Claude Desktop course
Lesson 4 of 7

Lesson 4 · about 25 minutes

Connect your mail, calendar and chat

By the end, Claude can search your mail and read your calendar through your own Google or Microsoft account, and you know what it asks you about before it acts. You'll also know where to add a tool that gives you a connector URL.

From lesson 2
What's the difference between your Instructions in Settings and a Project's instructions?

Your Instructions in Settings (lesson 1) apply to every chat you start. Project instructions apply only to chats inside that Project, and to everyone the Project is shared with.

ThinkDelegation

Which tools does your team open every morning?

Most days start in mail, a calendar and a chat tool. Decide which ones Claude should reach first.

The first task you picked in lesson 1:

Name the product and the part of the job it covers. For example: "Gmail for the shared orders inbox, Google Calendar for the repair bookings, Slack for the store channel."

PredictDiligenceDiscernment

What can Claude do once it reaches your mail?

Guess first.

Your mail is connected. You type "Reply to Sam and say Thursday works." What happens?
Show the answer

Claude asks first. Gmail and a personal Microsoft account ask for your approval before each send, reply or forward, unless your organization has allowed otherwise. A work Microsoft 365 account is read-only until an admin turns on write tools.

Do

Connect your tools

Four steps. Tick each one when it's done, or when it doesn't apply to you.

Claude YOUR ACCOUNT Reading Search mail View events and free time Only when you ask Acting Send, reply, forward Create or delete events Asks you first Your inbox and your calendar Calendars shared with you A private mailbox of a colleague Claude can reach what you can reach.
What you're connectingClaude works through your own account, with your permissions. It asks before it acts.

  1. Get the approvals your account needs.

    On Team and Enterprise, an Owner (whoever manages your company's Claude account) opens Organization settings › Connectors, clicks Browse connectors, picks Gmail and Google Calendar, or Microsoft 365, and clicks Add to your team.

    A work Microsoft 365 account also needs the Entra admin, whoever runs your company's Microsoft accounts, to approve Claude once. That's true on every plan. Until they have, step 2 fails, so don't tick this step yet.

    Gmail on Pro, Max or Ultra, or a personal Outlook.com, Hotmail or Live account? Nothing to approve. Tick this step.

  2. Connect your mail and calendar.

    Click Customize in the left sidebar, then Connectors. Google: click Connect on Gmail, then on Google Calendar. Microsoft: click Connect (or Add) on Microsoft 365 and pick your account type if asked. Then sign in. A personal Microsoft account connects only from claude.ai in your browser.

    Click the connector afterwards to see its Tool permissions. Leave anything that sends on Needs approval. In a chat, click + at the lower left of the message box, point at Connectors and switch the connector on.

  3. Add your chat tool, if you use one.

    Teams comes with a work Microsoft 365 account. Slack is set up by your Slack admin and your Claude Owner together, and course 3, lesson 3, Put an agent where the team works, walks through Claude in Slack.

    No chat tool, or Slack can wait? Tick this step.

  4. Know where a custom connector goes.

    Some tools give you a web address, often called a connector URL, that lets Claude use the tool. You add it in Customize › Connectors as a custom connector: click + Add, then Add custom connector (some screens say Add, then Custom, then Web), and paste the address. On Team and Enterprise, only an Owner adds it, in Organization settings › Connectors. Free allows one.

    Only paste an address from a company you trust, because Claude will act inside that tool for you. Nothing to add today? Tick this step.

If you see this instead

"Access blocked: your institution's admin needs to review Claude for Google Drive"
Claude for Google Drive is the name of Claude's Google app, and it covers Gmail and Calendar too. Send your Google Workspace admin this: "In admin.google.com, open Security › Access and data control › API controls › Manage App Access (older screens: Manage third-party app access), click Configure new app, find Claude and set it to Trusted." About 15 minutes later, connect again.
Microsoft says an administrator must grant permission
Nobody has given the one-time approval yet. Ask your Entra admin to approve Claude for the company (step 1). On Team and Enterprise an Owner also has to add Microsoft 365 first.
Claude can read your Outlook mail but won't send or change anything
With a work account that's normal: it stays read-only until an admin turns on write tools. With a personal account, check that the tools are on under Tool permissions.
CheckDiscernment

Does Claude answer from your real mailbox and calendar?

Start a new chat, make sure the connectors are switched on for it, and give Claude two tasks that only read. Nothing gets sent.

1 · ASK Your mailbox Reply to Sam: yes, Thursday 2 · APPROVE Reply to Sam "Thursday works for us." Claude shows the reply and waits for you 3 · SENT Sent from your address Only after you approve (by default)
What happens if you ask for a sendThe check below stops before this. You'll see this order when you use mail for real.

Two tasks to give Claude

Pick a sender who wrote to you three or more times recently, and have at least one event in next week's calendar (add a test event if needed).

Find the last three emails I got from [a sender]. Give the subject and date of each, and list anything I promised to do in them.
What a good answer looks like

Three emails you can find in your own inbox, with the right subjects and dates, and links to them. Any promise it names is in one of those emails. If there is none, it says so.

What is my first meeting next week, and when am I free for 30 minutes that day?
What a good answer looks like

It names the right event with its day and time, and offers a slot that doesn't overlap anything in your calendar. Open your calendar and look at that time to be sure.

You pass when

Claude names three real emails from that sender, with the right subjects and dates. If it finds none, switch the connector on under + › Connectors and ask again.

The first meeting it names is in your calendar at that time, and the free slot really is free.

Two questions from memory

Where do you add a tool that isn't in the connector list but gives you a connector URL?

In Customize › Connectors, as a custom connector: click + Add, then Add custom connector, and paste the address. On Team and Enterprise only an Owner adds it, in Organization settings › Connectors.

Your IT lead switches Gmail on for the whole company. Can Claude now read everyone's mail?

No. Each person connects their own Google account, and Claude can only reach what that person could open anyway.

Lesson 6 opens by asking the first one again.

Your plan so far

What you've decided

First task for Claude
Who starts
Training setting
Profile
First Project for
Documents in it
Project instructions
Shared with the team
File storage
Folders Claude should use
Storage connected
Daily tools to connect
Mail and calendar
Lesson 5 turns a routine into a Skill.