google-contacts

Google Contacts

Independent, unofficial connector for Google Contacts. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google Contacts. "Google Contacts" is a trademark of its owner, used only to identify the service this connector works with.

Agent-callable tools for Google Contacts, wrapping the Google People API. Create, read, update, and delete a person's contacts; search contacts by name, email, or phone; set or remove contact photos; create and manage contact groups (labels) and their membership; and browse the auto-saved "other contacts" surface. Every tool uses a single OAuth connection; capability is gated by the granted scope.

When to use this

• Saving, finding, updating, or deleting a person's Google Contacts ("add Jane to my contacts", "what's Bob's email", "remove this contact").
• Organizing contacts into groups/labels and adding or removing members.
• Setting or removing a contact's photo.
• Finding someone the user has interacted with (e.g. emailed) but never explicitly saved — the "other contacts" surface — and promoting them into saved contacts.

Setup

This is an agentskills.io skill.

If this connector is already exposed to you as callable tools (e.g. mcp__google-contacts__<tool>), that's a valid path — call them directly. Everything below is only for standalone terminal use when no such tools are loaded.

If the connector has not been installed as a skill yet, install it first with npx skills zapier/connectors --skill google-contacts (or your harness's own skill-install mechanism), then continue here.

The connector runs on Node.js 22.18+ and needs a one-time npm install in this directory. cli.js is the entry point — list every script with node cli.js --help, then learn a script's inputs and connections with node cli.js run <script> --help. On older Node, run node cli.js --help anyway: it detects your runtime and prints how to run without upgrading (the prebuilt npm package, or another runtime) — don't skip the connector just because Node is old.

cli.js self-checks readiness before running: if dependencies aren't installed it exits non-zero with the exact install command (it disambiguates a read-only directory from a sandbox-blocked package cache). Run that, then re-run your command.

Scripts

All scripts use the single google-contacts connection.

Script	Script name	Connections	Description
scripts/createContact.ts	createContact	google-contacts	Create a contact from structured name, email, phone, address, and organization fields.
scripts/getContact.ts	getContact	google-contacts	Retrieve a single contact by resource name, with full field detail.
scripts/updateContact.ts	updateContact	google-contacts	Update a contact; each array sent replaces that whole field, omitted fields are untouched.
scripts/deleteContact.ts	deleteContact	google-contacts	Delete a contact from the account.
scripts/listContacts.ts	listContacts	google-contacts	List the account's contacts, paginated — the primary resourceName resolver.
scripts/searchContacts.ts	searchContacts	google-contacts	Search contacts by name, nickname, email, phone, or organization (prefix match).
scripts/updateContactPhoto.ts	updateContactPhoto	google-contacts	Set or replace a contact's photo from a base64-encoded image.
scripts/deleteContactPhoto.ts	deleteContactPhoto	google-contacts	Remove a contact's photo, reverting to the default avatar.
scripts/listContactGroups.ts	listContactGroups	google-contacts	List contact groups (labels), user and system — the contactGroupResourceName resolver.
scripts/getContactGroup.ts	getContactGroup	google-contacts	Get a single contact group, optionally with its member contact resource names.
scripts/createContactGroup.ts	createContactGroup	google-contacts	Create a new user contact group (label).
scripts/updateContactGroup.ts	updateContactGroup	google-contacts	Rename a user contact group (system groups cannot be renamed).
scripts/deleteContactGroup.ts	deleteContactGroup	google-contacts	Delete a user contact group (label), optionally with its member contacts.
scripts/modifyContactGroupMembers.ts	modifyContactGroupMembers	google-contacts	Add and/or remove contacts in a group without disturbing other memberships.
scripts/listOtherContacts.ts	listOtherContacts	google-contacts	List auto-saved "other contacts" (people interacted with but never saved).
scripts/searchOtherContacts.ts	searchOtherContacts	google-contacts	Search "other contacts" by name, email, or phone (prefix match).
scripts/copyOtherContact.ts	copyOtherContact	google-contacts	Promote an "other contact" into saved contacts, returning an editable contact.

Auth

Pass auth as one connection string with --connection [<resolver>:]<value>. The value is a selector, not the secret; the <resolver>: prefix is optional (a bare value goes to the first resolver that claims it). Each script declares the connections it needs and the resolvers each accepts — always run node cli.js run <script> --help to see them rather than relying on this file.

