claude.ai connectors (Gmail/Calendar/Drive) expose only auth stubs in a session despite being Connected + authorized

Resolved 💬 1 comment Opened May 26, 2026 by merkanar Closed Jun 27, 2026

Summary

In Claude Code, the claude.ai Gmail / Google Calendar / Google Drive connectors register only their OAuth stub tools (authenticate / complete_authentication) in a session — none of their real tools — even when the connector is fully connected and every tool is set to Always allow. The authenticate stub then punts back to /mcp, which reports the server already connected, leaving no path to surface the real tools.

Environment

  • Claude Code CLI
  • Model: claude-opus-4-7[1m]
  • Platform: Linux
  • Connectors: claude.ai MCP (Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, Exa)

Expected

Once a claude.ai connector is authenticated and its tools are authorized, a Claude Code session should expose the connector's real tools.

Actual

The session exposes only:

  • mcp__claude_ai_Gmail__authenticate
  • mcp__claude_ai_Gmail__complete_authentication

None of the ~12 real Gmail tools register (search threads, get thread, list labels, create draft, list drafts, label add/remove on messages & threads). Identical behavior for Google Calendar and Google Drive. The Slack and Exa connectors expose their full toolsets normally in the same session, so the problem is specific to the Google connectors.

Evidence

  1. claude mcp list reports the claude.ai Gmail connector as ✓ Connected.
  2. claude.ai connector settings show the Gmail connector with all tools present (3 read-only + 9 write/delete, including "Creates a new draft email"), all set to Always allow. (Screenshot available.)
  3. In-session tool discovery returns only the two auth stubs above.
  4. Calling mcp__claude_ai_Gmail__authenticate returns: "This is a claude.ai MCP connector. Ask the user to run /mcp and select 'claude.ai Gmail' to authenticate." — a circular punt to /mcp, which already reports the server connected.
  5. Reproduced across multiple full session restarts.

Impact

The Google connectors are effectively unusable from Claude Code despite being fully connected and authorized, and the auth stub provides no recovery path (the suggested /mcp step reports success but does not surface the real tools).

Possible area

Tool registry for claude.ai-proxied connectors appears to load only the OAuth bootstrap tools and never the post-auth toolset for the Google connectors specifically, while non-Google claude.ai connectors (Slack, Exa) load fully.

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