Google Drive (gdrive)

The gdrive connector indexes files in a Google Drive. Google-native Docs, Sheets, and Slides are exported to text or CSV-like content; regular files are converted like any document tree.

How MFS sees it

The tree mirrors the Drive folder structure the credential can see:

gdrive://engineering/
└── Product/
    ├── Roadmap.txt        document  (exported from a Google Doc)
    └── Design.pdf         document

Credentials

Google Drive uses a user OAuth token JSON — the token.json from Google's OAuth flow, containing refresh_token / client_id / client_secret. Service-account keys are not supported.

1. GCP Console → APIs & Services → Library → enable Google Drive API.
2. Credentials → Create Credentials → OAuth client ID → Desktop app → Download JSON (the client credentials).
3. Run Google's OAuth flow once on a machine with a browser (e.g. InstalledAppFlow.run_local_server) requesting scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly. This writes token.json.
4. Copy token.json to the server and reference it from the TOML.

The authorized user must already be able to see the files — their own files plus anything explicitly shared with them. If you also use gmail, request gmail.readonly in the same consent step and one token.json drives both.

Configuration

token = "file:/home/x/.mfs/gdrive-token.json"

Sync and freshness

The connector uses each file's modifiedTime as its cursor; deletions are caught by full_scan.

This is one of two connectors (with feishu) that honors --since. The connector enumerates the whole Drive the credential can see, which can be large, so for a big account index recent files first: estimate the size (optionally with a since date), then mfs add gdrive://<alias> --since <date> indexes only files modified on or after that date. Older files are left untouched (never deleted) and can be added later by lowering --since.

Search and browse

mfs add gdrive://engineering --config ./gdrive.toml

mfs search "roadmap" gdrive://engineering/Product/
mfs cat gdrive://engineering/Product/Roadmap.txt --range 1:80
mfs export gdrive://engineering/Product/Design.pdf /tmp/design.pdf

Pitfalls

• The credential only sees files the user owns or that are shared with them.
• Headless server: the OAuth flow needs a browser the first time — run it on a workstation, then copy token.json over.
• 401/403 usually means a revoked token or a consent that missed drive.readonly; re-run the OAuth flow.
• Google-native files are exported; their comments are not indexed.