How to connect Google Drive to Claude Cowork

Cowork is Anthropic's AI agent for knowledge work. Think of it as Claude Code for everything else. It works autonomously with your computer, local files, and applications to accomplish complex tasks. This guide walks you through the easiest and most secure way to connect your Google Drive account to Cowork via Composio Connect, enabling it to create a new folder named 'Invoices', share last uploaded file with your team, add comment to project proposal document, and more such actions on your behalf without compromising your account security.

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Google Drive is a cloud storage platform for uploading, sharing, and collaborating on files. It's perfect for keeping your documents accessible and organized across devices.

76 Tools7 Triggers

Introduction

Cowork is Anthropic's AI agent for knowledge work. Think of it as Claude Code for everything else. It works autonomously with your computer, local files, and applications to accomplish complex tasks.

This guide walks you through the easiest and most secure way to connect your Google Drive account to Cowork via Composio Connect, enabling it to create a new folder named 'Invoices', share last uploaded file with your team, add comment to project proposal document, and more such actions on your behalf without compromising your account security.

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Connecting Google Drive to Claude Cowork

1. Open Customize

In Claude Desktop, click Customize in the left sidebar, then select Connectors and click the + icon at the top.

Claude Desktop connectors screen with Add custom connector selected

2. Add the Composio MCP server

Click Add custom connector and paste in the Composio MCP server URL:

bash
https://connect.composio.dev/mcp
Add custom connector dialog with Composio MCP server URL

3. Authorize in your browser

Click Connect. You'll be redirected to a browser window where you can authorize Composio to continue.

Composio authorization screen for Claude Cowork

4. Connect your Google Drive account

Back in Cowork, ask the agent to connect to Google Drive or give it any Google Drive-related task.

For example, ask Cowork to:

  • "Create a new folder named 'Invoices'"
  • "Share last uploaded file with your team"
  • "Add comment to project proposal document"

It will prompt you to authenticate and authorize access.

That's it. Composio's tools are now available in Cowork, and your Google Drive account is ready to use.

What is Claude Cowork?

Claude Cowork is Anthropic's agent for general knowledge work. It can use your computer, files, and connected applications to complete longer-running tasks across your work tools.

With Composio Connect, Cowork can securely access apps like Google Drive through MCP without you sharing account credentials directly with the agent.

What is the Google Drive MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Googledrive MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Google Drive account. It provides structured and secure access to your files and folders, so your agent can perform actions like uploading files, managing sharing permissions, organizing folders, and collaborating via comments on your behalf.

  • Automated file uploads and creation: Effortlessly ask your agent to create new files or folders, upload documents, or generate files from provided text content in your Google Drive.
  • Advanced sharing and permission management: Let your agent modify sharing preferences for files and folders, granting or revoking access to users, groups, domains, or the public.
  • Collaboration through comments and replies: Have the agent add comments to files, reply to existing comments, or delete comments to facilitate smooth collaboration with your team.
  • Efficient folder and shortcut organization: Direct your agent to create, organize, or nest folders, or generate shortcuts to important files and folders for easier access.
  • File duplication and backup: Instruct your agent to duplicate existing files, creating reliable backups or templates for repeated use.
TOOLS & TRIGGERS

Supported Tools and Triggers

Every Google Drive action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Insert File Parent (v2)

Tool to add a parent folder for a file using Google Drive API v2.

Insert Property (v2 API)

Tool to add a property to a file, or update it if it already exists (v2 API).

Copy file with advanced options

Creates a copy of a file and applies any requested updates with patch semantics.

Create Comment

Tool to create a comment on a file in Google Drive.

Create Shared Drive

Tool to create a new shared drive.

Create File or Folder

Creates a new file or folder in Google Drive.

Create a File from Text

Creates a new file in Google Drive from provided text content (up to 10MB), supporting various formats including automatic conversion to Google Workspace types.

Create a folder

Creates a new folder in Google Drive, optionally within an EXISTING parent folder specified by its ID or name.

Create Permission

Tool to create a permission for a file or shared drive.

Create Reply

Tool to create a reply to a comment in Google Drive.

Create Shortcut to File/Folder

Tool to create a shortcut to a file or folder in Google Drive.

Delete Child (v2)

Tool to remove a child from a folder using Google Drive API v2.

Delete Comment

Permanently deletes a comment thread (and all its replies) from a Google Drive file — this action is irreversible.

Delete Shared Drive

Tool to permanently delete a shared drive.

Delete Parent (v2)

Tool to remove a parent from a file using Google Drive API v2.

Delete Permission

Deletes a permission from a file by permission ID.

Delete Property (v2 API)

Tool to delete a property from a file using Google Drive API v2.

