gws-gmail-reply

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, used verbatim (plain text, or HTML with --html). \n is NOT a newline — use $'...' or a real line break
--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
# Multi-line body — $'...' quoting turns \n into a real newline:
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body $'Hi John,\n\nConfirmed for Tuesday.\n\nBlake'
# Long body — read it from a file instead of quoting inline:
gws gmail +reply --message-id 18f1a2b3c4d --body "$(cat reply.txt)"

Tips

• IMPORTANT: --body is verbatim. Writing --body "Hi,\n\nThanks" sends a literal backslash-n to the recipient; it does NOT create a line break. Use $'Hi,\n\nThanks' or "$(cat file.txt)". See gws-shared Shell 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 (<p>, <b>, <a>, etc.) — no <html>/<body> 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