Skip to main content
The Google Drive connector gives the agent read access to a user’s Drive — Google Sheets, Excel, CSV and documents all become available to search and read. Every user connects their own Google account, and the agent works against that account’s files.
The Google Drive connector is part of the Enterprise Edition.

​
How it works

This is a per-user connection: catalog_ownership is per_user, so there is no shared, admin-curated catalog. Each user’s own Drive is their catalog, and no two users’ catalogs overlap unless their Drives do. That is why the connector has no config fields — there is nothing for an admin to scope. The admin’s only job is registering the OAuth client; the users do the rest by signing in. Once a user has connected, Bag of words reads their Drive with the Drive API (https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3) and Google-native spreadsheets with the Sheets API (https://sheets.googleapis.com/v4). .csv, .tsv, .xlsx and .xls are parsed into tables; .pdf, .docx and .pptx are text-extracted. Access is read-only — the connector requests read-only scopes and cannot modify Drive. See User context and per-user data for how per-user connections behave in a conversation.

​
Before you start

  • A Google Cloud project you can administer.
  • The Google Drive API and Google Sheets API enabled in that project.
  • Permission to configure the project’s OAuth consent screen.
  • Your Bag of words base URL, for the redirect URI.

​
Step 1 — Create a Google OAuth client

1

Configure the OAuth consent screen

In the Google Cloud console → APIs & Services → OAuth consent screen. For a Google Workspace organization, choose Internal so only your own users can consent.
2

Enable the APIs

Under APIs & Services → Library, enable the Google Drive API and the Google Sheets API.
3

Create the credentials

APIs & Services → Credentials → Create credentials → OAuth client ID. Choose application type Web application.
It must be a Web application client. Desktop, Android/iOS, and service-account credentials do not work with the authorization-code flow Bag of words uses.
4

Add the redirect URI

Under Authorized redirect URIs, add:
Replace <your-bow-host> with your Bag of words base URL.
5

Copy the client ID and secret

Copy the Client ID and Client secret — these go into Bag of words.

​
Scopes requested at sign-in

If your consent screen lists scopes explicitly, add these. Both Drive scopes are read-only.

​
Connect in Bag of words

Go to Data Sources → Add data source → Google Drive. There are no config fields — you only supply the OAuth client.

​
Authentication modes

​
Google OAuth Client — oauth_app

Scopes: system and user. This is the admin-side registration of the Google Cloud OAuth client.

​
Sign in with Google — oauth

Scope: user only, no fields. Each user clicks Connect, consents in Google, and the resulting token is what the connector uses for that person. Nothing is shared between users. See Authentication and access.

​
Alternative: the Google Drive MCP preset

Bag of words also ships a Google Drive (MCP Preview) preset that reaches Drive through Google’s preview MCP server (https://drivemcp.googleapis.com/mcp/v1) rather than this native connector. It also needs a Google OAuth client, and it gives the agent Google’s own Drive tools instead of the Bag of words file catalog. Add it from Data Sources → Add data source → MCP and pick the Google Drive preset. See MCP servers. Use the native connector when you want Drive files in the standard file catalog with Bag of words parsing and search; use the MCP preset when you specifically want Google’s tool surface.

​
Troubleshooting

The Authorized redirect URIs list on the OAuth client must contain https://<your-bow-host>/api/connections/oauth/callback exactly, matching your Bag of words base URL.
The connection is missing oauth_client_id / oauth_client_secret. Both must be set on the connection before any user can sign in.
Set workspace_domain to your Workspace domain so the authorize URL carries the hd hint.
The Google Sheets API is not enabled in the Cloud project, or the spreadsheets.readonly scope was not consented. Native Google spreadsheets are read via the Sheets API, not the Drive API.