Google Drive

Google Drive Connector

The Google Drive connector indexes files from your Google Drive, including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and regular uploaded files.

Prerequisites

Before using the Google Drive connector:

1. Create a Google OAuth client (shared with other Google connectors)
2. Enable the Google Drive API for your project

Enable Drive API

1. Go to Drive API in Google Cloud Console
2. Select your project
3. Click Enable

Required Scope

The Google Drive connector requires this OAuth scope:

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly

This scope provides read-only access to files and metadata. Sercha cannot modify, create, or delete files.

Capabilities

Capability	Supported	Notes
Full sync	Yes	Indexes all files matching configured filters
Incremental sync	Yes	Uses Drive Changes API to track modifications
Watch mode	No	Webhook integration not available in CLI
Hierarchy	Yes	Parent folder relationships preserved
Binary content	No	Text files and Google Workspace files only
Validation	Yes	Verifies credentials before sync

Content Types

The connector supports different content types:

Content Type	Description	Export Format
files	Regular uploaded files (text only)	Original format
docs	Google Docs	Plain text
sheets	Google Sheets	CSV

By default, all content types are enabled.

Google Workspace File Export

Google Workspace files (Docs, Sheets, Slides) are stored in Google's proprietary format and must be exported:

Google Type	Exported As	MIME Type
Google Docs	Plain text	text/plain
Google Sheets	CSV	text/csv
Google Slides	Plain text	text/plain

The exported content is then processed by Sercha's normalizers for indexing.

Configuration

These options control what gets indexed during sync—they filter what Sercha stores locally, not what you can search for within your indexed documents.

Option	Description	Default
content_types	Comma-separated content types to sync	files,docs,sheets
mime_types	Sync only files matching these MIME types	None (all supported)
folder_ids	Sync only files within these folder IDs	All folders
max_results	Page size for API requests	100

Content Types Filter

Limit which content types are indexed during sync:

# Only sync Google Docs
--config "content_types=docs"

# Sync Google Docs and Sheets
--config "content_types=docs,sheets"

# Only sync regular files (no Google Workspace files)
--config "content_types=files"

MIME Types Filter

Limit sync to specific MIME types:

# Only sync Markdown files
--config "mime_types=text/markdown"

# Sync multiple types
--config "mime_types=text/plain,application/json"

Folder Filter

Limit sync to specific folders using their IDs:

--config "folder_ids=1a2b3c4d5e6f7g8h"

To find a folder ID, open the folder in Google Drive and copy the ID from the URL: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/{folder_id}

Document Structure

URI Pattern

Files are identified by URIs:

gdrive://files/{file_id}

Example: gdrive://files/1a2b3c4d5e6f7g8h9i0j

MIME Types

The connector assigns MIME types based on content:

Content	MIME Type
Google Docs	text/plain
Google Sheets	text/csv
Google Slides	text/plain
Regular files	Original MIME type

Metadata

Each file includes:

Field	Description
file_id	Google Drive file ID
title	File name
path	Path including parent folder
size	File size in bytes
web_link	Link to view in Google Drive
modified_time	Last modification timestamp

Sync Behaviour

Full Sync

Full sync retrieves all files matching the configured filters:

1. Lists all files accessible to the user
2. Filters by content type and MIME type
3. Downloads or exports file content
4. Stores the start page token for incremental sync

Incremental Sync

Incremental sync uses Google Drive's Changes API:

1. Fetches changes since the stored page token
2. Processes file additions, modifications, and deletions
3. Updates the page token cursor

File Size Limits

Limit	Value
Maximum file size	5 MB
Maximum export size	5 MB

Files exceeding these limits are skipped (metadata only, no content).

Rate Limiting

Google Drive has generous quota limits. The connector uses:

Setting	Value
Requests per second	8
Burst size	10

These limits are per user. Google allows up to 10 requests per second per user.

Error Handling

Error	Handling
Rate limit (429)	Wait and retry with backoff
File not found	Skip and continue
Export failed	Skip file, log warning
Authentication failure	Report error, stop sync

Supported File Types

The connector indexes text-based files:

Category	Examples
Documents	.txt, .md, .rtf
Code	.go, .py, .js, .ts, .java
Data	.json, .xml, .yaml, .csv
Config	.env, .ini, .toml
Google Workspace	Docs, Sheets, Slides

Binary files (images, PDFs, videos) are skipped.

Limitations

Limitation	Description
Binary files	Not indexed (text content only)
File size	Maximum 5 MB per file
Shared drives	Accessible if user has permission
Watch mode	Not supported in CLI
Trashed files	Excluded from sync

Example Usage

Create a Google Drive source with default settings:

sercha source add \
  --type google-drive \
  --name "My Drive" \
  --auth "My Google Account"

Create a source for Google Docs only:

sercha source add \
  --type google-drive \
  --name "Google Docs" \
  --auth "My Google Account" \
  --config "content_types=docs"

Create a source for a specific folder:

sercha source add \
  --type google-drive \
  --name "Project Folder" \
  --auth "My Google Account" \
  --config "folder_ids=1a2b3c4d5e6f7g8h9i0j"

Sync the source:

sercha sync <source-id>

Next

• Google Overview - OAuth setup
• Gmail - Index emails
• Google Calendar - Index calendar events