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Get Google Calendar Events

Jake Rosenthal avatar
Written by Jake Rosenthal
Updated over a week ago

The Get Google Calendar Events action allows you to retrieve a list of events from your Google Calendar within a Workflow. This is useful for automating tasks based on your calendar, such as preparing for upcoming meetings, sending reminders, or generating daily summaries.

How to set up and use the Get Google Calendar Events action

Follow these steps to use this action in your Workflow:

  1. Add a Get Google Calendar Events action: While editing a Workflow, click the plus button between existing blocks. This will open a modal where you can select from Cassidy's pre-configured actions. Choose the “Get Google Calendar Events” action.

  2. Rename the action (if needed): If you want to make the action more descriptive or easier to reference as a variable later, enter a new name by clicking on the current name.

  3. Add the Google Calendar connection: If you haven't already, connect your Google Calendar account to Cassidy. In the configuration panel, click “Connect”.


    Review the terms in the modal that opens and click “Continue” if you agree. You’ll be prompted to select your Google account in a new tab. Next, select and authorize the Google Calendar permissions for Cassidy. The action can’t function without these specific access levels. When you see a success message, click “Continue”.

  4. Select a calendar (optional): Under the optional fields, you can select which calendar to retrieve events from. If no calendar is selected, events will be retrieved from your primary calendar.

  5. Configure the time range: Specify the time period for which you want to retrieve events:

    • Time Range Start: The beginning of the date range.

    • Time Range End: The end of the date range.

  6. Add a search query (optional): Enter text in the “Query” field to filter events by keywords. This searches event summaries, descriptions, locations, attendee information, and organizer information.

  7. Configure additional settings (optional): Add more settings and filters:

    • iCal UID: Includes the iCalendar event ID in the response in iCalendar format.

    • Minimum Updated time: Filters results to include only events modified at or after this timestamp.

    • Time Zone: The time zone to use in the response. The default is the time zone of the calendar.

    • Order By: The order in which to return events. The default is an unspecified, stable order. To order events by `startTime`, you must set Single Events to `true`.

    • Event Types: Filters the results by event type. The options are Default, Focus Time, Out of Office, and Working Location.

    • Single Events: Determines whether to break a recurring series into individual occurrences. When True, the response lists each instance of a meeting separately (e.g., every Tuesday) and includes one-off events, but hides the "master" recurring rule. When False, the response only shows the master series and one-off events. The default is False.

    • Ignore Recurring Events: Excludes recurring events from the response.

    • Show Deleted: Includes deleted events in the response. These events have a status of `cancelled`.

    • Show Hidden Invitations: Determines whether to include hidden invitations in the result. These are events you have been invited to but have chosen to hide from your main calendar view without officially declining them. The default is False.

    • Max Attendees: Limits the number of participants returned in the event details to improve performance. If an event has more attendees than this limit, the participant list will be hidden.

  8. Reference the event variables: The action outputs a list of events that you can reference in subsequent steps. By default, each event includes:

    • Event ID: The unique identifier of the calendar event.

    • iCal UID: The iCalendar event ID in iCalendar format.

    • Recurring Event ID: The ID of a recurring event.

    • Sequence: A number the organizer uses to indicate the version of the event. This number increments each time a change is made.

    • Recurrence: The repeating schedule for the event according to the iCalendar (RFC 5545) format.

    • Creator: The event creator's email, name, and a "Self" status (True if you are the creator, False if otherwise).

    • Organizer: The event organizer's email, name, and a "Self" status (True if you are the organizer, False if otherwise).

    • Created Date: When the event was created in UTC (ISO 8601 format).

    • Updated Date: When the event was last modified in UTC (ISO 8601 format).

    • Start Date: When the event begins. Defaults to the calendar's time zone unless a specific time zone is requested.

    • End Date: When the event ends. Defaults to the calendar's time zone unless a specific time zone is requested.

    • End Time Unspecified: Indicates if the event's end time is missing or unset. This is typically used for data synced from external calendar providers that do not require an end time. Defaults to False.

    • Original Start Time: For an individual instance of a recurring event, this specifies the original time it was scheduled to begin before any local modifications.

    • Status: The current state of the event, typically categorized as "confirmed", "tentative", or "cancelled".

    • Event Type: The specific classification of the event, such as "default", "outOfOffice", "focusTime", or "workingLocation".

    • Visibility: The visibility level of the event, such as "default", "public", "private", or "confidential".

    • Transparent: Determines whether the event blocks time on the calendar. Most standard meetings are "opaque" and show the user as Busy, while "transparent" events show the user as Free.

    • Calendar Event Link: The link to this calendar event.

    • Meeting Link: The specific URL for the conference solution attached to the event, such as a Google Meet link or third-party video URL.

    • Title: The title or subject of the calendar event.

    • Description: The description or details of the calendar event.

    • Location: The event location.

    • Attendees Omitted: Indicates whether the list of participants was excluded from the response. If True, the attendee list is too large to display or exceeds the specified limit.

    • Attendees: The list of people invited to the event.

  9. Use a Loop to process events: Because this action returns a list of events, you'll typically want to use a Loop action to process each event individually. For more information on using loops, see the Loop article.

Example Workflow: Daily meeting prep

Here's how to set up a Workflow that prepares you for the day's meetings:

  1. Add a Scheduled Trigger: Set it to run daily at 8am. For more information, see Scheduled Trigger.

  2. Add a Get Google Calendar Events action: Configure it to retrieve today's events.

  3. Add a Loop action: Loop through each event returned by the Get Google Calendar Events action.

  4. Inside the Loop, add a Generate Text action: Use the event's title, description, and attendee information to research and prepare a brief summary. For more information, see Generate Text.

  5. After the Loop, add a Send Slack Message action: Combine all the meeting summaries and send them to yourself in Slack. For more information, see Send Slack Message.

Here’s what the results might look like in Slack:

By using the Get Google Calendar Events action, you can automate your meeting preparation and ensure you're always ready for the day ahead.

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