Gmail automation, run from your own computer.
Cronable reads and sends email in your Google account through the Gmail API. Search the mailbox with the same syntax you type into Gmail, hand a message to an AI step, and send what comes back, all from a machine you control.
A Gmail workflow on the canvas
Each card is one job. A wire means the next job runs when the one before it succeeds, or when it fails.
Email me the digest
Gmail·Idle
After Write the digest (succeeded)
Write the digest
Claude (API)·Running
After Unread from clients (succeeded)
21s
Unread from clients
Gmail·Succeeded
Daily at 08:00
1 min ago
Unread from clients
Gmail·Succeeded
Daily at 08:00
1 min ago
Write the digest
Claude (API)·Running
After Unread from clients (succeeded)
21s
Email me the digest
Gmail·Idle
After Write the digest (succeeded)
“Every morning at 8, find unread emails from clients, summarize them and email me the digest.”
Every Gmail step Cronable ships
Actions
Steps a workflow can take in Gmail.Send an email
Compose and send a message with a recipient, subject and body, plus optional Cc, Bcc and an HTML body. Every field can use data from earlier steps.
Search the mailbox
List messages using Gmail’s own search syntax, such as from:billing is:unread newer_than:2d, up to 500 per run.
Read a message
Fetch one message by ID in full, metadata or minimal form, ready for a summary or extraction step.
Check the account
Read your address and mailbox counts. This needs the Gmail read permission, so it works on a connection through your own Google app, not on the one-click send-only connection.
Call any Gmail endpoint
A custom request reaches any path under your mailbox in the Gmail API, for example labels or modifying a message.
Triggers
What starts a Gmail workflow.New mail in an inbox
The Inbox trigger watches any IMAP mailbox, Gmail included, and starts one run per new message with its sender, subject and body. It only reads, and for Gmail it signs in with an app password rather than your account password.
Gmail workflows worth automating first
Client inbox digest
A Gmail search for unread client mail runs at 8am, a Claude step summarizes the threads, and a second Gmail job sends you one email instead of forty.
Receipts into a spreadsheet
Point the Inbox trigger at a receipts mailbox. Each new message goes to an AI step that pulls vendor, amount and date out of the message text, and a Sheets job appends the row. Attachments are not read.
Reports that email themselves
Any job that produces numbers, from a database query to a Stripe balance check, can end in a Gmail send with the figures in the body.
Escalate mail from key accounts
Every hour, search for messages from your top accounts received in the last hour and post each subject line with a one-line summary to Slack.
How you connect
Connecting Gmail
Gmail connects with Google OAuth. How much you set up depends on what the workflow needs to do.
- 1To send mail, click Connect with Google under Settings → Secrets → Credentials and approve the send permission. No Google Cloud project needed.
- 2To search and read the inbox, connect through your own Google OAuth app (Advanced mode). Google treats inbox reading as a restricted permission, so it is not offered through the shared app.
- 3Either way the tokens are stored encrypted on your machine, and Cronable refreshes the short-lived access token for you.
Your Gmail automation, on your own machine
Runs on your own machine
Install Cronable as a Mac or Windows app, or on a server you own. Your Gmail jobs, secrets and run history stay on that machine by default.
Built from one sentence
Describe the workflow in plain English and the built-in assistant builds the jobs, the schedule and the failure handling for you to review on the canvas. On every plan, including Free.
Unlimited runs
Plans count the jobs you define, not how often they fire. A job that touches Gmail every hour costs the same as one that runs once a month.
Credentials encrypted locally
Keys and tokens are AES-256-GCM encrypted in a local database, referenced from jobs by name and masked out of logs and run output.
Gmail automation, answered
Can Cronable read and send Gmail?
Yes. A Gmail job can send a message, search your mailbox, read a message, check the account or call any Gmail API endpoint for your mailbox. What it may do depends on the permissions you granted when you connected: the one-click connection can send only, while searching, reading and checking the account need the read permission through your own Google app.
Do I need a Google Cloud project?
Not to send. Connect with Google gives you send access in one click. Reading or searching the inbox needs your own Google OAuth app, because Google restricts that permission for shared apps.
Where are my Google tokens kept?
Encrypted in the credential store on your own machine. Jobs reference the connection by name, the tokens never appear in a job file, and the short-lived access token is refreshed automatically.
Can a new email start a workflow?
Yes, with the Inbox trigger. It checks a mailbox over IMAP and starts one run per new message, passing the sender, subject and body to the next step. Plain-text mail reads cleanly; HTML or multipart mail arrives as the raw message (up to 16,384 characters), and attachments are not read. Nothing is flagged, moved or deleted, and delivery is best-effort, so keep it off mail you cannot afford to miss.
Can it send HTML email?
Yes. Switch the message to HTML and the body goes out as text/html; leave it off for plain text. Subject lines with non-English characters are encoded correctly.
Related integrations
Solutions that use Gmail
Anything you do twice in Gmail is cronable.
If you open Gmail every morning to do the same three things, that routine is a workflow.