glean-tools-guide

Glean Tools Selection Guide

This skill provides guidance on selecting and using Glean MCP tools effectively.

Skills vs Agents vs Commands

This plugin uses three component types:

• Skills (like this one): Auto-triggered guidance that helps Claude select the right tools
• Agents (e.g., enterprise-searcher): Autonomous workers spawned for complex multi-step tasks
• Commands (e.g., /glean-search:search): User-triggered structured workflows

Skills provide knowledge; agents do work; commands orchestrate workflows.

Tool Naming Convention

Glean MCP tools follow the pattern:

mcp__glean_[server-name]__[tool]

Where [server-name] is dynamic and configured per user (e.g., default, production, acme). The tool suffix is always consistent. When invoking tools, use whatever Glean server is available in your tool list.

Available Tools Overview

Tool Suffix	Purpose	Use When
search	Document discovery	Finding docs, wikis, policies, specs
employee_search	People lookup	Finding people, org chart, teams
meeting_lookup	Meeting search	Finding meetings, transcripts, decisions
gmail_search	Email search	Finding emails, attachments
code_search	Code discovery	Finding internal code, commits
user_activity	Activity feed	Finding your recent actions and interactions
read_document	Full content	Reading complete document by URL
chat	AI synthesis	Complex analysis across sources

Tool Selection Decision Tree

User question about...
├── People, "who", org chart → employee_search
├── Meetings, decisions, action items → meeting_lookup
├── Emails, attachments → gmail_search
├── Internal code, commits → code_search
├── "My activity", "what have I done", recent actions → user_activity
├── Documents, policies, specs → search
├── Need full document content → read_document (with URL)
└── Complex multi-source analysis → chat

Critical Rules

1. Never Use Regular Search for People

# WRONG
search "John Smith"

# CORRECT
employee_search "John Smith"

2. Search → Read Workflow

When users need document details:

1. First: search to find documents
2. Then: read_document with URL from results

3. Use Chat for Synthesis

When the question requires reasoning across multiple sources:

chat "What are our authentication best practices based on recent RFCs and security policies?"

Query Filter Reference

Document Search (search) - Structured Parameters

The search tool uses separate parameters (not inline query filters):

Parameter	Type	Description
query	string	Keywords to find documents (required)
owner	string	Filter by document creator ("person name", "me", "myteam")
from	string	Filter by who updated/commented/created ("person name", "me", "myteam")
updated	string	Filter by update date (today, yesterday, past_week, past_2_weeks, past_month, or month name)
after	string	Documents created after date (YYYY-MM-DD format, no future dates)
before	string	Documents created before date (YYYY-MM-DD format)
app	enum	Filter by datasource (e.g., confluence, github, gdrive, slack, jira, notion)
type	enum	Filter by type: pull, spreadsheet, slides, email, direct message, folder
channel	string	Filter by Slack channel name
exhaustive	boolean	Return all matching results (use for "all", "each", "every" requests)
sort_by_recency	boolean	Sort by newest first (only when user wants "latest" or "most recent")

Code Search Filters (code_search) - Inline Query Syntax

Code search uses inline filters in the query string:

Person Filters:

• owner:"person name" or owner:me - Filter by commit creator
• from:"person name" or from:me - Filter by code file/commit updater

Date Filters:

• updated:today|yesterday|past_week|past_month - Filter by update date
• after:YYYY-MM-DD - Commits/files changed after date
• before:YYYY-MM-DD - Commits/files changed before date

Employee Search Filters (employee_search) - Inline Query Syntax

• reportsto:"manager name" - Find direct reports (NOT for finding who someone reports to)
• startafter:YYYY-MM-DD - People who started after date
• startbefore:YYYY-MM-DD - People who started before date
• roletype:"individual contributor"|"manager" - Filter by role type
• sortby:hire_date_ascending|hire_date_descending|most_reports - Sort results

Meeting Lookup Filters (meeting_lookup) - Inline Query Syntax

Important: meeting_lookup works best with natural language queries. Date filter syntax does NOT work reliably.

Natural language dates (recommended):

• "standup last week" - Meetings from last week
• "design review past 2 weeks" - Recent meetings
• "1:1 with John tomorrow" - Future meetings
• "team sync yesterday" - Yesterday's meetings

Other filters that work:

• participants:"name" - Filter by attendees
• topic:"subject" - Filter by meeting subject/title
• extract_transcript:"true" - Include meeting content/transcript

Note: Inline date filters (after:, before:) do not work reliably with meeting_lookup. Use natural language dates instead.

