Let AI agents search across workspace with the Universal Search MCP Server

The Universal Search MCP Server for Google Workspace uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard to allow AI agents to search your Workspace artifacts. This server provides a way to search across multiple Google Workspace products, including Gmail messages, Google Drive files, Google Calendar events, and Google Chat spaces and messages, using a single tool.

The Universal Search MCP Server provides a standardized way for AI agents to search for information across your entire Google Workspace account without needing to call individual product-specific tools.

Prerequisites #

• Membership in the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program .
• A Google Cloud project. To create a project, see Create a project .
• An MCP client, like Google Antigravity .
• To run the commands on this page, set up the gcloud CLI in one of the following development environments: ### Cloud ShellTo use an online terminal with the gcloud CLI already set up, activate Cloud Shell: ### Local shellTo use a local development environment, follow these steps:
  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI . If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by runninggcloud components update .
  2. If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity. For more information, see Sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity .
  3. Initialize the gcloud CLI .

Configure the Universal Search MCP Server #

To use the Universal Search MCP Server, you must enable it in your Google Cloud project and then configure your MCP client to connect to it.

Enable the APIs

To use the Universal Search MCP Server, enable the Google Workspace MCP API and the APIs for the products that you want to search in your Google Cloud project:

• Gmail API
• Google Drive API
• Google Calendar API
• Google Chat API
• Google Workspace MCP API

CLI

gcloud services enable gmail.googleapis.com \
drive.googleapis.com \
calendar-json.googleapis.com \
chat.googleapis.com \
workspacemcp.googleapis.com --project=PROJECT_ID

Replace PROJECT_ID

Console

Enable the APIs in the Google Cloud console:

Set up the OAuth consent screen

The Universal Search MCP Server uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication and authorization. You must configure the OAuth consent screen before you can create an OAuth client ID.

If you have already configured the OAuth consent screen for other MCP servers, ensure you have added the required scopes for the Universal Search MCP Server.

When you authenticate with the Universal Search MCP Server, you can choose to authenticate all requested scopes or only a subset of them. The server respects these choices and only searches across the products for which access has been granted.

For example, if you authenticate with all of the following scopes:

• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/chat.messages.readonly

Universal Search MCP Server will search across Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and Google Chat.

However, if you only grant access to https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly, and https://www.googleapis.com/auth/chat.messages.readonly (and omit https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly), universal search only returns results from Google Drive, Google Calendar, and Google Chat. It doesn't search your email or return Gmail results.

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to Google Auth Platform**>**Data Access .
2. Click Add or Remove Scopes .
3. Add one or more of the following scopes:

• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/chat.messages.readonly

4. Click Update and thenSave .

For detailed instructions on setting up the consent screen, see Configure the Google Workspace MCP servers.

Configure your MCP client

To add the Universal Search MCP Server to your MCP client, follow the instructions for your client.

Antigravity

To add the Universal Search MCP Server to Antigravity, add the server configuration to your mcp_config.json file. These instructions support Antigravity 2.0, Antigravity IDE, and Antigravity CLI.

1. Create an OAuth 2.0 client ID and secret of type Web application . In theAuthorized redirect URIs section, click**+ Add URI** , and then addhttps://antigravity.google/oauth-callback in theURIs field. For instructions, seeConfigure the Google Workspace MCP servers .
2. Open or create the configuration file ~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json .
3. Add the workspace-universal configuration tomcp_config.json :

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "workspace-universal": {
      "serverUrl": "https://workspacemcp.googleapis.com/mcp/v1",
      "oauth": {
        "clientId": "OAUTH_CLIENT_ID",
        "clientSecret": "OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace the following: OAUTH_CLIENT_ID OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET 4. Save mcp_config.json . 5. Authenticate the MCP server. You can authenticate using either the GUI settings or the CLI:

• For Antigravity IDE or GUI (Antigravity 2.0):
  1. Open your settings screen (e.g., click Settings at the bottom-left or openAntigravity User Settings ).
  2. Navigate to Customizations .
  3. Under Installed MCP Servers , clickRefresh .
  4. Find workspace-universal in the list, clickAuthenticate , sign in to your Google Account, copy the authorization code, paste it into the input dialog, and clickSubmit .
• Open your settings screen (e.g., click
• For Antigravity CLI:
  1. Start Antigravity CLI:

agy

2. Open the interactive MCP management panel by running: 

/mcp

3. Use the arrow keys to select `workspace-universal` , move to the**Authenticate** action, and press**Enter** . Complete the sign-in flow in your browser, copy the authorization code, paste it into the terminal prompt, and press**Enter** .

6. Verify that the server is correctly configured and running:

• For Antigravity IDE or GUI: ASign out button is displayed next toworkspace-universal underCustomizations >Installed MCP Servers .
• For Antigravity CLI: Open the/mcp panel to view your configured MCP servers. Verified and authenticated servers displayAuthed next to their names inside the interactive TUI panel. You can select theworkspace-universal server under the dashboard view to inspect its status and list all of its available tools.

Claude

To add the Universal Search MCP Server to Claude, configure a custom connector.

1. Create an OAuth 2.0 client ID and secret of type Web application . For instructions, seeConfigure the Google Workspace MCP servers .
2. In Claude settings, add a custom connector:

• Server name :Universal Search MCP Server
• Remote MCP server URL :https://workspacemcp.googleapis.com/mcp/v1
• OAuth client ID andOAuth client secret : Enter your credentials.
• Scopes : Includehttps://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly ,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly ,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly , andhttps://www.googleapis.com/auth/chat.messages.readonly .

Test the Universal Search MCP Server #

Try asking your MCP client questions that require searching across different products:

• "Find anything related to Project X across my email, docs, and chat messages."
• "When is my next meeting about the marketing plan, and what are the latest notes and chat messages on it?"

If the tools execute successfully and you receive relevant responses from multiple products, your Universal Search MCP Server is correctly configured.

Supported tools #

The Universal Search MCP Server offers the following tool:

• search_corpus : Performs a search across multiple Google Workspace products (Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Chat) based on the provided query.

source & further reading

developers.google.com — original article