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Google Workspace MCP

Python MCP server for reading Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Chat with structured output and better image handling.

What It Does

  • Reads Google Docs as structured JSON with paragraphs, tables, inline objects, positioned objects, and image metadata.
  • Reads Google Sheets values, grid data, formulas, notes, hyperlinks, and chip runs.
  • Lists Google Chat spaces, space members, and messages as structured JSON.
  • Preserves partial text styling in Sheets cells via text_runs and an annotated_text helper field for segments such as strikethrough and underline.
  • Extracts over-grid sheet images from Drive export -> XLSX.
  • Detects in-cell IMAGE("...") formulas separately from drawing exports.

Project Layout

google_workspace_mcp/
  chat.py       # Google Chat normalization helpers
  cli.py        # command-line entrypoint
  client.py     # Google API auth + HTTP client
  common.py     # shared constants and parsing helpers
  docs.py       # Google Docs normalization helpers
  server.py     # FastMCP server instance
  sheets.py     # Google Sheets normalization helpers
  tools.py      # MCP tool definitions
mcp_google_workspace.py  # compatibility wrapper for local scripts/config
tests/

Quick Start

Install from GitHub

pip install "git+https://github.com/NgoQuocViet2001/google-workspace-mcp.git"

The most reliable way to run it across platforms is:

python -m google_workspace_mcp

If your Python Scripts directory is already on PATH, this shorter launcher works too:

google-workspace-mcp

Login OAuth quickly

  1. In Google Cloud, create an OAuth client ID with application type Desktop app.
  2. If the published package already includes a bundled OAuth desktop client, just run:
python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login

That opens the browser OAuth flow directly.

  1. If the package does not include a bundled OAuth client and no local OAuth client config exists yet, the CLI prompts once for:
    • Client ID
    • Client Secret

It then saves a reusable desktop-app client config at:

$HOME/.google-workspace-mcp/oauth-client-secret.json

and opens the browser OAuth flow automatically. After the first successful login, the cached token is stored at:

$HOME/.google-workspace-mcp/oauth-token.json

Other common commands

python -m google_workspace_mcp auth status
python -m google_workspace_mcp auth logout

CLI Commands

Use python -m google_workspace_mcp ... everywhere below. If google-workspace-mcp is already on PATH, the same commands also work with that shorter launcher.

  • python -m google_workspace_mcp
  • python -m google_workspace_mcp auth
  • python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login
  • python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login --client-secrets C:\path\to\oauth-client-secret.json
  • python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login --client-id <client-id> --client-secret <client-secret>
  • python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login --token-file C:\path\to\oauth-token.json
  • python -m google_workspace_mcp auth status
  • python -m google_workspace_mcp auth logout

Authentication Options

Recommended for private files shared to your Google account: OAuth desktop client

Use a Google OAuth client ID for Desktop App if the files are private but shared to your personal Google account.

If you want end users to be able to run python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login and jump straight into the browser OAuth flow with no extra setup, publish the package with a bundled desktop-app client at:

google_workspace_mcp/oauth-default-client.json

If no bundled client is shipped, the CLI falls back to prompting once for Client ID and Client Secret, or it can read them from a local JSON file.

  1. Enable:
    • Google Sheets API
    • Google Docs API
    • Google Drive API
    • Google Chat API
  2. Create an OAuth client ID with application type Desktop app.
  3. Choose one setup method:
    • Easiest: run python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login, paste the Client ID and Client Secret once, and let the CLI save them for future logins.
    • If you prefer files: download the client secret JSON. The downloaded filename is often something like client_secret_<id>.apps.googleusercontent.com.json.
  4. Optional file-based setup:
$HOME/.google-workspace-mcp/oauth-client-secret.json

Or set:

$env:GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE="C:\path\to\oauth-client-secret.json"
  1. Run the one-time browser login flow:
python -m google_workspace_mcp auth

After the first successful login, the server automatically uses the cached OAuth token for private Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Google Chat calls. You do not need to provide a separate API key for that flow.

This stores a refreshable token by default at:

$HOME\.google-workspace-mcp\oauth-token.json

Use this to inspect the cached token scopes and see which scopes are still missing:

python -m google_workspace_mcp auth status

If auth status shows only drive.readonly, Sheets URLs that include gid and range can still be read through the server's Drive export fallback. That fallback returns values-oriented output and omits formulas, notes, hyperlinks, and rich text metadata until you re-run python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login with spreadsheets.readonly.

