multi-gdrive-mcp

A local MCP server that lets Claude search, download, upload, trash, and share Google Drive files across several Google accounts through one connection. It runs on your own computer (stdio) and plugs into the Claude desktop app.

Accounts come from the shared google-mcp-accounts login, the same one the Gmail, Calendar, and Docs/Sheets/Slides servers use.

Scopes: drive.file by default, whole-Drive read only if you opt in

What that means for each tool:

To escalate one account, run this once in google-mcp-accounts:

node auth.js work --with-drive-readonly

list_accounts and every search_files result say which mode the account is in. When a file can't be read under drive.file, the error names the exact command above rather than leaving a bare 404. When a change (trash, share, replace, rename, move, or upload into a folder) is refused, the error says instead that these servers only change files they created, and that drive.readonly won't help, so you're not sent to an opt-in that can't fix it. The full drive scope (read and write everything) is never requested.

Related MCP server: MCP Google Drive Server

Tools

Judgment calls

• share_file is treated at least as carefully as send_email. Once someone has access, they can copy the file. The preview shows the file, everyone who already has access, exactly what would be granted, and warnings: writer can re-share and delete, this changes an existing role, the file is already link-shared. Guard rails:

  • one plain email address only (no lists or display names);

  • roles are reader, commenter, or writer only, and ownership transfer is not possible;

  • types are user or group only. "Anyone with the link" and domain-wide sharing are deliberately not supported, since they expose the file to people nobody named. Do those in the Drive UI if you really mean to;

  • never auto-retried, because a retry could send a second notification email.

• New uploads don't need a confirm. A new file can't overwrite anything, and you can trash it afterwards. It is audit-logged, and it's not auto-retried, since a retry after a timeout could create a duplicate. One caveat: uploading into a folder that's shared makes the file visible to that folder's members.

• move_file gets a dry run; rename_file and create_folder don't. Moving changes who can open a file. Everyone with access to the destination folder can open it afterwards, and any access inherited from the old folder is gone. That's a sharing change, so it's previewed like one. Renaming and creating a folder change no one's access and are easy to undo, so they run right away, like a new upload. All three are audit-logged.

• move_to_trash is retried on transient errors. Trashing is idempotent and notifies nobody. Sharing, uploading, and overwriting are never retried.

Every share, trash, upload, overwrite, folder creation, rename, and move, including dry runs and failures, is appended to ~/.google-mcp/audit.log, tagged "server": "multi-gdrive-mcp". File contents are never logged.

The files folder

upload_file can only read from, and download_file can only write to, ~/Downloads/drive-mcp (created on first use). Paths are checked after resolving ../ and symlinks, so a prompt-injected call can't upload ~/.ssh/id_rsa or overwrite a file elsewhere. To use a different folder, set MULTI_GDRIVE_MCP_FILES_DIR (see the config below).

To attach Drive files to emails, give this server and multi-gmail-mcp the same folder. Set MULTI_GDRIVE_MCP_FILES_DIR and multi-gmail-mcp's MULTI_GMAIL_MCP_FILES_DIR to the same path. Then a file download_file saves is right where Gmail's attach_document can read it. Without this, "attach this Drive doc to my email" fails, because each server only reads its own folder. Only the config changes, no code. See "One files folder for all the servers" in google-mcp-accounts' README.

Setup

1. Set up google-mcp-accounts and connect your accounts. Make sure the Google Drive API is enabled on the Cloud project.

2. Install:

   cd multi-gdrive-mcp
   npm install

   Requires Node.js 20+. This repo depends on google-mcp-accounts as a local folder, "google-mcp-accounts": "file:../google-mcp-accounts". That works only while the two repos are siblings in the same parent folder. If you clone this somewhere they aren't, switch that line to a git dependency pinned to a tag, e.g. "github:<you>/google-mcp-accounts#v1.0.0". The tradeoff: file: picks up shared changes immediately, and a git tag picks them up only when you bump it.

Claude Desktop config

Add this under mcpServers in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS), then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "multi-gdrive": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/multi-gdrive-mcp/src/server.js"],
      "env": { "MULTI_GDRIVE_MCP_FILES_DIR": "/Users/you/Downloads/google-mcp-files" }
    }
  }
}

The env line is optional. Leave it out to use ~/Downloads/drive-mcp. Use the same path as multi-gmail-mcp's MULTI_GMAIL_MCP_FILES_DIR if you want to attach Drive files to emails.

Security notes

• Untrusted names. Anyone can share a file with you, so file names and descriptions come back wrapped in <untrusted_drive_content> tags, with a notice telling Claude to treat them as data. That helps against prompt injection but doesn't prevent it. The dry runs and Claude Desktop's approval prompts are the real checks.

• Query injection. Search values are escaped before they go into Drive's query language. Folder ids and dates are validated, never spliced in raw.

• Every tool call is wrapped. API errors and validation failures become MCP error results and never crash the server.

• This server never writes to ~/.google-mcp/accounts.json. It only reads tokens.

Development

npm test      # node:test - query escaping, export formats, size limits, safe file writes, share checks
npm run lint
npm run format