Gmail connector: browser reconnect doesn't restore MCP tool bridge in active Claude Code session (high token cost)
What happened
During a Claude Code session, I used the Claude in Chrome browser tool to connect the Gmail connector (via claude.ai Settings > Customize > Connectors) so Claude could clean up my inbox. This worked initially - after completing the OAuth flow in the browser, the Gmail MCP tools (search_threads, trash_thread, etc.) became available in the Claude Code session automatically.
Partway through a large bulk cleanup task, the Gmail MCP tools became unavailable mid-session ("MCP server disconnected"), even though the connector still showed as "Connected" in claude.ai's Connectors settings page.
I asked Claude to fix it. It disconnected and reconnected the Gmail connector again via the browser (full OAuth re-consent flow), and claude.ai confirmed "Connected to Gmail" - but the MCP tool bridge was never restored in the active Claude Code session. Repeated ToolSearch calls for the Gmail tools returned nothing.
Token cost concern
- Diagnosing/attempting to fix this consumed a significant share of the session's usage (~10%) via ~7 browser screenshots taken while navigating claude.ai settings and the Google OAuth consent flow, with zero successful outcome.
- Separately (not a bug, just a heads-up): the Gmail search_threads tool returns full JSON for every message in a page (up to 50 per page, including full snippets), which made a large inbox cleanup task expensive in tokens well before the disconnect happened.
Expected behavior
Either:
- Reconnecting a connector via the browser (completing OAuth again) should re-establish the MCP tool bridge in the active session, without needing to guess at browser-based workarounds, or
- If a live reconnect can't restore the bridge in-session, Claude should be able to detect this quickly (e.g., a single cheap check) rather than repeatedly trying browser-based troubleshooting that consumes tokens without any way to know in advance it won't work.
Environment
- Claude Code, with Claude in Chrome browser tool
- Gmail connector added via claude.ai Customize > Connectors (server id pattern mcp__<uuid>__*)