"You haven't granted permission to mcp__gmail__draft_email" - a second Gmail tool on your computer

You ask Otto to search your Gmail or write a reply, and he stops with a line that reads like machine code: Claude requested permissions to use mcp__gmail__search_emails, but you haven't granted it yet. You try a different Gmail task and the same message returns with a different name on the end: Claude requested permissions to use mcp__gmail__draft_email, but you haven't granted it yet. Performers describe it to us in exactly these words: It's the same for the other Gmail actions I tried earlier, only the tool name changes. Meanwhile the Gmail card in the app says Linked and your Google account looks perfectly healthy. Nothing is broken. There are two different Gmail tools on that computer, and Otto is reaching for the wrong one.

What the message actually means

Booked Solid has its own Gmail connection, and Otto is allowed to use that one. Separately, at some point, a second Gmail tool was added to that computer from outside Booked Solid - usually a Gmail MCP server installed by following a video or a guide, or set up for Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Claude Code. Booked Solid did not install it and has never put it on the list of tools Otto is allowed to use, so the request stops there. you haven't granted it yet is that refusal, on a tool Booked Solid never set up.

The wording is raw for a reason. Every block Booked Solid produces itself starts with Blocked: and then says in plain English what happened. This one does not, because it comes from the engine underneath Otto rather than from Booked Solid's own rules. That is why it names a tool instead of describing a problem, and why searching your settings for a matching switch turns up nothing.

The question that settles it

Did you, or someone helping you, set up a Gmail connection yourself, outside of Booked Solid, following a video or a guide? If your honest answer is I set up a Gmail MCP server myself, you have found it. If you are sure you never did, read on anyway - the tool name identifies the connection whatever you remember.

Which Gmail is which, from the tool name alone

The plain mcp__gmail__ prefix, with nothing between the two pairs of underscores, is the giveaway. Neither of Booked Solid's own Gmail connections is ever named that way.

What not to spend time on

Almost everyone tries these first, and every one is a dead end for this message. Skip them.

• Disconnecting and reconnecting Gmail on claude.ai. Your Claude account link is not what got refused, and relinking it changes nothing about a tool Booked Solid never installed.
• Hunting for a read-only switch. This is not the read-only rule. That one names itself in plain English: Blocked: this integration is set to read-only on the Permissions tab. It never uses the wording you saw, and no switch on that tab clears a tool the app was never told about.
• Reading the Linked badge either way. Linked means you linked it at some point. It is history, not a live check, so it tells you nothing about which tool was refused.
• Reinstalling, or changing your Google security settings. Neither touches the tool being refused.

Step 1: get on a version that can fix this

The one-tap fix below arrived in version 1.7.23. On anything older there is no way through from inside the app, so this step is not optional.

Here is the trap. The performer whose ticket produced this article was running 1.7.5, and Check for updates kept telling him he had the newest version. That was honest but useless: very early builds shipped before Kivi Media took over Booked Solid, and their updater still checks the old place, which has nothing newer to offer. It reports "up to date" against the wrong shelf. If your version is an early 1.7 and the app insists you are current, believe the version number, not the updater.

1. Go to booked.kivimedia.co/download and get the installer for your computer.
2. Install it straight over your existing copy. On Windows, run the .exe and click through the blue warning if it appears. On a Mac, drag Booked Solid into Applications and choose Replace.
3. Open the app. Your leads, history, license and username all stay exactly as they were, and from then on it updates itself from the right place.

If the update refuses to land for some other reason, work through "The app is stuck on an old version or won't update" in the Installing & updating folder.

Step 2: the card on the Connections screen

Open More > Connections. Some older builds label that tab Connectors; it is the same screen.

Booked Solid checks that computer for tools other apps have registered, so if the second Gmail tool is still there you will see a card near the top reading You set up a second Gmail tool on this computer. Tap Let Otto read it. One tap allows it, and the card clears itself.

While you are there, find the Gmail row and tap Check it's live. That button ignores the Linked badge and asks whether Otto can reach your Gmail right now, answering in plain words: working now, needs sign-in again, or couldn't confirm. If it says working now, ask Otto to draft a reply to a recent inquiry and it will go through the right Gmail this time.

What the one tap allows, and what it does not

Let Otto read it allows reading and searching through that outside tool, and nothing else. Tools Booked Solid did not build stay read-only by design - the shortest leash we can put on something we cannot vet. On Settings > Permissions you will find the tool listed with its access dropdown greyed out and a note saying self-added tools stay read-only. The card's own small print suggests allowing writing on that tab; for a self-added tool there is no such switch, so do not spend twenty minutes looking for it.

So Otto will not draft through the second Gmail tool. Drafting happens through the Gmail Booked Solid set up. That is deliberate, and there is no setting that changes it.

The simplest ending: you probably do not need the second tool

Once updated, ask Otto to draft using your Gmail and let him use the connection Booked Solid manages. It already drafts for you, the draft lands in your own Gmail Drafts folder, and nothing goes to a client without you pressing send. For the most dependable version of that, connect Gmail in the app with a Google app password rather than leaning on the Claude account link - an app-password inbox also works during background runs, which the account link does not do reliably. Both "Connect your Gmail with an app password (step by step)" and "Gmail shows Linked but drafts stopped working: switch to an app password" are in this folder.

The tidiest end state is to remove the outside tool altogether. It is recorded in a configuration file belonging to whichever app you set it up for: .claude.json in your home folder for Claude Code, .cursor/mcp.json for Cursor, or the Claude Desktop configuration file. Remove the Gmail entry there and Otto stops seeing it entirely.

If it still does not work

On More > Connections, find the Inbox, calendar & files section and click Copy diagnostics at the top of it. That copies what the app read when it decided these statuses, including the list of tools registered on that computer, which is what names the second Gmail. It carries names and flags only - no keys, no passwords, no message content. Paste it into a ticket with the full message you saw and what you asked Otto to do immediately before it.

Prefer a fully managed experience? Booked Solid OS runs on your computer and you stay hands-on. If you would rather have this handled for you on a hosted platform (lead finding, follow-ups, email sending, invoicing, all managed in one place), take a look at KM Hub from the same team.

Still stuck? Email bookedsolid@kivimedia.freshdesk.com and a person will help.