person. Send with approval; sign as the team.

Verdict

The single most-used integration and the one most often set up wrong. Own address, shared inboxes, approvals.

Setup notes

• Test every routine supervised until it's produced the right output three times.
• Add the routine's completion line to your heartbeat log so silent failures show up.
• Put the Gmail token in the Bot's connector settings or knowledge file, never in a chat message.