If you need to overwrite the cached token with a specific client secret file and token path, you can also run:

python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login --client-secrets C:\path\to\oauth-client-secret.json --token-file C:\path\to\oauth-token.json

If the desktop-app client JSON is already in $HOME/.google-workspace-mcp/, this shorter command also works:

python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login

When you log in with --client-secrets, or with --client-id plus --client-secret, the CLI also saves a reusable desktop-app client JSON into $HOME/.google-workspace-mcp/oauth-client-secret.json so future logins can omit the extra flags.

To delete the cached OAuth token later, run:

python -m google_workspace_mcp auth logout

If you separately configured GOOGLE_OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN, remove that environment variable from your shell or MCP config as well.

Recommended: service account

Use a Google Cloud service account for the most reliable setup.

  1. Enable:
    • Google Sheets API
    • Google Docs API
    • Google Drive API
    • Google Chat API if you plan to call the Chat tools with a user-scoped bearer token
  2. Create a service account key.
  3. Share the target Docs/Sheets files with the service account email.
  4. Set:
$env:GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE="C:\path\to\service-account.json"

Public Sheets only: API key

Suitable for public Google Sheets reads. Not recommended for Docs or Drive export.

$env:GOOGLE_API_KEY="your_api_key"

Existing bearer token: OAuth access token

$env:GOOGLE_OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN="ya29...."

Installation

git clone https://github.com/NgoQuocViet2001/google-workspace-mcp.git
cd google-workspace-mcp
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
pip install -r requirements.txt

Install from GitHub

Option 1: clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/NgoQuocViet2001/google-workspace-mcp.git
cd google-workspace-mcp
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
pip install -r requirements.txt

Option 2: install directly from GitHub

pip install "git+https://github.com/NgoQuocViet2001/google-workspace-mcp.git"

After installing from GitHub, the most reliable way to run it is:

python -m google_workspace_mcp

This avoids PATH issues when pip installs console scripts into a user-site Scripts directory.

If your Python Scripts directory is already on PATH, the standalone command also works:

google-workspace-mcp

Running the Server

cd <path-to-repo>
.venv\Scripts\python.exe mcp_google_workspace.py

Or, if you installed it directly from GitHub:

python -m google_workspace_mcp

To bootstrap OAuth for a private user account:

python -m google_workspace_mcp auth

If your google-workspace-mcp launcher is already available on PATH, the equivalent shorter command is:

google-workspace-mcp auth login

To inspect the current auth setup:

python -m google_workspace_mcp auth status

To remove the cached OAuth login:

python -m google_workspace_mcp auth logout

Codex MCP Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-workspace": {
      "command": "<path-to-repo>/.venv/Scripts/python.exe",
      "args": ["<path-to-repo>/mcp_google_workspace.py"],
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE": "C:/path/to/oauth-client-secret.json",
        "GOOGLE_OAUTH_TOKEN_FILE": "C:/path/to/oauth-token.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

For public Sheets only, replace the env block with:

{
  "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "your_api_key"
}

If you installed the package directly from GitHub into an environment on your PATH, you can also use:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-workspace": {
      "command": "google-workspace-mcp",
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE": "C:/path/to/oauth-client-secret.json",
        "GOOGLE_OAUTH_TOKEN_FILE": "C:/path/to/oauth-token.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

  • diagnose_google_auth
  • resolve_google_file
  • list_google_chat_spaces
  • get_google_chat_space
  • get_google_chat_message
  • read_google_chat_messages
  • read_google_chat_thread
  • list_google_chat_memberships
  • read_sheet_values
  • read_sheet_grid
  • get_sheet_row
  • search_sheet
  • sheet_to_json
  • inspect_sheet_images
  • read_google_doc
  • download_google_doc_images
  • export_google_file

Example Prompts

Replace placeholders such as <spreadsheet-id>, <sheet-name>, and <output-dir> with your own values.

Google Sheets URLs with gid and range are resolved automatically. If the caller omits the sheet prefix, the server uses the tab identified by gid.

