Only show these results:

Authentication Scopes

Nylas supports granular authentication scopes to improve security for your end-users. You can limit the permissions and data Nylas requests during authentication by using the scopes parameter with either the /oauth/authorize Hosted Authentication or connect/authorize Native Authentication endpoints.

If you do not have the required scopes, you will need to re-authenticate the account and you user will need to accept the permissions.

Nylas Scopes

These scopes are required to make API requests through Nylas. These are requested as part of Native and Hosted Authentication.

Nylas Scope Description
email Send and modify all messages, threads, file attachments, and read email metadata like headers
email.modify Read and modify all messages, threads, file attachments, and read email metadata like headers. Does not include send.
email.read_only Read all messages, threads, file attachments, drafts, and email metadata like headers—no write operations.
email.send Send messages only. No read or modify privileges on users' emails. Using email.send as the only scope with Gmail accounts may lead to unexpected threading behavior. Accounts using this as the only scope will also always be in an initializing state.
email.folders_and_labels Read and modify folders or labels, depending on the account type.
email.metadata Read email metadata including headers and labels/folders, but not the message body or file attachments.
email.drafts Read and modify drafts. Does not include send.
calendar Read and modify calendars and events.
calendar.free_busy EWS accounts should add this scope to access the free/busy endpoint.
calendar.read_only Read calendars and events.
room_resources.read_only Read available room resources for an account. Room resources for Office 365 is an Admin Consent Required permission.
contacts Read and modify contacts.
contacts.read_only Read contacts.

Default Scopes

If scopes are not provided during authentication, scopes will default to the following:

  • email
  • contact
  • calendar

Metadata

Office365, Exchange, and other Microsoft accounts do not offer a scope that mirrors our email.metadatascope. This means that if your app requests email.metadata, we will then request a more permissive scope to cover those needs, then restrict access within our system. This will usually result in our requesting a email.read_only scope in place of email.metadata. Although Nylas will have the resulting access, the requesting app will not have permissions to access the email body.

Microsoft Scopes

These scopes are required when creating a Azure app.

Microsoft Scope App Manifest Description
User.Read Azure Active Directory Graph Sign in and read user profile
offline_access Microsoft Graph Maintain access to data you have given it access to
openid Microsoft Graph Sign users in
profile Microsoft Graph View users' basic profile
User.Read Microsoft Graph Sign in and read user profile
EAS.AccessAsUser.All Office 365 Exchange Online Access mailboxes via Exchange ActiveSync
EWS.AccessAsUser.All Office 365 Exchange Online Access mailboxes via Exchange ActiveSync
Calendar.Read.Shared Microsoft Graph Nylas supports Microsoft Graph for events only.
Calendar.ReadWrite.Shared Nylas supports Microsoft Graph for events only

Gmail Scopes

These scopes are required when creating a app in the Google console.

Google Scope Nylas Scopes
userinfo.email Required Google scopes
userinfo.profile Required Google scopes
openid Required Google scopes
gmail.compose email.drafts, email.send
gmail.modify email.modify, email.send
gmail.labels email.folders_and_labels
gmail.metadata email.metadata
gmail.send email.send
gmail.readonly email.read_only. Includes gmail.metadata.
calendar calendar
calendar.readonly calendar.read_only
contacts contacts
admin.directory.resource.calendar.readonly room_resources.read_only

Inconsistency for Google Accounts

Due to a known bug with the Google API, you should not authenticate Google accounts with the email.metadata scope if you also intend to use more permissive scopes like email.read_only or email.modify. gmail.readonly includes gmail.metadata.

You don't need to combine the more permissive scopes include the less permissive ones in most cases. Combining metadata with those scopes will cause Google to return 403 errors, and the account in question will not sync properly.

Service Accounts - Calendar Data Only

Nylas is currently able to onboard Google Workspaces and Exchange-based accounts for calendar data only.

Authenticating Accounts

When authenticating an account using Hosted Auth or Native Auth, you request only the scopes you need. For example if you authenticate with only the calendar scope, then you will get 403 response.

403 Response Example

{
"message": "You do not have access to the required scopes. You provided a token which has the following scopes: ['email.read_only', 'email.send']. You would need a token with at least one of the following scopes: ['email.modify']",
"type": "api_error"
}

IMAP

Using calendar or contact scopes without the email scope is only relevant for Google and Exchange accounts. IMAP accounts do not have actual calendars and contacts, but we parse iCalendar files and email participants to populate events and contacts when the email scope is included.

What's Next