A Google veteran built a 28‑k‑star Workspace CLI that unified Gmail, Drive, Calendar and other services, drew internal attention, sparked a legal dispute over branding, led to his dismissal, and prompted Google to launch an official competing tool amid a wave of AI talent departures.
The open‑source Google Workspace CLI, which turned the Workspace API into a unified, human‑ and AI‑friendly command‑line tool and quickly amassed thousands of GitHub stars, led its creator Justin Poehnelt to be dismissed by Google amid concerns over branding and internal politics.
Google recently open‑sourced a Workspace CLI that unifies Drive, Gmail, Calendar and other APIs into a single command‑line tool, offers structured JSON output for AI agents, provides built‑in Agent Skills, and includes detailed installation instructions, while warning that it lacks official Google support.
The gws CLI bundles every Google Workspace API into a single command‑line tool, offering dynamic command generation, structured JSON output, and native MCP support for AI agents, with easy npm installation, step‑by‑step usage examples, OpenClaw integration, and essential tips to avoid common pitfalls.
