Gmail as a data source

Bring data from Gmail to Nekt.

Gmail is Google’s email service. This connector extracts mailbox metadata and full message content via the Gmail API so you can analyze labels, headers, and message structure in your catalog.

Configuring Gmail as a Source

In the Sources tab, click on the “Add source” button located on the top right of your screen. Then, select the Gmail option from the list of connectors.

Click Next and you’ll be prompted to add your access.

1. Add account access

Authorize Nekt to access your Gmail data. Click the Google Authorization button and sign in with the Google account whose mailbox you want to sync. Grant the scopes required for reading messages and labels.

The following configurations are available:

• Start date: Only messages received on or after this date are included. The connector uses Gmail search (after:YYYY/MM/DD) based on this value.

• Include SPAM and Trash: When enabled, messages in Spam and Trash are included in the extraction. When disabled, they follow Gmail’s default visibility for listings.

Once you’re done, click Next.

2. Select streams

Choose which data streams you want to sync. For faster extractions, select only the streams that are relevant to your analysis. You can select entire groups of streams or pick specific ones.

Tip: The stream can be found more easily by typing its name.

Select the streams and click Next.

3. Configure data streams

Customize how you want your data to appear in your catalog. Select the desired layer where the data will be placed, a folder to organize it inside the layer, a name for each table (which will effectively contain the fetched data) and the type of sync.

• Layer: choose between the existing layers on your catalog. This is where you will find your new extracted tables as the extraction runs successfully.
• Folder: a folder can be created inside the selected layer to group all tables being created from this new data source.
• Table name: we suggest a name, but feel free to customize it. You have the option to add a prefix to all tables at once and make this process faster!
• Sync Type: you can choose between INCREMENTAL and FULL_TABLE.
  • Incremental (recommended for Email): each run brings new or updated messages based on the replication key (internalDate). Fits keeping a growing history of mail in the catalog.
  • Full table (typical for Label): each run replaces the table with the current set of labels and their counts from Gmail.

Once you are done configuring, click Next.

4. Configure data source

Describe your data source for easy identification within your organization, not exceeding 140 characters.

To define your Trigger, consider how often you want data to be extracted from this source. This decision usually depends on how frequently you need the new table data updated (every day, once a week, or only at specific times).

Optionally, you can define some additional settings:

• Configure Delta Log Retention and determine for how long we should store old states of this table as it gets updated. Read more about this resource here.
• Determine when to execute an Additional Full Sync. This will complement the incremental data extractions, ensuring that your data is completely synchronized with your source every once in a while.

Once you are ready, click Next to finalize the setup.

5. Check your new source

You can view your new source on the Sources page. If needed, manually trigger the source extraction by clicking on the arrow button. Once executed, your data will appear in your Catalog.

For you to be able to see it on your Catalog, you need at least one successful source run.

Streams and Fields

Below you’ll find all available data streams from Gmail and their corresponding fields:

Email

Full Gmail messages for the authenticated user. The connector lists message IDs, then fetches each message resource so rows include headers, MIME structure, and nested parts. Sync is incremental on internalDate (message receive time).

Key fields:

Field	Type	Description
id	String	Unique identifier of the record.
threadId	String	Identifier of the thread this message belongs to.
labelIds	Array	Identifiers of labels applied to the message.
snippet	String	Short excerpt of the message text.
internalDate	DateTime	Timestamp when the message was received by Gmail.
historyId	String	Identifier of the last history record that modified this message.
sizeEstimate	Integer	Estimated size of the message in bytes.
payload	Object	Parsed email structure including headers, body, and nested parts.
payload.partId	String	Identifier of the MIME message part.
payload.mimeType	String	MIME type of the message part.
payload.filename	String	Original filename of the attachment if present.
payload.headers	Array	RFC 2822 headers on this message part.
payload.headers[].name	String	Name of the email header field.
payload.headers[].value	String	Value of the email header field.
payload.body	Object	Body of this message part.
payload.body.size	Integer	Size of the body in bytes.
payload.parts	Array	Child MIME parts for multipart messages.
payload.parts[].partId	String	Identifier of the MIME message part.
payload.parts[].mimeType	String	MIME type of the message part.
payload.parts[].filename	String	Original filename of the attachment if present.
payload.parts[].headers	Array	RFC 2822 headers on this message part.
payload.parts[].headers[].name	String	Name of the email header field.
payload.parts[].headers[].value	String	Value of the email header field.
payload.parts[].body	Object	Body of this message part.
payload.parts[].body.size	Integer	Size of the body in bytes.
payload.parts[].body.data	String	Body data as a base64url-encoded string before decoding.
payload.parts[].body.attachmentId	String	Identifier of the attachment when fetched separately from the API.

Label

All labels in the mailbox (system and user-defined), including visibility settings and aggregate counts.

Key fields:

Field	Type	Description
id	String	Unique identifier of the record.
name	String	Name of the record.
messageListVisibility	String	Whether the label is shown in the message list.
labelListVisibility	String	Whether the label is shown in the label list.
type	String	Type classification of the record.
messagesTotal	Integer	Total number of messages with this label.
messagesUnread	Integer	Number of unread messages with this label.
threadsTotal	Integer	Total number of threads with this label.
threadsUnread	Integer	Number of unread threads with this label.
color	Object	Display colors for the label in the Gmail UI.
color.textColor	String	Hex color for the label text.
color.backgroundColor	String	Hex color for the label background.

Data Model

Use Cases for Data Analysis

Join messages to label names. Resolve labelIds on each email to human-readable names using the Label table.

Example SQL (Trino / AWS Athena)

SELECT
  e.id AS message_id,
  e.threadId,
  e.internalDate,
  l.name AS label_name
FROM nekt_raw.gmail_email e
CROSS JOIN nekt_raw.gmail_label l
WHERE contains(e.labelIds, l.id)
ORDER BY e.internalDate DESC
LIMIT 100;

Replace schema and table names (nekt_raw, gmail_email, gmail_label) with the layer and table names you configured for the source. On BigQuery, use JOIN LATERAL UNNEST(e.labelIds) AS label_id (or equivalent) instead of contains.

Implementation Notes

Extraction Behavior

• Email uses the Gmail messages.list query with maxResults: 500 per page and messages.get per message, so runtime grows with mailbox volume.
• The Start date filter applies to the list query; ensure OAuth and API quotas are sufficient for initial backfills.
• Label is a single API call (users.labels.list); it does not use incremental state.

Payload and Timestamps

• internalDate is normalized to Unix time in seconds in post-processing (API returns milliseconds).
• Top-level payload.body in the schema exposes size only; inline and attachment content typically appears under payload.parts with optional decoded data.
• Threading and deduplication are based on threadId and id as returned by Gmail.

Skills for agents

Download Gmail skills file

Gmail connector documentation as plain markdown, for use in AI agent contexts.