The Google Tool That Outlived Its Creator's Job
A Google engineer built the fastest way to connect AI agents to all of Google Workspace — then got fired. The tool still works, and it's worth knowing about.
A tool built on a weekend that hit a nerve
Justin Poehnelt worked at Google. On his own time, he built something called gws — a single tool that connects to all of Google Workspace at once. Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Sheets, Docs, Chat — everything in one place, ready for an AI agent to use.
Two days after Google officially announced their own version of this at a big company event, they fired him.
His post about it was seen 1.1 million times. The tool itself reached 15,000 stars on GitHub — the equivalent of a standing ovation from developers worldwide.
Here's why it matters for you: if you're using an AI assistant and you want it to actually do things in your Google Workspace — draft a follow-up email, check your calendar, update a spreadsheet — this tool is currently the cleanest way to make that happen, without hiring a developer to build custom connections from scratch.
It works with Claude, with Gemini, and with any AI agent that speaks the MCP standard. You don't need to set up a dozen separate integrations. The tool handles it.
Whether Google leaves it alone or eventually replaces it with their official version, the story it tells is real: the demand for AI that actually operates inside the tools you already use every day is enormous. Someone built the bridge before the company did.
Words worth knowing
Google Workspace — The bundle of Google tools most businesses already use: Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Sheets, Docs, Meet.
AI agent — An AI that doesn't just answer questions, but takes actions: sends emails, reads documents, updates files.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) — A shared language that lets AI assistants talk to outside tools. Think of it as a universal plug.
CLI (Command-Line Interface) — A way to control software by typing instructions instead of clicking buttons. Less glamorous than an app, but often much more powerful.
Worth watching: if your business runs on Google Workspace and you're curious about AI that does more than chat, this project is a concrete example of what's already possible.