Google Drive MCP Server

The Google Drive MCP Server connects Claude and other MCP-compatible agents to your Google Drive via the official Google Drive API. List folder contents, search across your Drive, read file contents, and create new files — all from within your AI chat session. By default the server operates read-only; write access requires an opt-in flag.

Installation & Configuration

This server uses uvx (part of the uv Python toolchain). Install uv first if you don't have it: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Add this block to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gdrive": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-server-gdrive"],
      "env": {
        "GDRIVE_CREDENTIALS_FILE": "/path/to/credentials.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

To enable write access, add "--allow-writes" to the args array.

Getting your credentials file:

• Go to Google Cloud Console → APIs & Services → Credentials
• Create an OAuth 2.0 Client ID (Desktop app type)
• Download the JSON file and set its path in GDRIVE_CREDENTIALS_FILE
• On first run, a browser window opens for you to authorise access

Config file location:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Available Tools (4)

• list_drive_files
• read_file
• create_file
• search_files

Use Cases

• Document Q&A — ask Claude to summarise or answer questions about Docs/Sheets stored in Drive
• Report generation — have Claude draft a report and create it directly in a shared Drive folder
• File discovery — search across thousands of Drive files to surface the one you need
• Meeting prep — pull recent docs from a project folder before a meeting for instant context

Gotchas

• OAuth consent screen must be published: If your Google Cloud project is in "Testing" mode, only test users you explicitly list can authorise. Switch to "Published" or add yourself as a test user.
• Google Workspace vs personal accounts: Workspace admins sometimes restrict third-party OAuth apps. If authorisation fails, check your org's OAuth policies in the Admin Console.
• Write mode is off by default: Forgetting --allow-writes causes all write calls to fail silently (the tool appears in the list but returns an error). Add the flag explicitly when you need it.
• Token refresh: The OAuth token is cached locally. If it expires and auto-refresh fails (e.g., credentials file was moved), you'll need to re-run the auth flow manually.

Security Note

Source & Documentation