Google Drive MCP Server README

@ibarcarty/mcp-server-google-drive

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Calendar and Gmail drafts with full read/write operations and rich markdown formatting. Search, read, create, edit, delete, move, copy files, edit documents with native formatting, manage spreadsheets, modify presentations, manage calendar events, leave Gmail drafts for human review, and control permissions — including shared drives.

Built with official Google APIs (googleapis) and the official MCP SDK (@modelcontextprotocol/sdk).

Features

• 33 tools for complete Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar and Gmail-draft management
• Google Calendar: list events (recurring events expanded), create timed or all-day events with recurrence (RRULE) and reminders, update, and delete. All-day end dates are inclusive (the server handles the API's exclusive convention)
• Gmail drafts — never send: gmail_create_draft leaves a draft in the user's Drafts folder for human review. By design this server ships no send capability: the human always presses Send in Gmail
• Safe reads for any size: regular files are read by byte ranges (offset/maxBytes) — a 90MB file no longer kills the transport, you page through it
• Office files readable: .docx/.xlsx/.pptx (and legacy/OpenDocument variants) are converted to text on read via a temporary Google Workspace copy — no more lossy binary dumps
• Shared-drive-aware deletes: when permanent deletion is not permitted (non-organizer in a shared drive), the file is moved to trash with a clear explanation instead of a misleading File not found
• File metadata by ID (drive_get_file_info): name, type, size, timestamps, parent folder resolved to its name, shared drive, owners, capabilities
• Rich markdown → Google Docs (docs_write_markdown): headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, code blocks, tables, lists, links, blockquotes — all as native Google Docs formatting
• Document theming (docs_apply_theme): apply a consistent visual theme (typography, colors, spacing, margins) to an entire document. Built-in corporate and minimal themes. Custom themes loadable from a JSON file via env var
• Corporate document templates (docs_apply_corporate_template): initialize a document with title, metadata, change log, classification badge, and footer — useful for standard corporate deliverables
• Google Docs editing: read, append, insert, find & replace, and write formatted markdown
• Google Sheets editing: read, write, append rows, and clear cell ranges
• Google Slides editing: read presentations, add slides, insert text, and find & replace
• File management: create, read, update, delete, move, copy files and folders
• Permissions: share files, list access, revoke permissions
• Shared drives supported by default in all operations
• Google Workspace export: Docs → Markdown, Sheets → CSV, Slides → text
• Two transport modes: local (stdio) and remote (Streamable HTTP for Cloud Run)
• OAuth2 with automatic token refresh
• TypeScript — fully typed, strict mode

Quick Start

1. Set up OAuth credentials

Follow the OAuth Setup Guide to create credentials in Google Cloud Console.

Important: You must enable these APIs in your GCP project:

• Google Drive API
• Google Docs API
• Google Sheets API
• Google Slides API
• Google Calendar API (for the calendar_* tools)

2. Install

From npm:

npx @ibarcarty/mcp-server-google-drive auth

From source:

git clone https://github.com/ibarcarty/mcp-server-google-drive.git
cd mcp-server-google-drive
npm install --ignore-scripts
npm run build
node dist/index.js auth

This opens your browser to authorize with your Google account. Tokens are saved locally.

3. Configure Claude Code / Claude Desktop

From npm:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-drive": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ibarcarty/mcp-server-google-drive"],
      "env": {
        "GDRIVE_MCP_OAUTH_PATH": "/path/to/your/oauth-credentials.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

From source:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-drive": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/mcp-server-google-drive/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GDRIVE_MCP_OAUTH_PATH": "/path/to/your/oauth-credentials.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

See Local Setup Guide for detailed instructions.

Tools

Drive — File Operations

Drive — Permissions

Google Docs — Document Editing

Markdown-to-Docs example

// Write rich markdown to an existing Google Doc
await mcp.callTool("docs_write_markdown", {
  documentId: "1abc...xyz",
  markdown: `
# Project Report

## Summary
This project delivers **three key features**:

- Feature A with *italic emphasis*
- Feature B using \`inline code\`
- Feature C — [see docs](https://example.com)

## Timeline

| Phase | Start | End |
|-------|-------|-----|
| Design | Jan | Feb |
| Build | Mar | May |
`,
  mode: "append",  // or "replace_all"
});

// Apply the built-in corporate theme
await mcp.callTool("docs_apply_theme", {
  documentId: "1abc...xyz",
  theme: "corporate",
});

