Google API Policy

Purpose: Enable Gmail Add-on functionality and user interface integration within Gmail sidebar

Justification: Required for Google Workspace Add-on functionality. Essential for providing in-context email management tools within Gmail interface through CardService UI rendering and user interaction processing.

User Benefit: Seamless integration with Gmail interface for one-click email cleanup and rule management

User Control: Only operates when user explicitly opens the Smart Delete add-on in Gmail interface

Why narrower scopes insufficient: Essential for Gmail add-on functionality - no narrower alternative available for Apps Script add-ons

Purpose: Read key details (subject, sender) from the email currently open in Gmail to enable contextual "quick actions" and rule creation.

Justification: Essential for contextual rule creation based on the specific email user is viewing. Enables pattern recognition on email metadata (sender, subject, date) to suggest relevant cleanup rules and generate safety previews showing users exactly which emails will be affected before any action.

User Benefit: Enables smart pattern recognition to suggest relevant cleanup rules based on user's actual email patterns

User Control: Only accesses metadata from the single email currently opened by the user. Users see preview of emails matching rules before any deletion occurs.

Why narrower scopes insufficient: The gmail.addons.current.message.metadata scope, a narrower alternative, only provides the message and thread IDs. It does not grant access to the subject or sender's email address, which are critical for the contextual functionality of your add-on. Therefore, this broader scope is required for the add-on to function as intended.

Purpose: Move emails to Trash folder based on user-created deletion rules

Justification: Required to execute user-authorized cleanup operations after explicit user confirmation. Enables safe trash operations (GmailApp.moveThreadsToTrash()) based on metadata criteria.

User Benefit: Core functionality - enables bulk email cleanup as requested by users. Provides efficient deletion of promotional emails, newsletters, and spam based on user-defined patterns.

Control: User is in full control of deletions. All operations require explicit user confirmation. Emails moved to Trash only (recoverable for 30 days), never permanently deleted. Users can preview exactly what will be deleted before confirming.

Why narrower scopes insufficient: gmail.readonly cannot perform deletions; gmail.send is unrelated to our functionality

Purpose: Required to perform a search across the user's entire mailbox, which is necessary to find all emails that match a user's defined deletion rules.

Justification: generatePreview function uses GmailApp.search(searchQuery, 0, maxResults) to find email threads matching criteria such as sender, domain, or subject keywords. This search operation is a read-only action that requires broad access to the mailbox to find relevant emails for preview and deletion..

User Benefit: Core functionality - powerful, flexible, and accurate email cleanup. The add-on can provide a preview of which emails will be deleted, giving the user control and preventing accidental data loss.

Control: The add-on only uses this scope to perform a search based on user-defined rules. The user must manually confirm a deletion, and they can see a preview before any action is taken.

Why narrower scopes insufficient: gmail.modify scope alone is insufficient because it only allows for actions that change the mailbox (e.g., deleting or archiving emails). It does not grant the permission to read or search for emails on a mailbox-wide scale.

Purpose: Required to save and retrieve user-specific data, such as custom deletion rules and the deletion queue, ensuring the add-on's state is persistent across sessions.

Justification: code uses PropertiesService.getUserProperties().getProperty() to read data and PropertiesService.getUserProperties().setProperty() to save data.

User Benefit: This is a foundational feature that allows the add-on to remember a user's settings and rules, making it a functional and useful tool rather than a one-time operation.

User Control: The data stored using this scope is private to the user and is not accessible by other users or shared outside of the user's account.

Why narrower scopes insufficient: Apps Script-specific scope that governs the use of the PropertiesService. There are no narrower scopes available for this specific functionality, as it is a core feature of the Apps Script environment.

Purpose: Provide add-on interface within Gmail

Justification: Required for Google Workspace Add-on functionality. Essential for providing in-context email management tools within Gmail interface through CardService rendering, user property management, and form processing.

User Benefit: Seamless integration with Gmail interface

User Control: Only operates when user explicitly authorizes actions through the add-on interface

Why narrower scopes insufficient: Essential for Gmail add-on functionality - no narrower alternative available for Apps Script add-ons