Personal Google MCP Server

Gives Claude read/write access to your own Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Tasks. Runs as a tiny always-on web service so it works from Claude on your phone with your computer off.

Tools included: sheets_read, sheets_write, sheets_append, docs_read, docs_append_text, gmail_search, gmail_read, gmail_create_draft, gmail_send, tasks_list, tasks_create, tasks_update.

Cost: $0/month (Render free tier + Google APIs are free for personal use).

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Step 1 — Create a Google Cloud project + OAuth credentials (~10 min)

1. Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/projectcreate — create a project (any name).
2. Go to APIs & Services → Library and enable, one by one:
   • Google Sheets API
   • Google Docs API
   • Gmail API
   • Tasks API
3. Go to APIs & Services → OAuth consent screen.
   • User type: External. App name: anything. Add your own email as a test user.
   • You do NOT need to submit for verification — test mode works indefinitely for you as a test user.
4. Go to APIs & Services → Credentials → Create Credentials → OAuth client ID.
   • Application type: Desktop app.
   • Save the Client ID and Client Secret shown.

Step 2 — Get a refresh token (run once, on your own computer)

You need Node.js installed locally for this one step only.

# unzip the project folder first, then:
cd google-mcp-server
npm install
node get-token.js YOUR_CLIENT_ID YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET

Open the URL it prints, approve access with your Google account, and it will print a GOOGLE_REFRESH_TOKEN=... value in your terminal. Save that — you won't do this step again unless you revoke access.

Step 3 — Deploy to Render (free, no credit card)

1. Push this folder to a new private GitHub repo.
2. Go to https://render.com → sign up free → New → Web Service → connect that repo.
3. Settings:
   • Build command: npm install
   • Start command: npm start
   • Instance type: Free
4. Add environment variables (Render dashboard → Environment):
   • GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID — from Step 1
   • GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET — from Step 1
   • GOOGLE_REFRESH_TOKEN — from Step 2
   • MCP_SECRET_PATH — make up a long random string (e.g. run node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(24).toString('hex'))" and use the output). This acts as your connector's password — anyone with this exact URL can access your Google account through it, so keep it private and don't commit it to a public repo.
5. Deploy. Render gives you a URL like https://your-app.onrender.com.

Note: Render's free tier spins the service down after 15 minutes of no traffic, so the first request after a break takes ~30–50 seconds to wake up. That's normal — just wait for it once.

Step 4 — Add it to Claude

1. In the Claude app: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector.
2. Name: anything (e.g. "My Google Tools").
3. URL: https://your-app.onrender.com/mcp/YOUR_MCP_SECRET_PATH
4. Leave OAuth fields blank — save.
5. In a chat, enable the connector (+ → Connectors) and try: "list my Google Tasks" or "read Sheet [ID], tab Trip".

This works identically on your phone and desktop, since the server lives on Render, not on your computer.

Notes / limits

• This is single-user: it only ever acts as you (whoever ran Step 2). Don't share the URL.
• gmail_send sends immediately — no confirmation step. If you'd rather always review before sending, just tell Claude to use gmail_create_draft instead, or remove the gmail_send tool from index.js.
• To add more tools later (Calendar, Drive search, etc.), copy the pattern of any existing server.registerTool(...) block in index.js.