Connect Claude to Google Calendar

I keep my mornings for focus work and take calls in the afternoon. Finding a 45-minute gap next week meant opening the calendar, scanning five days, ruling out every morning by eye, and then typing the event in by hand. None of it is hard, and all of it is the kind of small chore that is easy to get wrong.

Claude can do the scan and the typing once the Google Calendar connector is on. Connecting takes under a minute, and it asks for Google’s approval, never your password.

On a demo calendar with a week of meetings and three blocked focus mornings, Claude offered three afternoon slots in 19 seconds and created the one I picked in 9 seconds more, after asking me to approve it. The first prompt I tried, the obvious one, recommended a Wednesday morning instead. This finding shows why, and the prompt that does not.

This finding is free. It shows the setup on video, the prompts that work, and the two things that decide what Claude may change: the calendar you name, and the approval claude.ai asks for before every change.

What the Google Calendar connector can do

With the connector on, Claude can list your calendars, read and search events, suggest free times, and create, update, answer or delete events. Nine tools in all, and the connector page lists every one of them.

Reading happens without asking. Changing does not: by default, every tool that creates, updates, answers or deletes an event makes claude.ai stop and ask Allow once, Always allow or Deny before anything happens. You can see and change that per tool under Customize, Connectors.

Why “find me a free slot” books the wrong morning

“Find a free 45-minute slot next week” is the prompt everyone starts with. On my demo calendar, Claude recommended Wednesday 9:00 to 9:45, and added that it “doesn’t cut into any of your focus blocks”. It was right: Wednesday morning was empty. It was also a focus morning I had never blocked.

The connector’s slot search knows only free and busy. A rule that lives in your head, like “mornings are for focus”, has to be in the prompt as hours, or it does not exist. The prompts in this finding state the rule once and let Claude apply it to the whole week.

Which calendar gets the event, and who gets asked

A new event goes to your primary calendar unless you name another; that is how the connector’s tools are defined. If your primary calendar is shared with a team or an assistant, they see the event the moment it exists, and any guest on it gets an invite straight away.

The finding shows the wording that keeps a new event where you meant it with nobody invited, and what the approval prompt looks like, including the one setting that quietly switches it off.

Quick start

For when you just want the connector on and one slot in your calendar.

1. Open claude.ai and sign in. Connectors are set up on the web, and they then work in any chat on any device.
2. Open Customize, then Connectors. Find Google Calendar under Discover.
3. Read the tool list on the connector page. It includes creating and deleting events, so this is not a read-only connector.
4. Press Connect to Claude. Google’s own screen opens.
5. Choose your account and press Continue twice. Claude receives a token, never your password.
6. Name the calendar in every prompt. Without a name, new events go to your primary calendar.
7. Say your rules as hours. “Only between 13:00 and 17:30” works where “keep my focus mornings free” does not.
8. Ask for options first, create second. “Give me three options and do not create anything yet.”
9. Press Allow once when claude.ai asks. That is the moment the event is created, and nothing is created without it.

Connecting Google Calendar, on video

Thirty seconds, from Customize to a connected calendar. Google’s approval screens are not filmed, because they show the address of whoever is signing in; a card in the video marks where they appear.

Google calls the app Claude for Google Calendar. You pick your account, confirm the sign-in, and see a summary of the access it asks for; Continue on the last two screens brings you back to claude.ai, connected.

What the connector can and cannot do

It can read every calendar on the account. Your own, the secondary ones you made, and the ones other people share with you. That is why every prompt here names one.

It can suggest times, but only from free and busy. The slot search sees whether a moment is taken. It does not see that you prefer afternoons, or that Wednesday morning is a focus morning you never got round to blocking.

It can create, update, answer and delete events. Each of those waits for your approval by default. A proposal in the chat is only text until you say “create it” and then press Allow once.

It can invite people. An event with guests makes Google email each of them as soon as it is created. The prompts here create events without guests, and you add people in Google Calendar when you are ready.

Finding a slot that keeps your mornings free

The demo ran against a calendar called demo-f004 holding a week of invented meetings, so nothing private is in the video. Replace the name with your own calendar, or with “my main calendar”.

Step 1: The prompt everyone tries first

In my calendar demo-f004, find a free 45-minute slot next week.

1. Look at what comes back. In one run Claude recommended Wednesday at 9:00; in the recorded one it led with Monday at noon and listed all of Wednesday morning as free. Both are free. Both break the rule.
2. Notice what it assumed. It picked a working day of 9:00 to 18:00 on its own, because nothing in the prompt said otherwise.

Step 2: Say the calendar and the rule

Using my calendar demo-f004 only, find a free 45-minute slot next week,
Monday to Friday. Mornings until 12:00 are for focus work, so only offer times
between 13:00 and 17:30. Give me three options and do not create anything yet.

1. Check the three options against the week. On the demo they were Monday 13:00, Wednesday 14:00 and Thursday 15:00, each an afternoon gap, with the meetings either side named.
2. Pick one in the chat. “The second one” is enough.
3. Reject in the chat if they are wrong. “Not Tuesday, I am on site all afternoon” re-runs the search without starting over.