Custom themes

Built-in themes (corporate, minimal) cover most cases. For custom branding, point GDRIVE_MCP_CUSTOM_THEMES_PATH to a JSON file:

{
  "my-brand": {
    "name": "my-brand",
    "fontFamily": "Arial",
    "lineSpacing": 115,
    "margins": { "top": 71, "bottom": 71, "left": 71, "right": 71 },
    "styles": {
      "TITLE":       { "fontSize": 26, "bold": true, "color": { "red": 0.0,  "green": 0.32, "blue": 0.53 }, "spaceAbove": 0,  "spaceBelow": 12 },
      "SUBTITLE":    { "fontSize": 16,                "color": { "red": 0.18, "green": 0.18, "blue": 0.18 }, "spaceAbove": 0,  "spaceBelow": 12 },
      "HEADING_1":   { "fontSize": 20, "bold": true, "color": { "red": 0.0,  "green": 0.32, "blue": 0.53 }, "spaceAbove": 16, "spaceBelow": 6 },
      "HEADING_2":   { "fontSize": 16, "bold": true, "color": { "red": 0.30, "green": 0.51, "blue": 0.74 }, "spaceAbove": 12, "spaceBelow": 4 },
      "HEADING_3":   { "fontSize": 13, "bold": true, "color": { "red": 0.30, "green": 0.51, "blue": 0.74 }, "spaceAbove": 10, "spaceBelow": 4 },
      "HEADING_4":   { "fontSize": 12, "bold": true, "color": { "red": 0.18, "green": 0.18, "blue": 0.18 }, "spaceAbove": 8,  "spaceBelow": 2 },
      "HEADING_5":   { "fontSize": 11, "bold": true, "color": { "red": 0.18, "green": 0.18, "blue": 0.18 }, "spaceAbove": 6,  "spaceBelow": 2 },
      "HEADING_6":   { "fontSize": 10, "bold": true, "color": { "red": 0.18, "green": 0.18, "blue": 0.18 }, "spaceAbove": 6,  "spaceBelow": 2 },
      "NORMAL_TEXT": { "fontSize": 11,                "color": { "red": 0.18, "green": 0.18, "blue": 0.18 }, "spaceAbove": 0,  "spaceBelow": 4 }
    }
  }
}

Then apply it by name: { theme: "my-brand" }.

The markdown is parsed with remark + remark-gfm (CommonMark + GFM extensions) and converted to native Google Docs batchUpdate requests (insertText, updateTextStyle, updateParagraphStyle, insertTable, createParagraphBullets, updateTableCellStyle). No markdown characters remain in the document — it becomes native Google Docs formatting.

Google Sheets — Spreadsheet Editing

Google Slides — Presentation Editing

Google Calendar — Event Management

Gmail — Drafts only (red line: no sending)

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables. All are optional with sensible defaults.

On Windows, the default config directory is %APPDATA%/mcp-server-google-drive/.

Deployment

Local (recommended for personal use)

Uses stdio transport. See Local Setup Guide.

Google Cloud Run (for teams)

Uses Streamable HTTP transport. See Cloud Run Deployment Guide.

Development

git clone https://github.com/ibarcarty/mcp-server-google-drive.git
cd mcp-server-google-drive
npm install --ignore-scripts
npm run build
npm test          # unit tests (node:test via tsx, API fully mocked)
npm run smoke     # live smoke test against the real Drive API (requires credentials; creates and removes its own fixtures)

OAuth Scopes

This server uses https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive (full Drive access — also covers Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides) plus https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar (Google Calendar) and https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.compose (Gmail drafts) by default.

About gmail.compose: Google offers no drafts-only scope — gmail.compose technically permits sending. This server's guarantee is structural: it ships no send tool (nothing calls drafts.send or messages.send, enforced by contract tests). If you don't want the Gmail tools at all, set GDRIVE_MCP_SCOPES without gmail.compose.

Upgrading from ≤1.3.x: tokens saved before an upgrade lack the newer scopes (calendar since v1.3.0, gmail.compose since v1.4.0). Re-run the auth flow once (node dist/index.js auth or npx @ibarcarty/mcp-server-google-drive auth) to grant them; the affected tools return an actionable error until then.

If you only need access to files created by this app, you can use the more restrictive drive.file scope:

GDRIVE_MCP_SCOPES=https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file npx @ibarcarty/mcp-server-google-drive auth

Note: The drive scope requires Google verification for apps with 100+ users. For personal use or small teams (< 100 users), testing mode works without verification.

