Back to playlist · Freelancers Guide to Gigdesk
Part 3 of 14 ·Get Started ·6 min read
✦ Tutorial

Connect your AI secretary

Connect a personal inbox as an email gateway your desk can read and reply through.

Copies the whole guide — steps, prompts & all — for your AI agent
Gmail is now a one-screen setup. Open Settings → Email Gateways → ＋ Connect Email → Gmail, then paste a Google app password. That is the whole setup, and the video below shows the app-password step. The webhook steps further down are for any other provider. An app password is not your Gmail password: it is a separate login for machines, and you can cancel it at Google at any time.
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How to make the Google app password you paste into Gigdesk.

The first thing to set up after you join Gigdesk is your inbox. Connect an email account and it becomes a gateway your desk can read and reply through — a personal AI secretary that triages what lands, drafts replies for you to approve, and flags the hot leads. This chapter walks you from the Email gateways page to a live, connected inbox.

Where the secretary lives

Your secretary isn't a separate app — it's an email account you connect on the Email gateways page, under Settings → Email Gateways. Connect as many accounts as you like; each one becomes its own gateway with scoped tokens and filters you manage, and revoke, per account. Gateways live outside workspaces, so the same inbox can serve every desk you run.

Note This is a personal, 1:1 inbox assistant — it triages incoming mail, drafts replies you approve, and flags hot leads. It is not a bulk sender, an outreach tool, or a campaign engine. It works one conversation at a time, the way a real secretary would.
Gigdesk Settings page with the Profile About field and an Email gateways row with a Manage button Fill out your About Email gateways · Manage
Open Settings from the sidebar — the Email gateways row (with Manage) is your way in, and a filled-out About helps the secretary represent you accurately.
Gigdesk Email gateways page with a Connect Email button and a pending gateway card Connect an inbox Each inbox = its own gateway
Email gateways live in Settings — each connected inbox becomes its own gateway with scoped tokens and filters.

Picking a provider

Hit + Connect Email and a modal lists the providers. Gmail (Google OAuth · read + send), Outlook, and Resend are all marked Coming soon — Gmail's OAuth path is rolling out. The live option today is Other (Webhook · Zapier-style), which reads Set up: point any integration at the webhook and your inbox is connected. However you connect, the result is the same — a scoped, revocable gateway.

Connect email modal listing Gmail, Outlook, Resend as coming soon and Other (webhook) as available Gmail — rolling out Other — live today
Pick a provider — Gmail (Google OAuth) is rolling out; today you connect via the Other (webhook) path. Each becomes a scoped, revocable gateway.

Adding an inbox via Other

Choose Other and hit Set up to open the Add email gateway dialog. Step 1 just names the account: the email address, plus an Advanced drawer for a friendly alias, tags, a note, and the one field that matters most — a Forwarding Endpoint. That's a URL (a Make / Zapier / latenode hook) where Gigdesk pushes every inbound email the moment it arrives. Leave it blank and the mail simply queues instead, kept for 365 days, ready to poll. Hit Create gateway and the account exists.

Add email gateway dialog, Step 1: email address and an expanded Advanced drawer with alias, tags, note and a Forwarding Endpoint field Name the inbox Forwarding Endpoint — push inbound here
Step 1 — name the inbox. The Advanced drawer holds the Forwarding Endpoint: where Gigdesk pushes each inbound email (or leave blank to poll the queue, kept 365 days).

Two URLs = a two-way REST inbox

Once the account is saved, Step 2 wires the connection — and this is where the composability clicks. Your inbox becomes a plain REST endpoint that works in both directions:

Because both directions are just HTTP, the same inbox composes with anything — a Make scenario, a Zapier zap, latenode, or your own server. Gigdesk stays a thin pipe: mail comes in through the Internal Endpoint and goes out through the External URL, while every other part of your desk — a workspace, an agent, the secretary — reads and writes that inbox over the same REST surface.

Email gateway Step 2: an External Gateway URL for sending and a unique Internal Gateway Endpoint for receiving, with Send test POST and Check now External URL — sends mail out Internal URL — receives mail in
Step 2 — the connection. Internal Gateway Endpoint receives mail POSTed in; External Gateway URL is where Gigdesk POSTs to send mail out. Two directions, both plain HTTP.
Send & receive to go live The gateway flips live once it can send and receive a test message: POST an email to the Internal Endpoint and watch the event land, then Send test POST to confirm the External URL. That two-way check is the whole setup.

Step by step

  1. 1

    Open Settings → Email Gateways → + Connect Email

    From the sidebar go to Settings → Email Gateways, then + Connect Email. Gmail, Outlook, and Resend are Coming soon; pick Other and hit Set up.

  2. 2

    Name the inbox & set forwarding

    Enter the email address. Open Advanced to add an alias/tags/note and — if you want push delivery — a Forwarding Endpoint. Hit Create gateway.

  3. 3

    Wire the two URLs

    In Step 2, copy your Internal Gateway Endpoint (POST mail in) and set the External Gateway URL (Gigdesk POSTs out to send). Together they make the inbox a two-way REST gateway.

  4. 4

    Test send & receive

    POST a message to the Internal Endpoint and watch the event appear, then Send test POST to confirm outbound. Once both work, the gateway is live.

  5. 5

    Manage tokens & revoke anytime

    Open the gateway card any time to manage its scoped tokens and filters — and to revoke access to just this inbox without touching the others.

Connect more than one Gateways live outside workspaces, so you can connect several inboxes — a personal one, a client-facing one — and each stays independently scoped and revocable.

Key takeaways

  • Your AI secretary is an inbox you connect on the Email gateways page — Settings → Email Gateways — not a separate app.
  • Gmail, Outlook, and Resend are Coming soon; today you connect through the Other (Webhook) path, and Gmail's OAuth is rolling out.
  • Every connected inbox is its own gateway with scoped, revocable tokens and filters, and it works as a personal 1:1 assistant — triage, approved drafts, hot-lead flags — never bulk or outbound.

Inbox connected. Now build your desk.

With a gateway live, you're ready to set up the workspace itself — its prompts, task queues, chatbots, and notifications — and actually run the job.

Next: Run your workspace