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ClickRuntime

Automate Google Drive

Keep folders tidy and files where they belong: back up data on a schedule, sort and rename uploads, pull fields out of invoices dropped into a folder, and fill contracts from templates. You also hear about new files, public sharing and storage running low. Describe what you want to your AI assistant, check what it will do, and it keeps running with your laptop closed.

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Try asking

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every night at 2am, export all records from this API as JSON into a new dated folder in my Backups Drive folder, and move backups older than 30 days to trash.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Ideas

What you can automate in Google Drive

Dated backups that clean up after themselves, folders that sort themselves, data pulled out of new PDFs, and alerts when files change or get shared too widely. These are ready-made starting points. Anything else you can describe works too.
On a schedule

Back up your data to Drive every night

Each night your data is saved to a dated Drive folder, and backups older than 30 days go to trash.

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Every 10–15 minutesAI

Pull invoice details out of PDFs in a folder

When you drop an invoice or statement into a folder, its key fields are pulled out and sent to you as CSV.

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Every 10 minutes

Resize and watermark new photos

Photos dropped into a folder are resized, compressed and watermarked into a web-ready folder.

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Hourly or daily

Keep your uploads folder sorted

New files get a dated name and move into folders by type, and duplicates are reported to you.

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The moment it happens

Create a contract PDF from each form entry

Each form submission becomes a filled-in contract from your template, saved as a PDF in Drive.

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Every 15–30 minutesAI

Get a summary of each new document

When a document or transcript lands in a folder, you get an email with its key points, decisions and action items.

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Weekly

Archive a website to Drive as Markdown

Each page of a site is saved in Drive as a Markdown file you can read or reuse.

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Hourly

Copy new SFTP files into Drive

New files on your FTP or SFTP server are copied into Drive every hour.

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The moment it happens

Set up a shared folder for each new client

Each new client gets a folder with your standard subfolders, shared with them.

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HourlyAI

Translate new documents in a folder

Each document added to a folder gets a translated copy next to it.

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Every 10–15 minutes

Get told when files change in key folders

You hear about new or edited files in the folders you care about, with who changed them.

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Daily

Get warned when backups stop arriving

If your backup folder hasn't received a new file in a day, you get an email.

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Weekly

Find files shared outside your company

Each week you get a list of your files shared with anyone with the link or with outside domains.

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The moment it happens

Save files to Drive from any tool

Any tool that can send a file URL to your link gets that file saved into your Drive folder.

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Daily

Get warned before Drive runs out of space

You get an email when your Drive storage passes 90%, once each time it crosses.

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Every 15 minutes

Get an email when a file is shared with you in Google Drive

Files and folders newly shared with your Google account are emailed every 15 minutes with the owner's name and a link.

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Monthly

Find the largest files in Google Drive

A monthly email lists the 30 largest files you own in Google Drive, with size, last change date and folder link, so you know what to delete.

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Every 5 minutes

Convert Word files uploaded to Google Drive into Google Docs

Word, Excel and PowerPoint files dropped in a Drive folder are converted to Google Docs, Sheets or Slides every 5 minutes, and the originals move to an archive folder.

See how it works Your own logic

Any other automation you can describe in words

Your own rules, schedule and AI steps with Google Drive, plus any other app. Describe it and your assistant builds it.

See how to build your own

Build your own

Build any Google Drive automation you can describe

The ideas above are ready-made starting points, not a fixed list. Describe what Google Drive should do in your own words, with your conditions, other apps or an AI step, and your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

For example, ask your assistant

Every hour, check my Uploads folder in Google Drive and move each file into a client folder based on the client name in the file name, creating the folder if it does not exist.

When a new file lands in my Contracts folder in Google Drive, add its name, owner and link as a row in my Contracts sheet in Google Sheets.

When a new PDF is added to my Resumes folder in Google Drive, use AI to score it against our job description, log the score in Google Sheets and post anyone above 8 to #hiring in Slack.

Works with

Google Drive with the apps you already use

Drive is where files end up. Connect it to your inbox, sheets and chat so attachments get filed, documents get processed and people hear about it.

Google Drive works with hundreds of other apps

Name any of them when you ask your assistant, and your automation connects them. Over 248 apps are ready to go, and anything with an API works too.

  • Dropbox
  • OneDrive
  • Box
  • Notion
  • Airtable
  • Google Slides
  • Google Forms
  • Typeform
  • DocuSign
  • PandaDoc
  • QuickBooks
  • Xero
  • HubSpot
  • Trello
  • Asana
  • Discord
  • Jotform
  • OpenAI

Beyond chat

Have Google Drive work when you're not in the chat

Connecting Google Drive to ChatGPT or Claude lets you ask about it while you chat. ClickRuntime handles the part that should happen on its own: checks on a schedule and actions on each new event, set up from the same chat and running after you close it.

Setup

Connect Google Drive

You connect Google Drive through your own OAuth app in Google Cloud, or with a service account that you share folders with. The credentials belong to you and only reach what you allow.

Google Drive

File storage

  1. At console.cloud.google.com, create a project and enable the Google Drive API.
  2. Set up the OAuth consent screen and add the scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.
  3. Create an OAuth client of type Web application with the redirect URI https://clickruntime.com/oauth/callback.
  4. In the ClickRuntime dashboard, open Connections, choose Google Drive and enter the client ID and secret, then connect.
  5. Prefer a service account? Under IAM & Admin → Service Accounts, create one and add a JSON key, share your folders or a Shared Drive with its email, and save the key as a secret on Connections & secrets.

Good to know

Google Drive limits that affect automations

  • Full drive access is a restricted scope. That's why you use your own app: a shared one would need Google's verification and a yearly security assessment.
  • Service accounts have no storage of their own, so automations that upload files with a service account should write into a Shared Drive.
  • Folder automations check for new or changed files on a schedule, every 10 to 15 minutes, rather than reacting the instant a file arrives.
  • Watching subfolders needs a walk through each one, and very large drives are read in pages, so audits of big drives take longer.

FAQ

Questions about automating Google Drive

What can ClickRuntime see and change in my Drive?
With your OAuth app and the `drive` scope, the files your account can reach: it can list, download, upload, rename, move, share and trash them. With a service account, only the folders and Shared Drives you share with its email.
Does it delete files?
Backup clean-ups move old copies to trash, which you can still restore, rather than deleting them permanently.
Can it read scanned PDFs and photos?
Text PDFs work. Scanned PDFs and images need OCR or a vision model, which the built-in AI doesn't provide.
How quickly does it pick up a new file?
Folder automations check every 10 to 15 minutes, or on whatever schedule you set. Files sent to a trigger link are saved straight away.
Will people get an email when a folder is shared with them?
Google sends its own sharing notification by default. You can ask for folders to be shared without it.
Do I need AI for Drive automations?
Not for backups, sorting, image clean-up, alerts and audits. Extracting invoice data, summaries and translations use the AI that comes with every ClickRuntime plan, so you don't need your own AI key.
Is this a Google Drive connector for ChatGPT or Claude?
Not for chatting with Google Drive data. A chat connector lets your assistant read and change Google Drive while you're in the conversation. ClickRuntime is for the work that should happen without you: you set up an automation from the chat once, and it keeps running on a schedule or on each Google Drive event.

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Tell your assistant what Google Drive should do

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