Colab Drive MCP

An MCP server for safely inspecting, editing, and synchronizing Google Colab-compatible .ipynb notebooks through Google Drive.

[!IMPORTANT] This is a notebook file synchronization server, not a notebook execution service. It transfers and edits .ipynb files through Google Drive. It does not connect to Colab runtimes, execute cells, click Run all, keep sessions alive, automate the Colab browser UI, or bypass Colab limits.

Use this MCP when an AI agent needs to prepare a notebook locally, synchronize it with Drive, inspect completed outputs, or return an edited notebook to the user. Open and execute the synchronized notebook separately in Colab, Jupyter, VS Code, or another notebook runtime.

Features

• Inspect and edit notebook cells without loading the entire notebook.
• Create, search, copy, upload, and download notebooks.
• Report live upload and download progress to MCP clients that request it.
• Compare local and Drive notebook copies using Drive metadata and content MD5.
• Keep local file access inside a configured root directory.
• Normalize Colab-specific stream output metadata during downloads.
• Diagnose Google Drive setup without unexpectedly opening a browser.
• Return actionable errors for missing credentials, expired authorization, permissions, missing files, and rate limits.

Non-goals

• Starting, controlling, or monitoring a Google Colab runtime.
• Detecting whether a Colab runtime is connected, busy, or executing a file.
• Executing notebook cells locally or remotely.
• Browser automation, automatic Run all, or unattended Colab sessions.
• Circumventing Colab quotas, idle timeouts, access controls, or usage policies.
• Deploying or running the project contained inside a notebook.

AI Contract

The MCP initialization response includes server-wide instructions that define this project as file synchronization only. Tool descriptions repeat the same boundary where it matters.

manifest.0 provides the same purpose, capabilities, and non-goals as a typed Zero language contract for agents and repository tooling.

Tools

Setup

• get_google_drive_status: diagnose dependencies, credentials, token, and scope.
• authorize_google_drive: explicitly open the Google OAuth browser flow.

Local notebooks

• list_local_notebooks, get_local_notebook, create_local_notebook
• add_local_cell, update_local_cell, delete_local_cell
• search_local_cells, clear_local_outputs

Google Drive

• list_drive_notebooks, pull_drive_notebook, push_local_notebook
• get_notebook_sync_status, copy_drive_notebook, get_colab_url

pull_drive_notebook and push_local_notebook synchronize notebook files. They send MCP progress notifications when the client supplies a progress token, but clients decide whether and how to display those notifications. They never execute notebook code. get_colab_url returns a URL but does not open a browser.

get_notebook_sync_status compares the local notebook's upload representation with Drive's MD5 checksum and returns in_sync, differs, remote_only, or unknown. It also returns Drive metadata such as modification time and version. It cannot determine whether Colab is currently executing the notebook because Google Drive does not expose Colab runtime activity.

Install

Run directly from PyPI with uvx:

COLAB_MCP_ROOT="$HOME/notebooks" uvx --from 'colab-drive-mcp[drive]' colab-drive-mcp

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/YummyTastyCode/colab-drive-mcp.git
cd colab-drive-mcp
python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -e '.[drive]'

Run the server:

COLAB_MCP_ROOT="$HOME/notebooks" .venv/bin/colab-drive-mcp

Local tools can access only .ipynb files below COLAB_MCP_ROOT.

The server is published in the official MCP Registry as:

io.github.YummyTastyCode/colab-drive-mcp

Google Drive Setup

First call get_google_drive_status. It does not open a browser or modify files. Its response explains the next required step.

To enable Drive:

1. Create a Google Cloud project.
2. Enable the Google Drive API.
3. Configure the OAuth consent screen and add your account as a test user.
4. Create an OAuth Client ID with application type Desktop app.
5. Download the JSON to ~/.config/colab-mcp/credentials.json.
6. Call authorize_google_drive and complete the Google sign-in flow.

The resulting token is stored at ~/.config/colab-mcp/token.json.

Override these locations with:

• COLAB_MCP_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS
• COLAB_MCP_GOOGLE_TOKEN

Never commit OAuth credentials or tokens.

Drive Access Modes

The default mode is file, using Google's narrower drive.file scope:

COLAB_MCP_DRIVE_ACCESS=file

This mode can access files created or explicitly opened by this OAuth app. It cannot reliably list all existing notebooks in a user's Drive.

To find and update existing Drive notebooks, explicitly enable full access:

COLAB_MCP_DRIVE_ACCESS=full

Changing access modes may require deleting token.json and calling authorize_google_drive again.

Codex Configuration

codex mcp add colab-drive \
  --env COLAB_MCP_ROOT="$HOME/notebooks" \
  --env COLAB_MCP_DRIVE_ACCESS=file \
  -- /absolute/path/to/colab-drive-mcp/.venv/bin/colab-drive-mcp

VS Code Configuration

Add this server to the VS Code MCP configuration:

{
  "servers": {
    "colab-drive": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/colab-drive-mcp/.venv/bin/colab-drive-mcp",
      "env": {
        "COLAB_MCP_ROOT": "/absolute/path/to/notebooks",
        "COLAB_MCP_DRIVE_ACCESS": "file"
      }
    }
  }
}

Colab Compatibility

Google Colab may add a metadata property to stream outputs. That property is invalid under the standard nbformat v4 schema. During Drive downloads, this server removes only that incompatible property. Stream text and all other outputs are preserved.

Security

• OAuth tokens stay on the local machine.
• Local tools are restricted to COLAB_MCP_ROOT.
• Authorization requires an explicit authorize_google_drive call.
• Use file access unless full Drive discovery is required.
• Review actions before overwriting an existing Drive file.

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.

Development

.venv/bin/pip install -e '.[drive,test]'
.venv/bin/pytest