Delete Reply

Tool to delete a specific reply by reply ID.

Delete Revision

Tool to permanently delete a file revision.

Download a file from Google Drive

Downloads a file from Google Drive by its ID.

Download file via operation

Tool to download file content using long-running operations.

Edit File

Updates an existing Google Drive file with binary content by overwriting its entire content with new text (max 10MB).

Empty Trash

Tool to permanently and irreversibly delete ALL trashed files in the user's Google Drive or a specified shared drive.

Export Google Workspace file

Exports a Google Workspace document to the requested MIME type and returns exported file content.

Find file

The comprehensive Google Drive search tool that handles all file and folder discovery needs.

Find folder

Tool to find a folder in Google Drive by its name and optionally a parent folder.

Generate File IDs

Generates a set of file IDs which can be provided in create or copy requests.

Get about

Tool to retrieve information about the user, the user's Drive, and system capabilities.

Get App

Tool to get information about a specific Drive app by ID.

Get Changes Start Page Token

Tool to get the starting pageToken for listing future changes in Google Drive.

Get Child Reference (v2)

Tool to get a specific child reference for a folder using Drive API v2.

Get Comment

Tool to get a comment by ID.

Get Shared Drive

Tool to get a shared drive by ID.

Get File Metadata

Tool to get a file's metadata by ID.

Get Property (v2)

Tool to get a property by its key using Google Drive API v2.

Get Parent Reference (v2)

Tool to get a specific parent reference for a file using Drive API v2.

Get Permission

Gets a permission by ID.

Get Permission ID for Email

Tool to get the permission ID for an email address using the Drive API v2.

Get Reply

Tool to get a specific reply to a comment on a file.

Get Revision

Tool to get a specific revision's metadata (name, modifiedTime, keepForever, etc.

Delete folder or file

Tool to delete a file or folder in Google Drive.

Hide Shared Drive

Tool to hide a shared drive from the default view.

Insert Child Into Folder (v2)

Tool to insert a file into a folder using Drive API v2.

List Access Proposals

Tool to list pending access proposals on a file.

List Approvals

Tool to list approvals on a file for workflow-based access control.

List Changes

Tool to list the changes for a user or shared drive.

List Folder Children (v2)

Tool to list a folder's children using Google Drive API v2.

List Comments

Tool to list all comments for a file in Google Drive.

List File Labels

Tool to list the labels already applied to a file in Google Drive.

List Properties (v2 API)

Tool to list a file's properties in Google Drive API v2.

List Permissions

Tool to list a file's permissions.

List Replies to Comment

Tool to list replies to a comment in Google Drive.

List File Revisions

Tool to list a file's revision metadata (not content) in Google Drive.

List Shared Drives

Tool to list the user's shared drives.

Modify File Labels

Modifies the set of labels applied to a file.

Move File

Tool to move a file from one folder to another in Google Drive.

Patch Permission

Tool to update a permission using patch semantics.

Patch Property (v2 API)

Tool to update a property on a file using PATCH semantics (v2 API).

Resumable Upload

Tool to start and complete a Google Drive resumable upload session.

Stop Watch Channel

Tool to stop watching resources through a specified channel.

Trash File

Tool to move a file or folder to trash (soft delete).

Unhide Shared Drive

Tool to unhide a shared drive.

Untrash File

Tool to restore a file from the trash.

Update Comment

Tool to update an existing comment on a Google Drive file.

Update Shared Drive

Tool to update the metadata for a shared drive.

Update File Metadata (PATCH v2)

Tool to update file metadata using the Drive API v2 PATCH method.

Update Property (v2 API)

Tool to update a property on a file using Google Drive API v2.

Update File (Metadata)

Updates file metadata.

Update File Revision Metadata

Updates ONLY the metadata properties of a specific file revision (keepForever, published, publishAuto, publishedOutsideDomain).

Update Permission

Tool to update a permission with patch semantics.

Update Reply

Tool to update a reply to a comment on a Google Drive file.

Upload File

Uploads a file (max 5MB) to Google Drive, placing it in the specified folder or root if no valid folder ID is provided.

Upload File from URL to Drive

Tool to fetch a file from a provided URL server-side and upload it into Google Drive.

Upload/Update File Content

Tool to update file content in Google Drive by uploading new binary content.

Watch Drive Changes

Tool to subscribe to changes for a user or shared drive in Google Drive.

Watch File for Changes

Tool to subscribe to push notifications for changes to a specific file.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone Google Drive MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Google Drive tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Google Drive and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Yes, you can. Claude Cowork fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Google Drive tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Google Drive scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Google Drive data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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