Set up the Google Drive MCP server

Connect Google Drive to C1 through the Google Drive API or Google’s own hosted MCP server, then register the server and govern its tools.

Activation required. AI access management must be enabled for your tenant before you can use it. To get started, contact the C1 support team for a walkthrough.

C1 can govern Google Drive access two ways. Both let your AI clients read from and act on Drive through governed MCP tools, but they come from different places and appear as two separate entries in your MCP server catalog:

• Google Drive MCP — listed as plain Google Drive in your catalog. C1 registers Google’s own hosted Drive MCP server (drivemcp.googleapis.com) as a downstream server C1 governs. Authentication is per-user OAuth using a Google Cloud OAuth client you create — Google doesn’t support dynamic client registration (DCR) for this server, so there’s no bearer token or API key fallback either. Tool calls run with the connected user’s own Drive permissions, scoped to whichever OAuth scopes you grant.
• Google Drive API — C1 hosts its own MCP server that translates the Google Drive REST API into tools. You choose between per-user OAuth or a service account with domain-wide delegation (Workspace only), and you scope access with the OAuth or delegated scopes you configure.

	Google Drive MCP	Google Drive API
Who hosts the MCP server	Google	C1
Authentication	Per-user OAuth with a Google Cloud OAuth client you create — no dynamic client registration, bearer token, or API key option	Per-user OAuth, or a service account with domain-wide delegation (Workspace only)
Access scoping	The connected user’s Drive permissions, within the OAuth scopes you grant (drive, drive.readonly, or drive.file)	The OAuth scopes you configure, or the scopes you delegate to the service account
Tool surface	Google’s own fixed tool set: search, read and download content, file metadata, permissions, recent files, plus file creation and copying	Files, folders, shared drives, permissions, comments, and revisions, mapped to Drive API endpoints
Setup effort	Create a Google Cloud OAuth client and enable the Drive MCP API, then register in C1	Create an OAuth client or service account first, then register in C1

Use the native Google Drive MCP option (listed as plain Google Drive in your catalog) if Google’s own tool set covers what you need and per-user OAuth is acceptable for your tenant. Use Google Drive API if you need a shared service-account credential, or you want the broader tool surface — including permissions, comments, and revisions — that C1’s own translation provides.

Google Drive MCP

C1 registers as a client of Google’s own hosted Drive MCP server (Configure the Drive MCP server) rather than translating the Google Drive REST API itself. Your users’ AI clients still only ever see C1-governed MCP tools, but C1 proxies each tool call straight through to drivemcp.googleapis.com under the connected user’s authorized session, then returns the result. The tools available are exactly the ones Google’s own MCP server exposes — C1 doesn’t reshape or add to them.

Before you begin

• AI access management must be enabled for your tenant. See Enable AI access management.
• A Google Cloud project with an OAuth client — see Set up a Google Cloud project for MCP servers. This option additionally requires enabling the Google Drive MCP API in that project (covered below); the shared guide doesn’t cover that API since it’s specific to this option.
• Each user needs a Google account with access to the Drive content you want their AI client to reach.

In your MCP server catalog, this option is listed as Google Drive — distinct from the Google Drive API entry, which connects through C1’s own MCP server. If you don’t see either, contact the C1 support team to enable it for your tenant.

Set up per-user OAuth

Per-user OAuth with a Google Cloud OAuth client is the only authentication method this option supports — Google doesn’t offer dynamic client registration, a bearer token, or an API key for its hosted Drive MCP server. Each user authorizes individually with their own Google account.

Create a Google OAuth client

If you already completed Set up a Google Cloud project for MCP servers for another Google connector, you can reuse that project and OAuth client — you only need to enable one additional API and add the Drive MCP scopes.

1. Follow Set up a Google Cloud project for MCP servers to create or select a project, grant your users the Service Usage Consumer role, and create an OAuth client with the redirect URI set to https://accounts.conductor.one/auth/callback.

2. In the same project, also enable the Google Drive MCP API (drivemcp.googleapis.com): go to APIs & Services > Library, search for Google Drive MCP API, and select Enable. Google’s hosted Drive MCP server requires this API alongside the Google Drive API. See Google’s Enable the MCP services documentation.

