Apple Mail FDA vs Google OAuth¶
TODO: this page will explain the Gmail content routing decision in detail. We deliberately read Gmail content via Apple Mail and Full Disk Access (FDA), not via Google's Gmail OAuth API.
Cover:
- The structural moat – zero CASA assessment, zero Google API surface, zero token to revoke, zero quota
- What this costs the user (Apple Mail must be configured and syncing) and what it gives them (Google never sees a request from Ostler)
- What we do use Google OAuth for (calendar metadata only, when the user opts in)
- The decision tree for new integrations: prefer FDA over OAuth whenever an Apple-side data source exists
Owner: @andy. Cross-reference:
memory/project_apple_mail_structural_moat.md.