Connect Gmail to Cursor
Give Cursor governed access to Gmail’s 16 tools through Runlayer, with identity, policy, scanning, and audit on every call.
Set up
Add Gmail to Cursor in four steps
Admins approve the server once. Everyone in Cursor then gets it through the same governed connection.
- 1
Approve Gmail in Runlayer
Add Gmail from the catalog and choose who can use it and which of its tools are allowed.
- 2
Connect Cursor to Runlayer
Runlayer’s CLI installs the Runlayer Plugin natively in Cursor, and admins can roll it out org-wide with Auto Sync plus a Cursor team rule. With direct tool listing turned on for your deployment, Gmail’s 16 tools show up in Cursor’s own tool list.
Cursor setup guide - 3
Sign in to Gmail
Sign in the way Gmail requires. Runlayer holds the credentials so they stay out of the client’s configuration.
- 4
Use Gmail from Cursor
Gmail’s approved tools appear in Cursor. Every call is checked against policy and recorded.
Tools
16 Gmail tools in Cursor
Runlayer policy decides which of these Cursor users can call. 6 read data only.
Add labels
Add one or more labels to a message or multiple messages
Archive messages
Archive one or more messages (remove from inbox)
Create draft
Create a draft email that can be edited later or sent
Create label
Create a new label in the user's Gmail account
Fetch attachment
Fetch a Gmail message attachment.
Fetch message
Fetch the full content of a Gmail message using its message ID (don't use external tools to read messages)
List drafts
List all draft messages with pagination support
List labels
List all available labels in the Gmail account
Control
What Runlayer can see and stop in Cursor
Some controls apply to every client at the gateway. Others depend on what Cursor exposes to Runlayer.
Gateway policy (available)
Every Gmail call from Cursor passes through Runlayer, where your policies can allow, alert, mask, or block it.
Audit trail (available)
Each call is recorded with the user, Cursor as the client, the tool, and the policy and scanner decisions.
Client hooks (available)
Capture supported prompts, reasoning, local and MCP tool calls, responses, and scanner decisions in real time.
Stop a call before it runs (available)
Runlayer can deny a tool call before Cursor runs it, including calls to MCP servers.
Block output after it runs (available)
Runlayer can block a tool’s output before Cursor’s model sees it.
Redact output in place (not available)
Cursor cannot take masked output, so Runlayer can block a tool’s output but not mask it. The gateway still applies policy to the call.
In Cursor
- Runlayer cannot tell Agents Window sessions apart from regular IDE sessions.
- The Cursor CLI sends fewer session events than the IDE, but Runlayer’s allow and deny decisions still apply.
Frequently asked questions
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