This took 19 seconds in a new chat, and 7 seconds in the recorded one, where Claude had already read the week for Step 1.

Step 3: Create it, with nobody invited

Create the second one in demo-f004 as "Call: Ana Duarte, bakery site".
No guests, no invites, no Google Meet link.

1. Read the approval card. It says “Claude wants to use Creates a calendar event from Google Calendar”, with Deny, Always allow and Allow once.
2. Press Allow once. It covers this one event. The next change asks again.
3. Read Claude’s confirmation. It names the calendar, the day, the time, and that there are no guests and no Meet link. On the demo this took 9 seconds, approval included.
4. Open Google Calendar and find the event. Check it sits in the calendar you named. On the demo it was in demo-f004 only, with no attendees.

The approval prompt, and the setting that removes it

Every connector page in claude.ai has a Tool permissions section. Each tool has three choices: Always allow, Needs approval and Blocked. A fresh connection sets the read-only tools to Always allow and every tool that changes something to Needs approval.

1. Open Customize, Connectors, Google Calendar.
2. Scroll to Tool permissions. Read-only tools come first, then the four write tools: create, delete, respond and update.
3. Check the write tools show the hand icon, Needs approval. That is the setting that makes claude.ai ask.

Ready-made prompts

Twelve prompts in the same shape: they name the calendar, say the rule as hours, and create nothing until asked.

Download calendar-prompts.md Download calendar-prompts.txt

# Prompts for Claude with the Google Calendar connector

Change the parts in CAPITALS. Every prompt names a calendar, because without
one Claude reads and writes your primary calendar. Every rule is stated as
hours, because the slot search only knows free and busy.

## Finding time

1. A slot that keeps your rules

   Using my calendar CALENDAR only, find a free MINUTES-minute slot next week,
   Monday to Friday. Only offer times between START and END. Give me three
   options and do not create anything yet.

2. The earliest sensible slot

   In CALENDAR, what is the earliest MINUTES-minute gap after TIME on DAY that
   leaves at least 15 minutes either side of other meetings?

3. A slot that fits another time zone

   In CALENDAR, find three MINUTES-minute slots next week that fall between
   09:00 and 17:00 in ZONE and between START and END in my own time zone.

4. Protect the time first

   In CALENDAR, show me next week's mornings that are still empty before
   12:00. Do not create anything.

## Creating and moving, with nobody invited

5. Create the slot you picked

   Create option NUMBER in CALENDAR as "TITLE". No guests, no invites, no
   Google Meet link.

6. Block focus time

   In CALENDAR, create "Focus" from START to END on each empty morning you
   just listed. Show me the list first and wait for my yes.

7. Move one event

   Move "TITLE" on DAY in CALENDAR to NEW DAY at NEW TIME. Tell me first if the
   new time clashes with anything.

8. Add a guest, carefully

   Show me "TITLE" in CALENDAR with GUEST EMAIL added as a guest, and wait for
   my yes before saving. Saving sends them an invite.

## Reading the week

9. The week at a glance

   Summarise next week in CALENDAR, one line per day: the meetings, and the
   longest free block.

10. Too many meetings

    Which day next week in CALENDAR has the most meeting time, and which
    meetings could move to a lighter day?

11. Clashes

    Are there any overlapping events next week across CALENDAR and CALENDAR 2?

12. Before a trip

    I am away from DATE to DATE. List everything in CALENDAR in those days that
    I need to move or cancel.

## Rules worth adding to any of them

- Name the calendar: "in CALENDAR only".
- Say rules as hours: "only between 13:00 and 17:30".
- Keep creating manual: "give me options, do not create anything yet".
- Keep inviting manual: "no guests, no invites".

When it breaks

It offers a morning you protect. The rule was not in the prompt as hours. Add “only between 13:00 and 17:30”, or block the mornings in the calendar as recurring events so free and busy says it for you.

“The event wasn’t created because the calendar action didn’t get approved.” The approval card was left unanswered, and the change failed rather than wait. Nothing was added. Say “go ahead” and press Allow once this time.

An event appeared and nobody asked you. The tool is on Always allow. Set it back to Needs approval under Tool permissions, as above.

The event is in the wrong calendar. The prompt did not name one, so it went to the primary calendar. Ask Claude to delete it there, approve the delete, and create it again in the one you meant.

Claude says it cannot find the calendar. Ask “list my calendars” and copy the name exactly as it comes back.

The times look an hour out. Claude answers in your own time zone (“Vilnius time” on the demo). If a calendar was made in another zone, say the zone in the prompt: “times in Europe/Vilnius”.

The connector was connected and now is not. Tokens expire, and changing your Google password ends them. Open the connector page and press Connect again.

Turning the connector off

Not something to do routinely. Disconnect when you stop using it, or when you no longer want Claude reading your calendars.

1. Open Customize, then Connectors.
2. Open Google Calendar.
3. Press Disconnect and confirm. Access ends immediately.
4. Remove it at Google too, under Account, Security, Your connections to third-party apps. That is what revokes the token itself.