We’ve been testing an internal tool I vibe-coded to replace our support desk workflow. It’s a Chrome extension that runs on top of Gmail's delegated inbox (neglected by Google and missing some features to make it useful) and uses a single Google Sheet in Drive as the data store. No backend, no server, no external services. It’s been running internally for ~2 weeks and has held up well enough that we’re considering replacing our existing $10k/year SaaS vendor. Why I built it Gmail and Google Workspace have had the primitives for a proper shared inbox for years - labels, filters, threads, roles, Groups, Drive, and robust APIs. But the delegated mailbox/shared inbox capability has remained largely untouched and, in practice, isn’t particularly useful for teams. It solves only a small fraction of the actual collaboration problem. That gap led me to build something lightweight on top of Gmail itself. Our support workflow didn’t require the full weight of a dedicated support desk platform. We needed a shared inbox, internal notes, assignment, and basic ticket metadata. The goal wasn’t to rebuild Zendesk. It was to build the minimum useful set of features inside Workspace, without forwarding emails or sending customer data through more vendors. How it works Chrome extension - sidebar - displays current thread info if any Auth uses chrome.identity → Google OAuth Sheet (Drive-owned) stores ticket metadata, shared with the team Attachments saved to a Drive folder Labels control assignment + status (Pending/Closed) Footer with internal ticket ID (searchable via Gmail) “People in thread” resolver + quick history lookup Everything happens client-side. There is no backend. Why a spreadsheet? For an MVP, it worked surprisingly well: version history no schema migrations trivial rollback owned by the Workspace admin If this ever evolves, I’d use a proper database, but for now the Sheet keeps everything simple and contained. A fun exploration of what you can assemble quickly within Google Workspace. |