# How it works

> How Nickbox connects several Gmail accounts to one MCP server, and what happens when your assistant asks a question.

Canonical: https://staging.nickbox.io/en/how-it-works

## You sign in with Google

We use your Google account to create your Nickbox account. We only read your name and email address at this step.

## You connect each inbox

For every inbox, Google shows its own consent screen with a single read-only Gmail permission. You can connect inboxes from different Google Workspace organizations.

## You give each inbox a nickname

We suggest one from the address (for example, billing for billing@yourcompany.com). Rename it any time. Nicknames use lowercase letters, numbers and dashes.

## You add one link to your assistant

Paste the Nickbox link into your assistant as a custom connector (developers call it an MCP URL). Your assistant signs in once and sees all your inboxes by name.

## Your assistant asks, Nickbox fetches

When you ask a question, the assistant calls a Nickbox tool such as search_emails with the nicknames it picked. We fetch the matching messages from Gmail and hand them back. Nothing from the message is stored.

## For developers: the tools your assistant gets

- `list_accounts`: Lists your inboxes by nickname and status.
- `search_emails`: Searches one, several or all inboxes with Gmail search syntax.
- `read_email`: Reads one message, including headers and text body.
- `search_all_accounts`: Runs the same search across every inbox and merges the results.
- `list_labels`: Lists the Gmail labels of one inbox.