Block Focus Time on Google Calendar with Claude Code (gws recipe)

Has your assistant add recurring focus-time blocks to Google Calendar so your deep work hours show as busy.

Installs: 30.7K; on skills.sh
Stars: 32K; on GitHub
Updated: Oct 2026; last repo commit

This is a two-step recipe from the googleworkspace/cli repo. It inserts a recurring event called Focus Time on your primary calendar, then shows your agenda to check that the block counts as busy.

It loads gws-calendar first and runs the gws program for every step. The example is 9:00 to 11:00 on weekdays in New York time, starting January 20, 2025, so change the hours, zone and start date.

The example creates one event on 2025-01-20, 09:00 to 11:00 in America/New_York, with a rule that repeats Monday to Friday and has no UNTIL or COUNT, so the series runs until you delete it. Change the start date, hours and time zone first. The event has a title and a description and no attendees field.

Good for

People who want protected hours for deep work on their calendar
People whose AI assistant can already run terminal commands and who use the gws command line

Install recipe-block-focus-time

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the recipe-block-focus-time skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

npx skills add https://github.com/googleworkspace/cli --skill recipe-block-focus-time --skill gws-calendar --skill gws-shared

Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.

2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.

Requires Node.js.

This installs 3 skills: the recipe, the gws skills it loads (gws-calendar) and gws-shared, which those skills tell the agent to read for sign-in and safety rules. The skills only wrap the gws program, so install gws first and sign in once with gws auth login. The README says an unverified Google app limits consent to about 25 scopes, so choose only the services you need when you sign in.

From the vendor's docs. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Create recurring focus time blocks on Google Calendar to protect deep work hours.

Sections in SKILL.md

Steps

Key facts

Author: googleworkspace (GitHub organization)
License: Apache-2.0
Installs on skills.sh: 30,690 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars: 32,038 for the whole repo (Nov 2, 2026)
Status: Not an officially supported Google product
What installs: 1 file (SKILL.md). It tells the agent to load gws-calendar first.
Needs: The gws program on your PATH, plus a Google sign-in
Last commit: Oct 30, 2026 (repo)

What it includes

Inserts a weekday event marked as busy
Runs events insert on your primary calendar with the summary Focus Time, a weekday recurrence rule and transparency set to opaque, which makes you show as busy.
Try: “Block 9 to 11 every weekday morning as Focus Time.”
Write · Create recurring focus block
Shows your agenda to confirm the block
Runs gws calendar +agenda so you can see the new block.
Try: “Show my agenda and confirm Focus Time is there.”
Network · Verify it shows as busy

From the official docs

Permissions

Medium risk

The assistant can add a repeating event to your calendar. Check the hours and start date before it creates the series.

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only mode

Watch out for

It adds a recurring event to your calendar
Step 1 inserts a weekly block on your primary calendar that repeats Monday to Friday. Check the time and the start date, then remove it from Calendar if you change your mind. github.com
Needs the gws program and a Google sign-in first
The skill only wraps the gws command line. Install gws and run its sign-in before the first use, as the README describes. github.com

Technical details

Turning on read-only	The skill has no read-only switch. gws-shared tells the agent to confirm write and delete commands with you and to prefer --dry-run for destructive operations. You can also sign in with only the services you need.
Talks to	Google Workspace APIs, through the gws program
Sign-in and keys	gws keeps your Google sign-in encrypted on your machine, with the key in your operating system keyring, per the README.

Questions

What does the recipe-block-focus-time skill do?

It tells your assistant how to add a recurring Focus Time block to Google Calendar. All steps run through the gws command line.

How do I install it?

Use the install box above. It installs this recipe, the gws skills it loads and gws-shared. The gws program itself is a separate install, and you sign in to Google once before the first run.

Do I need an API key?

No key is named in the skill. You need the gws program and a Google account with access to Google Workspace. The README says gws needs a Google Cloud project for OAuth sign-in credentials. gws auth setup creates one but requires the gcloud CLI, so without gcloud you set up OAuth by hand in the Cloud Console.

Does it work in the Claude app or ChatGPT?

The repo documents no route for them. The skill's steps are gws shell commands, so you need an assistant that can run commands on your computer, such as a coding agent.

Does it invite other people?

The recipe's event lists no attendees. It sets only a title, description, times, a weekday recurrence and the busy setting.

Is it safe?

It creates a repeating event on your calendar, which you can delete in Calendar. Check the hours first. The skill bundles no scripts of its own.

Is this an official Google skill?

No. The README says gws is not an officially supported Google product, although the repo sits under the googleworkspace GitHub organization.

How is it different from the other Calendar recipes?

It blocks time for you alone. recipe-schedule-recurring-event uses the same events insert call but adds attendees, for a weekly standup that repeats on Mondays, and it checks the result with +agenda --days 14. recipe-find-free-time looks up other people's free and busy times. This recipe adds transparency set to opaque so the hours show as busy.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: googleworkspace/cli
Folder: skills/recipe-block-focus-time

googleworkspace/cli skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 10

googleworkspace/cli README · github.com
recipe-block-focus-time SKILL.md · github.com
gws-drive SKILL.md · github.com
skills CLI commands · github.com
recipe-schedule-recurring-event SKILL.md · github.com
recipe-find-free-time SKILL.md · github.com
gws-calendar-agenda SKILL.md · github.com
googleworkspace/cli LICENSE · github.com
recipe-block-focus-time on skills.sh · skills.sh
gws-shared SKILL.md · github.com