3. On the OAuth consent screen’s Data Access page, add the scopes you want to grant: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive for full read/write access, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly for read-only access, or https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file to limit access to files a user opens or creates through the connection.

Register the server with OAuth

With your OAuth client ready, register the server and provide its credentials.

1. Follow Register an MCP server and select Google Drive from the catalog.

2. When you configure authentication, choose OAuth2 — per-user passthrough and enter your OAuth client’s client ID, client secret, and the scopes you configured. There’s no Use dynamic client registration toggle for this server — Google doesn’t support it.

3. Save your changes. The first time a user calls a Google Drive tool from their AI client, they’re prompted to connect their Google account.

What access is granted

Once a user authorizes, tool calls run with that user’s own Drive permissions, limited to whichever OAuth scope you configured — drive for full read/write access to their Drive, drive.readonly for read-only access, or drive.file for access limited to files the user opens or creates through the connection. Google’s hosted server exposes its own fixed tool set for searching, reading, and managing files — search_files, list_recent_files, get_file_metadata, get_file_permissions, download_file_content, read_file_content, create_file, and copy_file (see Google’s MCP Reference: drivemcp.googleapis.com).

How Google Drive MCP credentials are shared

This option only supports per-user OAuth — there’s no shared, service-account, or bearer-token mode. Every tool call runs under the calling user’s own Google identity, and Google attributes each action to that individual. C1 still attributes each call to the individual user in the AI tool usage audit log.

Discover and govern tools

After you register the server, C1 runs tool discovery against Google’s Drive MCP server. Discovered tools appear on the server’s Tools tab and include Google’s own search, file content, metadata, permissions, and file creation and copying tools.

Each tool starts as either Pending review or automatically Approved, depending on the option chosen when the server was set up or your tenant’s default tool settings in AI > MCP > Settings. See Require tool approval and Default tool classification.

Before anyone can call a Google Drive tool, it must be approved, added to a toolset, and bound to an access profile. Continue to Govern tools and toolsets to set this up.

Tool discovery runs even if authentication isn’t complete yet, so seeing discovered tools doesn’t confirm a user has authorized. You confirm access when an approved user successfully calls a Google Drive tool from their AI client.

Manage access to Google Drive MCP

• Rotate the OAuth client secret in your Google Cloud project under APIs & Services > Credentials, then update the secret on the server’s authentication settings in C1.
• Adjust scopes by editing them on the OAuth consent screen’s Data Access page; users must reconnect their Google account to grant any newly added scopes.
• An individual user can revoke access at any time from their Google Account’s linked apps page. See Google’s Manage third-party apps & services with access to your account documentation.

Google Drive API

C1 hosts the Google Drive MCP server, so your users’ AI clients only ever see MCP tools — they never call Google Drive directly. When an AI client calls one of these tools, C1 makes the matching request to the Google Drive API using the credentials you configure here, then returns the result to the AI client. The credentials you set up below are what C1 uses to call Google Drive on your users’ behalf.

Google Drive supports two ways to authenticate, and you choose one when you register the server:

• Per-user OAuth (recommended). Each person authorizes with their own Google account, so every tool call runs under that user’s Drive identity and permissions.
• Service account (Workspace only). A single Google service account with domain-wide delegation authenticates everyone, so all tool calls reach Drive as one shared identity.

For a deeper comparison of shared versus per-user credentials, see Configure authentication.

Before you begin

• AI access management must be enabled for your tenant. See Enable AI access management.
• A Google Cloud project, set up as described in Set up a Google Cloud project for MCP servers. That guide covers enabling the Google Drive API, creating OAuth credentials, and granting your users the Service Usage Consumer role on the quota project so their tool calls aren’t rejected with PERMISSION_DENIED.
• For the service-account option, a Google Workspace administrator to set up domain-wide delegation.

In your MCP server catalog, this option is listed as Google Drive API — distinct from the Google Drive entry, which connects to Google’s own hosted MCP server. If you don’t see either, contact the C1 support team to enable it for your tenant.

Option 1: Set up per-user OAuth

With per-user OAuth, you register one Google OAuth client and each user authorizes individually. This keeps every action attributable to the user who took it, with only the access that user already has in Drive.

Create a Google OAuth client

Create an OAuth client in your Google Cloud project so users can authorize C1 with their own Google accounts.