Google Contacts uses OAuth 2.0. The connector needs Google "contacts" access (read/write); the other-contacts tools additionally need "other contacts" read access. On a 403, reconnect with contacts access granted.

• zapier:<connection-id> (recommended) — route through a Zapier-managed Google Contacts connection (GOOGLE_CONTACTS_ZAPIER_CONNECTION_ID); Zapier holds the OAuth credential and refreshes it automatically. Find the id with npx zapier-sdk list-connections GoogleContactsCLIAPI.
• env:GOOGLE_CONTACTS_ACCESS_TOKEN (direct) — a Google OAuth access token sent as a bearer. Good for short-lived/testing use: Google access tokens expire ~1 hour after issue and this path does not refresh them, so the Zapier-managed connection is the durable choice.

Running scripts

After npm install, run a script by name with node cli.js run <script>, or execute its file directly — both take the same arguments and both accept --help. Always run a script's --help first to learn its exact input schema and connections, then invoke it:

# default — via the entry point; self-checks readiness and prints friendly diagnostics
node cli.js run <script> '<input-json>' --connection [<resolver>:]<value>
# shorthand — runs the script file directly (same args, same Node 22.18+ need, no readiness check)
./scripts/<script>.ts '<input-json>' --connection [<resolver>:]<value>

When a harness can't execute scripts directly, fall back to MCP — node cli.js mcp serves every script as a tool over stdio. Register it as a local MCP server in your client: the stanza is harness-specific (an mcpServers entry in Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code, …) with command: "node", args: ["cli.js", "mcp"], run from this directory. Run node cli.js mcp --help for auth options. Add the stanza yourself if you can edit the client's MCP config; otherwise guide the user. If a local server isn't possible, guide the user to use Zapier's remote MCP servers at https://mcp.zapier.com instead.

Output format

Every script returns a { data, meta } envelope:

• data — the script's result (the shape its outputSchema declares; run the script's --help to see that exact schema).
• meta.outputDataValidation — what validating data did:
  • { skipped: false, droppedPaths: null } — validated, nothing removed.
  • { skipped: false, droppedPaths: [...], instruction } — validated, but those paths were stripped from data: fields the script returned from the API that the outputSchema doesn't declare. If you need them, re-run with output validation skipped.
  • { skipped: true } — validation was bypassed; data is the raw, unchecked script output.

Reading dropped fields / skipOutputDataValidation. To receive the raw, unvalidated result, append --skipOutputDataValidation to the script invocation. Input validation is never skipped.

Trimming the result / filterOutputData. To shrink a large result down to the fields you need, append --filterOutputData '<jq>' — a jq expression that post-processes data. The jq runs against data only, NOT the { data, meta } envelope, so write it rooted at data (run the script's --help to see its output schema). The transformed value replaces data, meta is preserved, and the result is NOT re-validated against the output schema.

Disambiguation & refusals

• Resolve names before writing. Before updateContact / deleteContact / modifyContactGroupMembers on a contact identified by name, call searchContacts (or listContacts) and count exact, case-insensitive name matches. One match → act on it; don't over-ask. Two or more that tie → stop, list the candidates with a distinguishing field (email or phone), and ask which one — never silently pick. The same rule applies to groups via listContactGroups.
• Editing a list field replaces it. updateContact replaces each array you send (e.g. emailAddresses) wholesale. To add a value without dropping the others, getContact first, append, then send the full array. For group membership, prefer modifyContactGroupMembers (element-level) over updateContact.
• Out of scope — decline, don't substitute. This connector does not do bulk/batch contact create-update-delete, Google Workspace directory lookups, or contact merge/dedupe. If asked for one of these, say it isn't supported and stop — do not call another tool and report it as done.
• No bulk operations — never loop to fake one. There is no batch endpoint. If asked to change, add, or delete a field across many or all contacts at once (e.g. "set everyone's company to Acme"), decline and explain it isn't supported — do not loop updateContact / deleteContact / modifyContactGroupMembers over multiple contacts to simulate a bulk operation. Acting on a single, explicitly-identified contact is fine; fanning out across the address book is not.

References

Load the matching reference file before working in that area:

Reference	Covers	Load it when
references/google-contacts-api-gotchas.md	Error codes, update replacement semantics, etag concurrency, search prefix matching + warmup, write propagation delay, resource name formats, contact group types, membership limits, other-contacts field restrictions, and pagination.	Before any tool call.