Limitations

• docs_write_markdown covers CommonMark + GFM (headings, emphasis, lists, links, code blocks, blockquotes, tables, strikethrough). Images, footnotes, and task lists with interactive checkboxes are rendered as plain text or placeholders.
• Google Slides editing supports text operations and adding slides. Complex layout operations (positioning shapes, animations) require using the raw Slides API.
• Export of Workspace files has a 10MB limit (Google API limitation).
• Binary file uploads are limited to text content passed as strings. For large binary files, use Google Drive directly.
• Binary files (PDF, images, archives…) are reported with their metadata but not returned inline — decoding them as text would be lossy. Office files are the exception: they are converted to text on read.
• drive_read_file returns at most 2MB per call (default window 200KB). Page through larger files with offset.
• Reading a byte range of a UTF-8 text file may split a multibyte character at the window boundaries.

Changelog

v1.4.0

• NEW Gmail drafts (1 tool, test-first with 7 contract tests): gmail_create_draft builds an RFC 2822 message (RFC 2047 UTF-8 subject encoding, base64 body, CRLF header-injection rejected) and creates a DRAFT via users.drafts.create.
• Red line by design: the server never sends email. No send tool exists; the contract tests assert zero calls to drafts.send/messages.send in every scenario. The user reviews drafts in Gmail and sends manually.
• Default OAuth scopes now include https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.compose. Existing tokens keep working for everything else; re-run the auth flow once to enable the draft tool. Requires the Gmail API enabled in the GCP project.

v1.3.0

• NEW Google Calendar support (4 tools, test-first with 13 contract tests): calendar_list_events (recurring events expanded via singleEvents, ordered by start time), calendar_create_event (timed or all-day; RRULE recurrence; popup/email reminders; Europe/Madrid default timezone; 1h default duration; inclusive all-day end dates converted to the API's exclusive convention), calendar_update_event (patch semantics), calendar_delete_event.
• Default OAuth scopes now include https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar. Existing tokens keep working for Drive/Docs/Sheets/Slides; re-run the auth flow once to enable the calendar tools. A 403 for a missing scope returns an actionable message instead of a raw API error.
• Requires the Google Calendar API to be enabled in the GCP project.

v1.2.0

Four defects found using the server against a large real-world Drive, all fixed test-first (17 unit tests + an 11-case live smoke suite, test/):

• FIX drive_read_file no longer downloads files whole: reads go through byte ranges (Range header) with a 200KB default window and new offset/maxBytes parameters. Previously a 90MB file crashed the stdio transport (Connection closed). Truncated responses say exactly how to continue.
• FIX drive_read_file converts Office files (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, legacy and OpenDocument variants) to text via a temporary Google Workspace copy (always cleaned up, even on failure). Previously the raw bytes were decoded as UTF-8, producing irreversible U+FFFD mojibake. Binary files (PDF, images, archives) are now reported instead of dumped; binary export formats of Workspace files get a clear message pointing to the text formats.
• FIX drive_delete_file handles shared drives correctly: the Drive API answers an ambiguous 404 "File not found" (not 403) when a non-organizer attempts a permanent delete in a shared drive — verified live, with and without supportsAllDrives. The tool now checks capabilities first and falls back to moving the item to the trash with a transparent message; a genuine 404 explains both possible causes.
• NEW drive_get_file_info: metadata for a file/folder ID — name, type, size, timestamps, parent folder resolved to its name, shared drive name, owners, capabilities, links. Previously there was no way to identify an item from its ID without listing its contents.
• FIX The MCP server now announces its real version (was hardcoded to an older one).

v1.1.1

• Maintenance: harden build script to clean dist/ before compiling (prevents stale artifacts from previous compilations being published). Users should upgrade from v1.1.0 to this version.
• No functional changes vs v1.1.0.

v1.1.0

• NEW docs_write_markdown: convert GitHub Flavored Markdown to native Google Docs formatting (headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, code blocks, tables, lists, links, blockquotes).
• NEW docs_apply_theme: apply a consistent visual theme across a document. Built-in themes: corporate (Arial, corporate blue), minimal (Inter, neutral). Custom themes can be loaded from a JSON file via GDRIVE_MCP_CUSTOM_THEMES_PATH.
• NEW docs_apply_corporate_template: initialize a document with a standard corporate structure (title, metadata, change log, classification badge, footer).
• Parser powered by unified + remark-parse + remark-gfm (industry standard).
• Zero extra token cost vs raw text — model sends markdown, server handles the conversion.

v1.0.1

• Initial public release with 24 tools across Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides.

License

MIT