SKILL.md
gmail +reply
PREREQUISITE: Read ../gws-shared/SKILL.md for auth, global flags, and security rules. If missing, run gws generate-skills to create it.
Reply to a message (handles threading automatically)
Usage
gws gmail +reply --message-id <ID> --body <TEXT>
Flags
Flag
Required
Default
Description
--message-id
✓
—
Gmail message ID to reply to
--body
✓
—
Reply body (plain text, or HTML with --html)
--from
—
—
Sender address (for send-as/alias; omit to use account default)
--to
—
—
Additional To email address(es), comma-separated
--attach
—
—
Attach a file (can be specified multiple times)
--cc
—
—
CC email address(es), comma-separated
--bcc
—
—
BCC email address(es), comma-separated
--html
—
—
Treat --body as HTML content (default is plain text)
--dry-run
—
—
Show the request that would be sent without executing it
--draft
—
—
Save as draft instead of sending
Examples
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body 'Thanks, got it!'
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body 'Looping in Carol' --cc carol@example.com
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body 'Adding Dave' --to dave@example.com
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body '<b>Bold reply</b>' --html
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body 'Updated version' -a updated.docx
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body 'Draft reply' --draft
Tips
- Automatically sets In-Reply-To, References, and threadId headers.
- Quotes the original message in the reply body.
- --to adds extra recipients to the To field.
- Use -a/--attach to add file attachments. Can be specified multiple times.
- With --html, the quoted block uses Gmail's gmail_quote CSS classes and preserves HTML formatting. Use fragment tags (, , , etc.) — no / wrapper needed.
- With --html, inline images in the quoted message are preserved via cid: references.
- Use --draft to save the reply as a draft instead of sending it immediately.
- For reply-all, use +reply-all instead.
See Also
- gws-shared — Global flags and auth
- gws-gmail — All send, read, and manage email commands