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// 1h agoNEWS
Google fires engineer over unofficial Workspace CLI
Justin Poehnelt, a Senior Developer Relations Engineer at Google, reports being terminated for creating an open-source command-line tool and MCP server for Google services. The incident has sparked industry-wide debate about the death of Google's "20% time" culture and the risks of building unauthorized developer tools under corporate umbrellas.
// ANALYSIS
Google's decision to fire a DevRel engineer for building a widely used developer tool signals the final death knell for its legendary employee-driven innovation culture.
- –The Workspace CLI filled a massive gap in Google's ecosystem, offering developers and AI agents a modern way to interact with Drive, Docs, and Gmail
- –Building an MCP server into the project showed forward-thinking UX, making the termination particularly ironic for someone in Developer Relations
- –The conflict reportedly centered on internal governance and perceived "disruption," highlighting the growing tension between grassroots open-source initiatives and strict corporate control
- –Developers building ecosystem tools while employed at major tech companies face increasing career risks without explicit, top-down approval
// TAGS
google-workspace-climcpclidevtoolopen-source
DISCOVERED
1h ago
2026-06-23
PUBLISHED
4h ago
2026-06-23
RELEVANCE
8/ 10
AUTHOR
justinwp