Gmail Search Filters (gmail_search) - Inline Query Syntax

• from:"person"|"[email protected]"|"me" - Filter by sender
• to:"person"|"[email protected]"|"me" - Filter by recipient
• subject:"text" - Filter by subject line
• has:attachment|document|spreadsheet|presentation - Filter by attachment type
• is:important|starred|read|unread|snoozed - Filter by email status
• label:INBOX|SENT|TRASH|DRAFT|SPAM - Filter by folder/label
• after:YYYY-MM-DD / before:YYYY-MM-DD - Date range

User Activity Parameters (user_activity)

The user_activity tool uses date range parameters (not query filters):

• start_date - Start date in YYYY-MM-DD format (inclusive, required)
• end_date - End date in YYYY-MM-DD format (exclusive, required)

Use for: standup notes, weekly summaries, 1:1 prep, finding documents you touched but forgot.

Example Tool Calls

These examples show the correct syntax for each tool type.

Search (Structured Parameters)

Pass filters as separate parameters, not in the query string:

search(query="authentication RFC", app="confluence", updated="past_month")
search(query="API design", owner="me", sort_by_recency=true)
search(query="onboarding guide", from="John Smith", after="2024-01-01")

Code Search (Inline Filters)

Include filters directly in the query string:

code_search("authentication handler owner:me updated:past_week")
code_search("payment processor after:2024-06-01 before:2024-12-01")
code_search("API endpoint from:\"Jane Doe\"")

Employee Search (Inline Filters)

Include filters directly in the query string:

employee_search("engineering manager reportsto:\"VP Engineering\"")
employee_search("backend engineer startafter:2024-01-01")
employee_search("data scientist roletype:\"individual contributor\"")

Meeting Lookup (Natural Language + Inline Filters)

Use natural language for dates; inline filters for other criteria:

meeting_lookup("my meetings today extract_transcript:\"true\"")
meeting_lookup("standup last week participants:\"John Smith\"")
meeting_lookup("design review past 2 weeks topic:\"architecture\"")

Note: Date filters (after:, before:) are documented but don't work reliably in practice. Use natural language dates instead ("today", "yesterday", "last week", "past 2 weeks").

User Activity (Structured Parameters)

Pass date range as separate parameters:

user_activity(start_date="2024-01-08", end_date="2024-01-15")

Filter Best Practices

Structured vs Inline Filters:

• search uses structured parameters - pass filters as separate tool arguments
• code_search, employee_search, gmail_search, meeting_lookup use inline filters in the query string

When to Use Date Filters:

• Use updated: for relative timeframes ("last week", "past month")
• Use after:/before: for date ranges ("between Jan and March", "since 2024")
• Avoid date filters for "latest" or "recent" without specific timeframe
• For meeting_lookup, prefer natural language dates over inline filters

Person Filter Guidelines:

• Use quotes for multi-word names: from:"John Smith"
• Use owner: for document creators, from: for broader involvement
• Use me when user refers to themselves

Search Strategy:

• Start broad, then narrow with filters if too many results
• For search: add filter parameters to narrow results
• For other tools: add inline filters to the query string
• Use the exhaustive parameter on search for exhaustive results ("all", "each", "every")

Common Pitfalls:

• Don't use after: with future dates
• For search, pass channel and app as separate parameters
• Quote multi-word filter values in inline syntax: from:"John Smith"

Best Practices

1. Cite sources: Always include URLs so users can verify
2. Start broad, then narrow: Use filters to refine if too many results
3. Combine signals: For expertise, check code + docs + meetings
4. Respect permissions: Results are filtered by user access
5. Note when empty: No results is useful information

Related Commands

Point users to structured workflows when appropriate:

• /glean-search:search - Quick search
• /glean-people:find-expert - Expertise discovery
• /glean-meetings:catch-up - Return from time off
• /glean-meetings:meeting-prep - Meeting preparation
• /glean-people:stakeholders - Stakeholder mapping
• /glean-docs:onboarding - Team onboarding
• /glean-docs:verify-rfc - Spec verification