Directly inserts a message into only this user's mailbox similar to IMAP APPEND, bypassing most scanning and classification. Does not send a message.

Scopes

You will need authorization for at least one of the following scopes to make a valid call:

  • https://mail.google.com/
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.insert
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.modify

If unset, the scope for this method defaults to https://mail.google.com/. You can set the scope for this method like this: gmail1 --scope <scope> users messages-insert ...

Required Scalar Argument

  • <user-id> (string)
    • The user's email address. The special value me can be used to indicate the authenticated user.

Required Request Value

The request value is a data-structure with various fields. Each field may be a simple scalar or another data-structure. In the latter case it is advised to set the field-cursor to the data-structure's field to specify values more concisely.

For example, a structure like this:

Message:
  history-id: string
  id: string
  internal-date: string
  label-ids: [string]
  payload:
    body:
      attachment-id: string
      data: string
      size: integer
    filename: string
    mime-type: string
    part-id: string
  raw: string
  size-estimate: integer
  snippet: string
  thread-id: string

can be set completely with the following arguments which are assumed to be executed in the given order. Note how the cursor position is adjusted to the respective structures, allowing simple field names to be used most of the time.

  • -r . history-id=sadipscing
    • The ID of the last history record that modified this message.
  • id=lorem
    • The immutable ID of the message.
  • internal-date=invidunt
    • The internal message creation timestamp (epoch ms), which determines ordering in the inbox. For normal SMTP-received email, this represents the time the message was originally accepted by Google, which is more reliable than the Date header. However, for API-migrated mail, it can be configured by client to be based on the Date header.
  • label-ids=no
    • List of IDs of labels applied to this message.
    • Each invocation of this argument appends the given value to the array.
  • payload.body attachment-id=est
    • When present, contains the ID of an external attachment that can be retrieved in a separate messages.attachments.get request. When not present, the entire content of the message part body is contained in the data field.
  • data=at
    • The body data of a MIME message part as a base64url encoded string. May be empty for MIME container types that have no message body or when the body data is sent as a separate attachment. An attachment ID is present if the body data is contained in a separate attachment.

  • size=58

    • Number of bytes for the message part data (encoding notwithstanding).

  • .. filename=sit

    • The filename of the attachment. Only present if this message part represents an attachment.
  • mime-type=et
    • The MIME type of the message part.

  • part-id=tempor

    • The immutable ID of the message part.

  • .. raw=aliquyam

    • The entire email message in an RFC 2822 formatted and base64url encoded string. Returned in messages.get and drafts.get responses when the format=RAW parameter is supplied.
  • size-estimate=96
    • Estimated size in bytes of the message.
  • snippet=et
    • A short part of the message text.
  • thread-id=sanctus
    • The ID of the thread the message belongs to. To add a message or draft to a thread, the following criteria must be met: 1. The requested threadId must be specified on the Message or Draft.Message you supply with your request. 2. The References and In-Reply-To headers must be set in compliance with the RFC 2822 standard. 3. The Subject headers must match.

About Cursors

The cursor position is key to comfortably set complex nested structures. The following rules apply:

  • The cursor position is always set relative to the current one, unless the field name starts with the . character. Fields can be nested such as in -r f.s.o .
  • The cursor position is set relative to the top-level structure if it starts with ., e.g. -r .s.s
  • You can also set nested fields without setting the cursor explicitly. For example, to set a value relative to the current cursor position, you would specify -r struct.sub_struct=bar.
  • You can move the cursor one level up by using ... Each additional . moves it up one additional level. E.g. ... would go three levels up.

Required Upload Flags

This method supports the upload of data, which requires all of the following flags to be set:

  • -u simple
    • simple - Upload media all at once.
  • -f file
    • Path to file to upload. It must be seekable.

The following flag may be set:

  • -m mime
    • the mime type, like 'application/octet-stream', which is the default

Optional Output Flags

The method's return value a JSON encoded structure, which will be written to standard output by default.

  • -o out
    • out specifies the destination to which to write the server's result to. It will be a JSON-encoded structure. The destination may be - to indicate standard output, or a filepath that is to contain the received bytes. If unset, it defaults to standard output.

Optional Method Properties

You may set the following properties to further configure the call. Please note that -p is followed by one or more key-value-pairs, and is called like this -p k1=v1 k2=v2 even though the listing below repeats the -p for completeness.

  • -p deleted=boolean

    • Mark the email as permanently deleted (not TRASH) and only visible in Google Vault to a Vault administrator. Only used for Google Workspace accounts.

  • -p internal-date-source=string

    • Source for Gmail's internal date of the message.

Optional General Properties

The following properties can configure any call, and are not specific to this method.

  • -p $-xgafv=string

    • V1 error format.

  • -p access-token=string

    • OAuth access token.

  • -p alt=string

    • Data format for response.

  • -p callback=string

    • JSONP

  • -p fields=string

    • Selector specifying which fields to include in a partial response.

  • -p key=string

    • API key. Your API key identifies your project and provides you with API access, quota, and reports. Required unless you provide an OAuth 2.0 token.

  • -p oauth-token=string

    • OAuth 2.0 token for the current user.

  • -p pretty-print=boolean

    • Returns response with indentations and line breaks.

  • -p quota-user=string

    • Available to use for quota purposes for server-side applications. Can be any arbitrary string assigned to a user, but should not exceed 40 characters.

  • -p upload-type=string

    • Legacy upload protocol for media (e.g. "media", "multipart").

  • -p upload-protocol=string

    • Upload protocol for media (e.g. "raw", "multipart").