Read one row from a sheet

get_sheet_row(
  "<spreadsheet-id>",
  "<sheet-name>",
  42,
  1
)

read_sheet_values also accepts row-style input such as <sheet-name>!42:42 and normalizes it to a valid full-row A1 range automatically.

Read directly from a Sheets URL with gid and range

read_sheet_values(
  "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/<spreadsheet-id>/edit?gid=<gid>#gid=<gid>&range=38:38"
)

When the cached OAuth token has drive.readonly but not spreadsheets.readonly, this still succeeds by exporting the addressed tab/range as CSV behind the scenes. The response includes source: "drive_export_csv_fallback" and an auth_warning so callers know richer grid metadata is unavailable.

Read grid data with formulas, notes, and links

read_sheet_grid(
  "<spreadsheet-id>",
  "<sheet-name>!A1:Z200"
)

For cells with partial formatting, read_sheet_grid() now includes:

  • text_runs: structured offsets plus style flags from Google Sheets
  • annotated_text: a plain-text helper string such as [[STRIKE]]old[[/STRIKE]] new

Search across a sheet

search_sheet(
  "<spreadsheet-id>",
  "login"
)

If you pass a Sheets URL with gid, search_sheet() searches only that tab by default instead of scanning the full workbook.

List Google Chat spaces

list_google_chat_spaces()

Read messages from a Google Chat space

read_google_chat_messages() accepts either a resource name like spaces/AAAA... or a Chat UI URL that contains the space id.

read_google_chat_messages(
  "spaces/AAAA1234567",
  50,
  null,
  null,
  "DESC",
  false
)

Read one Google Chat thread from a thread URL

read_google_chat_thread() accepts either a thread resource like spaces/<space>/threads/<thread> or a Chat UI URL like https://chat.google.com/room/<space>/<thread>/<message>.

read_google_chat_thread(
  "https://chat.google.com/room/AAQAyxdRoZo/jVIpmenXnO0/WNSdv6IyQf0?cls=10"
)

When the URL includes a message ID, the response includes both:

  • linked_message: the exact message referenced by the link
  • root_message: the first message in the thread

If Google Chat doesn't expose an API message resource that matches the URL token, the response sets linked_message to null and explains the limitation in linked_message_lookup_warning.

List members in a Google Chat space

list_google_chat_memberships(
  "spaces/AAAA1234567"
)

Convert a sheet to JSON

sheet_to_json(
  "<spreadsheet-id>",
  "<sheet-name>",
  1
)

Extract images from a sheet

inspect_sheet_images(
  "<spreadsheet-id>",
  "<sheet-name>",
  "C:/path/to/output/sheet-images"
)

Read a Google Doc with text and image metadata

read_google_doc(
  "https://docs.google.com/document/d/<doc-id>/edit",
  null,
  false,
  null
)

Download images from a Google Doc

download_google_doc_images(
  "https://docs.google.com/document/d/<doc-id>/edit",
  "C:/path/to/output/doc-images",
  null
)

Practical Limitations

  • Google Docs image metadata is available directly through the Docs API, so document extraction is strong.
  • Google Sheets does not expose over-grid images as cleanly as cell data, so this server uses XLSX export to recover them.
  • Google Chat reads require OAuth scopes such as chat.spaces.readonly, chat.messages.readonly, and chat.memberships.readonly. If your cached token is older, rerun python -m google_workspace_mcp auth login.
  • Google Chat API requests also require a configured Chat app in the same Google Cloud project. In Google Chat API > Configuration, fill in at least App name, Avatar URL, and Description, then save.
  • Google Chat room URLs always expose the space ID, and often work for thread reads, but the final URL token isn't guaranteed to be a spaces/{space}/messages/{message} API resource name. In those cases the server can still return the thread and root message, but not reliably resolve the exact linked reply through the Chat API alone.
  • Google Chat private user conversations are most reliable with OAuth user credentials. A plain service account usually needs a properly configured Chat app flow to access Chat resources.
  • In-cell IMAGE("...") formulas are detected separately from exported drawing images.
  • Private files shared to your user account should use the OAuth desktop client flow.
  • Private files shared to a robot identity should use a service account.
  • An API key is only suitable for public Sheets and can't read Google Chat.
  • drive.readonly alone is enough for the Sheets URL fallback described above, but Google Docs still require documents.readonly.

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MCP server for reading Google Docs and Google Sheets with structured output and image extraction.

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