5.11[BONUS]
Drafts only, so it never sends an email as you
Claude can send, reply to and forward email from your inbox, and out of the box it asks you each time.
The question comes with two answers, Allow once and Always allow, and one click on Always allow means it never asks again, so the next time you say “email him” it sends.
The fix is to block the tools that send and keep the one that writes a draft.
It still writes the whole email and leaves it in your drafts, and you read it and press send yourself.
Gmail
Connected
Tool permissions
- Search your email
- Read an email
- Create a draft
- Send an email
- Reply to an email
- Forward an email
Always allowNeeds approvalBlocked
Step
What to do
1Open the Gmail connector
In Claude go to Settings, then Connectors, then Gmail, or from a chat press the plus, then Connectors, then Manage connectors, and choose Gmail.2Block all three that send
Under Tool permissions set every tool that sends, replies or forwards to Blocked, whatever your list calls them, because blocking send alone still lets it reply and forward.3Leave drafting on
The tool that creates a draft stays on Always allow or Needs approval, so it can still write the whole email.
Then put the same rule in the top brief, so it holds for whatever you connect next.
A setting covers one connector and the brief is read in every chat, so the rule written there once covers the inbox you add next month too.
If you use Composio
Composio cannot split them.
Its permissions come in groups, so writing a draft and sending one sit on the same switch, and you either allow both or block both.
So in Claude Code the block goes in the folder’s own settings instead, a rule that refuses any tool that sends while drafting stays allowed.
Mods, the block I run
A mod goes one step further, and it is how mine is set up.
A mod is a small piece of code that changes how Claude Code behaves, and it can look at every action before it runs and refuse it, so mine refuses anything that would send an email and tells Claude to write the draft instead.
It catches a send the settings rule cannot see, such as one tucked inside another tool or a script, because it reads what each action is about to do rather than only its name.
You describe the mod and Claude Code writes it.
Mods work in Claude Code version 2.1.287 or later and in the Code tab of the Claude desktop app, and not in an ordinary chat in the Claude app, where the Gmail setting above is the block.
A mod runs with your permissions.
It can read and write your files and reach the internet, so only install one from someone you trust, which is why this paste has Claude write yours rather than you copying somebody else’s.
Note: Read every draft before you send it, because the draft is where you catch the wrong name or the wrong tone.