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.
- Runs
- Every 10–15 minutes
- Apps
- Google Drive
- AI
- Not needed
- Access
- read (drive.readonly)
Send this to your assistant
Create a ClickRuntime automation: every 15 minutes, check my Client uploads and Contracts folders and email me any new or changed files with who changed them and a link.
First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.
Why use it
Why teams use this automation
A project manager keeps client deliverables in five Drive folders, and teammates edit them all day. Nobody announces what changed, so she opens each folder, sorts by Last modified and tries to remember what was different. A revised proposal gets overwritten without comment, a contract is edited after sign-off, and she hears about both from the client rather than from her own team.
Every 10 to 15 minutes, ClickRuntime queries the folders you chose for files whose modifiedTime is later than the last check. For each match it lists the file name, who edited it and a link, and sends that by email or to chat right away, or collects the changes into a weekly digest. It then remembers where it stopped so nothing repeats.
It suits compliance teams, agencies with client folders, and anyone responsible for documents other people edit.
What you get out of it
Unexpected edits are noticed quickly
A contract altered after approval is the kind of change worth catching in minutes. Seeing who edited it and when lets you ask the right question while the person remembers the reason.
No need to check folders by hand
Opening five folders and sorting by date is slow and easy to skip. A message that arrives only when something moved means attention goes to the files that changed, not to the ones that did not.
A digest for quieter folders
Not every folder deserves an instant message. A weekly summary of added and edited files keeps archives and reference material in view without adding one more notification to a crowded day.
Shared work stays accountable
Naming the editor on each change builds a trail of who touched what. In a team where several people can edit a document, that is useful when something breaks or a client asks about a revision.
Better handoffs between teammates
When a colleague uploads a finished file, you hear about it right then and can start the next step. Work waiting for someone to notice it adds days to a project over a year.
How it works
What happens, step by step
Every 10 to 15 minutes ClickRuntime checks the Google Drive folders you care about, such as Client uploads and Contracts.
It finds files that were added or edited since its last check.
You get an email listing each file with its folder, who changed it and a link to open it.
It remembers the time of its last check, so each change is only reported once.
Before it runs live
- Connect Google Drive
What you get
Build your own
Need it to work differently?
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.
Changes you can ask for
- Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
- Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
- Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
- Combine it with other Google Drive steps into one automation
Under the hood
The code that runs this automation
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from datetime import datetime, timezone
from clickruntime import on_trigger, report_fetched, credentials, state, notify
FOLDERS = {"client-uploads-folder-id": "Client uploads", "contracts-folder-id": "Contracts"}
@on_trigger
def run(event):
drive = build("drive", "v3", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False)
since = state.get("since") or datetime.now(timezone.utc).isoformat()
now = datetime.now(timezone.utc).isoformat()
lines = []
for fid, label in FOLDERS.items():
files = drive.files().list(q=f"'{fid}' in parents and modifiedTime > '{since}' and trashed = false",
fields="files(name,createdTime,modifiedTime,lastModifyingUser,webViewLink)").execute()["files"]
for f in files:
what = "New" if f["createdTime"] > since else "Changed"
who = f.get("lastModifyingUser", {}).get("displayName", "someone")
lines.append(f"{what} in {label}: {f['name']} by {who}\n{f['webViewLink']}")
report_fetched(len(lines))
state.set("since", now)
if lines:
notify.email_me(f"{len(lines)} Drive files new or changed", "\n\n".join(lines))
return {"files": len(lines)}FAQ
Common questions
Does it show what was changed inside a document?
Does it include files in subfolders?
How do I tell instant alerts from digest folders?
What permissions does it need?
Does it need AI?
How many runs does it use?
Can I change how it works?
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