1. Sign in to the Google Cloud console and create or select a project for C1.

2. Go to APIs & Services > Library, search for Google Drive API, and select Enable.

3. Go to APIs & Services > OAuth consent screen. Choose Internal for a Workspace-only app or External for any Google account, and add the Drive scopes your deployment needs. Broad Drive scopes are restricted and require Google verification before an External app can be used outside your Workspace organization.

4. Go to APIs & Services > Credentials > Create Client > Web application. For full details, see Google’s Manage OAuth Clients documentation.

5. Under Authorized redirect URIs, add exactly https://accounts.conductor.one/auth/callback.

6. Select Create, then copy the Client ID and Client secret. Google shows the client secret only once.

For least privilege, request only the scopes you need. Read-only deployments can use drive.readonly and drive.metadata.readonly. If your users are on Google Workspace, a Workspace administrator may need to allow the OAuth client in Admin Console > Security > Access and data control > API controls > App access control.

Register the server with OAuth

With your OAuth client ready, register the server and provide its credentials.

1. Follow Register an MCP server and select Google Drive API from the catalog.

2. When you configure authentication, choose OAuth2 — per-user passthrough and enter your OAuth client’s client ID and client secret, plus the scopes you configured. Also enter the Google Cloud Quota Project ID — the ID of the project where you enabled the Google Drive API and granted users the Service Usage Consumer role.

3. Save your changes. The first time a user calls a Google Drive tool from their AI client, they’re prompted to connect their Google account.

Option 2: Use a service account (Workspace only)

A Google service account with domain-wide delegation authenticates every user as one shared identity. C1 signs a JWT with the service account’s key to obtain access tokens. Use this for Workspace tenants that want C1 to reach Drive without per-user consent.

Create a service account and grant delegation

Create a service account, then grant it domain-wide delegation so it can act on behalf of your users.

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to APIs & Services > Library and enable the Google Drive API for your project.

2. Go to APIs & Services > Credentials > Create credentials > Service account, create the service account, then generate and download a JSON key. For full details, see Google’s Create service accounts documentation.

3. Note the service account’s Unique ID (numeric).

4. As a Workspace administrator, go to Admin Console > Security > Access and data control > API controls > Domain-wide delegation, select Add new, and enter the service account’s Unique ID along with the Drive scopes you need. For least privilege, grant narrow scopes such as drive.readonly and drive.metadata.readonly.

Register the server with a service account

With your service account ready, register the server and provide its key.

1. Follow Register an MCP server and select Google Drive API from the catalog.

2. When you configure authentication, choose JWT Bearer (RFC 7523) and provide the service account’s JSON key and the scopes you delegated.

3. Save your changes. C1 starts a sync that discovers the tools the Google Drive server exposes.

How Google Drive API credentials are shared

How Google Drive sees your users’ activity depends on the method you chose:

• Per-user OAuth. Each user authorizes with their own Google account, so tool calls run under that user’s Drive identity and inherit only the access they already have. Google attributes each action to the individual user.
• Service account. Every user’s tool calls use the one service account you configured, so Drive sees a single shared identity. C1 still attributes each call to the individual user in the AI tool usage audit log.

For how shared and per-user credentials work across MCP servers, see Configure authentication.

Discover and govern tools

After you register the server, C1 runs tool discovery against Google Drive. Discovered tools appear on the server’s Tools tab.

Each tool starts as either Pending review or automatically Approved, depending on the option chosen when the server was set up or your tenant’s default tool settings in AI > MCP > Settings. See Require tool approval and Default tool classification.

Before anyone can call a Google Drive tool, it must be approved, added to a toolset, and bound to an access profile. Continue to Govern tools and toolsets to set this up.

Tool discovery runs even if your credentials are incorrect, so seeing discovered tools doesn’t confirm that authentication is working. You confirm your Google Drive credentials when an approved user successfully calls a Google Drive tool from their AI client.

Manage your Google Drive API credentials

• Rotate the OAuth client secret in your Google Cloud project under APIs & Services > Credentials, then update the secret on the server’s authentication settings in C1.
• Rotate the service account key by generating a new JSON key in the Cloud Console, updating it in C1, then deleting the old key.
• Adjust access by editing the OAuth client’s scopes, or the scopes granted to the service account in domain-wide delegation.