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Get Today's Events

Get all events for today in your calendar's timezone. Quick convenience tool to see your schedule for the current day.

Overview​

The Get Today's Events tool retrieves all events scheduled for the current day. It automatically:

  • Calculates "today" based on your calendar's timezone (or a specified timezone)
  • Returns events in chronological order
  • Provides summary statistics including total duration
  • Works with any calendar you have access to

Prerequisites​

  • A connected Google Account with OAuth authentication
  • Google Calendar API enabled in your Google Cloud project
  • Setup Guide

Usage​

Basic Usage​

Get all events for today from your primary calendar:

{
  "tool": "google_calendar_Get_Todays_Events",
  "arguments": {}
}

Specific Calendar​

Get today's events from a specific calendar:

{
  "tool": "google_calendar_Get_Todays_Events",
  "arguments": {
    "calendar_id": "work@company.com"
  }
}

Custom Timezone​

View today's events in a different timezone:

{
  "tool": "google_calendar_Get_Todays_Events",
  "arguments": {
    "timezone": "America/New_York"
  }
}

This is useful if you're traveling and want to see "today" in a different timezone than your calendar's default.

Work Calendar​

Get today's events from your work calendar:

{
  "tool": "google_calendar_Get_Todays_Events",
  "arguments": {
    "calendar_id": "xyz123@group.calendar.google.com"
  }
}

Input Parameters​

ParameterTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
calendar_idstringNo"primary"Calendar identifier. Use "primary" for main calendar or ID from List Calendars tool.
timezonestringNocalendar tzIANA timezone (e.g., "America/Los_Angeles"). Determines what "today" means.

Response Format​

Success Response with Events​

{
  "success": true,
  "date": "2024-01-15",
  "day_of_week": "Monday",
  "events": [
    {
      "id": "abc123xyz",
      "calendar_id": "primary",
      "status": "confirmed",
      "summary": "Morning Standup",
      "description": "Daily team sync",
      "location": "",
      "start": "2024-01-15T09:00:00-08:00",
      "end": "2024-01-15T09:30:00-08:00",
      "start_datetime": "2024-01-15T09:00:00-08:00",
      "end_datetime": "2024-01-15T09:30:00-08:00",
      "start_timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
      "end_timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
      "all_day": false,
      "attendees": [],
      "attendees_count": 0,
      "organizer": {
        "email": "you@gmail.com",
        "self": true
      },
      "html_link": "https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=abc123xyz",
      "visibility": "default",
      "transparency": "opaque"
    },
    {
      "id": "xyz789def",
      "calendar_id": "primary",
      "status": "confirmed",
      "summary": "Project Review",
      "description": "Q1 project status",
      "location": "Conference Room B",
      "start": "2024-01-15T14:00:00-08:00",
      "end": "2024-01-15T15:30:00-08:00",
      "start_datetime": "2024-01-15T14:00:00-08:00",
      "end_datetime": "2024-01-15T15:30:00-08:00",
      "start_timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
      "end_timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
      "all_day": false,
      "attendees_count": 3,
      "html_link": "https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=xyz789def"
    }
  ],
  "total_count": 2,
  "calendar_id": "primary",
  "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
  "summary": {
    "total": 2,
    "all_day_events": 0,
    "timed_events": 2,
    "total_duration_minutes": 120
  }
}

Success Response with No Events​

{
  "success": true,
  "date": "2024-01-15",
  "day_of_week": "Monday",
  "events": [],
  "total_count": 0,
  "calendar_id": "primary",
  "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
  "summary": {
    "total": 0,
    "all_day_events": 0,
    "timed_events": 0,
    "total_duration_minutes": 0
  }
}

Response Fields​

FieldTypeDescription
datestringToday's date in YYYY-MM-DD format
day_of_weekstringDay name (Monday, Tuesday, etc.)
eventsarrayList of today's events (see event object fields in Get Events)
total_countintegerTotal number of events today
calendar_idstringWhich calendar was queried
timezonestringTimezone used to determine "today"
Summary
summary.totalintegerTotal events
summary.all_day_eventsintegerCount of all-day events
summary.timed_eventsintegerCount of timed events
summary.total_duration_minutesintegerCombined duration of all timed events (excludes all-day events)

Use Cases​

1. Morning Brief​

Check your schedule at the start of the day:

{
  "tool": "google_calendar_Get_Todays_Events",
  "arguments": {}
}

Perfect for a morning routine or daily planning.

2. Check Remaining Schedule​

See what's left in your day:

{
  "tool": "google_calendar_Get_Todays_Events",
  "arguments": {
    "calendar_id": "primary"
  }
}

Filter the response to show only events after the current time.

3. Multi-Calendar View​

Check both personal and work calendars:

First call:

{
  "tool": "google_calendar_Get_Todays_Events",
  "arguments": {
    "calendar_id": "primary"
  }
}

Second call:

{
  "tool": "google_calendar_Get_Todays_Events",
  "arguments": {
    "calendar_id": "work@company.com"
  }
}

4. Timezone Conversion​

Traveling? See today's events in your destination timezone:

{
  "tool": "google_calendar_Get_Todays_Events",
  "arguments": {
    "timezone": "Asia/Tokyo"
  }
}

5. Calculate Free Time​

Use the total_duration_minutes to calculate available time:

Available time = 480 minutes (8 hours) - total_duration_minutes

Error Handling​

Invalid Timezone​

Error:

{
  "error": "Invalid timezone 'America/LA'. Use IANA timezone format (e.g., 'America/Los_Angeles')"
}

Solution: Use valid IANA timezone names. See IANA timezone database.

Calendar Not Found​

Error:

{
  "error": "Resource not found: Calendar not found"
}

Solution: Use List Calendars to find valid calendar IDs.

Calendar API Not Enabled​

Error:

{
  "error": "Google Calendar API is not enabled in your Google Cloud project..."
}

Solution: Follow Setup Guide to enable the API.

Tips​

  1. Timezone Matters - "Today" is calculated based on the timezone. If your calendar is set to America/Los_Angeles and you call this tool at 11 PM Pacific, you get Pacific time's "today", not UTC's.

  2. Empty Days Are OK - Getting zero events is a successful response, not an error. Perfect for "do I have anything scheduled?" checks.

  3. All-Day Events - These are included in the count but NOT in the duration calculation since they don't have specific hours.

  4. Recurring Events - Each occurrence is shown as a separate event (already expanded).

  5. Use with Other Tools - Combine with Create Event to schedule on free time, or Check Availability to verify gaps.

  6. Default to Primary - When calendar_id is omitted, it defaults to your primary calendar (usually your main Google account calendar).

  7. Event Ordering - Events are returned in chronological order by start time, making it easy to see your day's timeline.

  8. Time Calculation - Use total_duration_minutes to calculate how much of your day is scheduled. Example: If total is 360 minutes, that's 6 hours of scheduled time.

  9. Multi-Day Events - Events that started yesterday but end today are included if their end time is today.

  10. Performance - This is a fast query since it only fetches one day's worth of events.

Limitations​

  1. Single Calendar - Checks one calendar at a time. For multiple calendars, call the tool multiple times.

  2. Today Only - Cannot specify a different date. Use Get Events for custom date ranges.

  3. OAuth Only - Requires Google Account with OAuth (App Passwords don't support Calendar API).

  4. No Filtering - Returns all events for the day. Filter the results in your application if you need only certain types.

  5. Timezone Fallback - If calendar timezone can't be fetched, defaults to UTC.

Billing​

Cost: 1 credit per execution

Fixed cost regardless of how many events are returned.