What your agent can do
Your agent reaches Gmail through a Shell, which offers 12 email tools plus one for approvals. Clam checks every call against the Shell's rules before it runs, so a tool being available never means a request is allowed.
One Shell per connection
Each agent you connect gets its own Shell, with its own address, rules and activity. A rule on one Shell does nothing on another. Pausing or deleting a Shell cuts its agent off: see Remove access.
The tools
These are all of them. There is no tool to change a Shell's rules, manage labels, empty the trash or reach anything outside Gmail.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search | Finds messages matching a query. Messages your rules block are left out. |
| Read | Opens one message. |
| Create draft | Saves a new email, or a reply, as a draft. Nothing is sent. |
| Send | Sends a new email. |
| Reply | Replies to an existing thread. |
| Reply all | Replies to everyone on the original To and Cc lines. |
| Forward | Forwards a message, with its attachments and inline images, as a new thread. |
| Archive | Takes a message out of the inbox without deleting it. |
| Delete | Moves a message to the trash. Gmail empties the trash after 30 days. |
| Restore | Puts a message back in the inbox, undoing an archive or a delete. |
| Mark read | Marks a message as read. |
| Mark unread | Marks a message as unread. |
| Redeem approval | Collects the result of an action you approved. The agent calls it on its own; see Approvals. |
Only Send, Reply, Reply all and Forward put mail in someone else's inbox. Delete is the only tool that can lose a message, and only once Gmail empties the trash.
Available is not allowed
Your agent sees every tool. Your Shell's rules decide what it may do with them: each rule says Allow, Ask me before, or Deny.
- Anything no rule allows is blocked. A new Shell with no rules blocks everything.
- When rules conflict, a block beats ask me before, and ask me before beats allow.
- Mail Clam hasn't labelled yet is blocked whatever your rules say. The agent is told to try again shortly.
How rules match an email is on How rules work.
What your agent sees when blocked
A blocked call answers "Action not allowed" and nothing else: not what the message said, not who sent it. The agent knows your Shell's rules in plain English, which Clam hands over when it connects, and is told a block is Clam working as intended, not an error. So it should tell you what it couldn't do and why.
How blocked mail shows up is the Shell's Transparency setting, on its Settings tab:
- Invisible: blocked mail doesn't exist, as far as your agent knows. It may draw the wrong conclusions from the gap.
- Counted (the default): a search says how many messages were held back, nothing more.
- Outlined: your agent sees the sender and time of blocked messages. Subject, body and attachments stay sealed.
Outside the Shell's office hours, a call is answered with the time the Shell reopens. That is a separate refusal, not a blocked rule.
Every call, allowed or blocked, is recorded. The Shell's Overview summarises recent activity, and View in audit log opens the mailbox's Audit log with each call.
What Clam does not cover
Clam governs what goes through Clam. If your agent has another way into your mail, or other connections you authorised separately (another Gmail connector, Drive, a browser), we can't see or stop what happens there. Connect only the services you mean your agent to use, and review their permissions on their own.