Connect Multiple Google Drive Accounts to Claude Code
Add every Drive to Carly and one Claude Code session searches all of them at once. Authorize each Google identity once, register a single MCP server, and the terminal works across your personal Drive and every Workspace Drive together.
Claude Code reaches Drive the way it reaches everything outside your repository: through the Model Context Protocol. So the account question is a server question, not a Claude Code setting, and the server you register decides how many Drives exist.
1. Add your Google Drive accounts to Carly
- Sign in at carlyassistant.com.
- Open carlyassistant.com/integrations.
- Find Google Drive, click Connect, and authorize the Drive.
- Click Connect again for the next one, and keep going for as many accounts as you want.
Choose Use another account if Google preselects your first login, and check the full address after each authorization before adding the next.
If a Google Workspace requires administrator review, ask that Workspace administrator to approve the connection before you finish. Each Workspace approves independently, so an agency holding three client Workspaces has three separate conversations to start early.
Each Drive keeps its own authorization. Nothing is merged, copied, or synced between them.
Carly connects to thousands of apps, so while you are on that page you can add your inboxes, calendars, CRM, and anything else you want Claude Code to reach through the same server.
2. Register Carly as an MCP server
Carly is a remote HTTP server, so one command does it:
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/Anthropic’s Claude Code documentation describes three scopes. --scope user stores the server in ~/.claude.json and loads it in every project, which is what you want for files you use everywhere. Drop the flag and it lands in local scope, available only in the directory where you added it. --scope project writes it into a committed .mcp.json for a team.
Then authenticate:
claude mcp login carlyThat opens a browser for the OAuth flow. Sign in to the Carly workspace holding the Drives. The /mcp panel inside a session runs the same flow, and --no-browser prints a URL instead on a machine without one.
Confirm the server is live:
claude mcp listA healthy entry reads ✔ Connected. ! Needs authentication means the OAuth flow did not finish, and ✘ Failed to connect points at the URL or the network rather than your Carly account.
What one session can do across all your Drives
Prompts stop being per-account questions:
- “Search all my Drives for the latest Databricks statement of work and tell me which folder each version lives in.”
- “List everything added to my Drives in the last week and group it by account.”
- “Find every Adobe invoice across my Drives and put the totals in a new Doc in the agency Drive.”
- “Create a
2026-Q4folder in each of my Workspace Drives.”
Carly finds files, lists and creates folders, uploads files, and creates, reads, edits, appends to, and copies Google Docs, on every connected account. Separation holds throughout: each Drive keeps its own permissions and its own authorization, and results say which account a file came from.
The routes Claude Code already has to Drive
Three exist, and all three stop at one Google identity.
Anthropic’s own Google Drive connector, enabled at claude.ai under Connectors, loads into Claude Code on launch. Anthropic’s help centre describes it as retrieving Docs, reading Sheets, Slides, PDFs and Office files, and uploading files, with sharing and moving gated behind approval. It signs in to one Google account, and the documented way to change that is to disconnect and re-authenticate, which is a swap rather than an addition.
Community Google Drive MCP servers are the second route. The widely used ones ask you to create a Google Cloud project, enable the Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides APIs, and build a Desktop app OAuth client first. A handful advertise local multi-account support; most are one OAuth client per account, so a second Drive means a second server entry, a second token store, and a second thing to repair when a refresh token expires.
The third is Google’s own gws command-line tool, which several walkthroughs wire into Claude Code. Its README is blunt about the setup: a Google Cloud project, an OAuth consent screen in testing mode with your own address added under Test users, and a Desktop app OAuth client. Skip the test-user step and Google returns a 403 saying the app has not completed verification. It authenticates one set of stored credentials with no documented account switching, so a second Google identity means running the whole setup again.
None of that argues against Claude Code. It is the reason the multi-account half of this job belongs in the server.
Per-account Drive servers versus Carly in Claude Code
| Need | Per-account Drive MCP server | Carly MCP server |
|---|---|---|
| Search one Google Drive | Yes | Yes |
| Search several Drives in one prompt | One server per account | One server, all accounts |
| Stand up your own Google Cloud project | Usually required | No |
| Manage an OAuth consent screen | Usually required | No |
| Add a fourth Drive later | New server entry | No config change |
| Create and edit Google Docs | Varies by server | Yes |
| Keep the work running with the terminal closed | No | Yes |
Carly gives Claude Code one file toolset that covers every Drive you own instead of a stack of per-account servers. Carly offers free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents start at $35/month.
The part that outlives the session
A terminal session ends when you close it. Most Drive work does not: filing the signed contract against the right client, renaming exports to a convention, copying a template into a new project folder.
That work belongs in a Carly workflow or a Carly agent, which runs with nothing open and no session attached. Carly watches each connected account individually, so a rule can fire on a file landing in a client Drive and stay quiet on the personal one.
One wrinkle if you want Carly inside a Claude Code routine: routines run in the cloud against the connectors on your claude.ai account, and a server added locally with claude mcp add lives on your machine. Add Carly at claude.ai/customize/connectors as well, or declare it in a committed .mcp.json so it arrives with the cloned repository. Users have filed issues on the Claude Code GitHub repository about connected connectors not appearing when a cloud routine is created, and about claude.ai connectors being absent in -p runs, so check the routine sees the tools before relying on it. Routines also start from a schedule, a pull request, or an HTTP call, and every one needs a repository.
Quick fixes when a Drive does not appear
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
Server shows ! Needs authentication | Run claude mcp login carly and finish the browser flow |
| Server missing in another project | Re-add with --scope user, or move the entry out of local scope |
claude -p reports the tools are unavailable | Sign in interactively once with /mcp, then rerun the script |
| The same Google account connected twice | Remove the duplicate and reconnect with Use another account |
| A Workspace blocks authorization | Ask that Workspace administrator to approve Carly |
| A file is missing from results | Confirm it sits in that identity’s Drive rather than a folder shared from elsewhere |
Frequently asked questions
Does Claude Code have a built-in Google Drive connector?
It inherits the Google Drive connector you enable on claude.ai, and otherwise reaches Drive through MCP servers you register. Either way one Google sign-in is attached, which is why a second Drive needs a server that holds more than one.
How many Google Drives can this reach?
As many as you authorize in Carly. Claude Code talks to one server, so the account count is a Carly setting rather than a Claude Code one.
Do I need a Google Cloud project?
Not for this route. Carly handles Google authorization on the integrations page, so there is no Cloud project, no API enablement, and no OAuth consent screen to maintain.
Will this work in a non-interactive run?
Yes, once you have signed in. Claude Code cannot run an OAuth flow mid-script, so complete claude mcp login carly from an interactive session first and the claude -p run inherits the stored token.
Does this copy files between my Drives?
No. Every Drive stays separate with its own folders and permissions, and a file moves only when you ask for it explicitly.
Related: Multiple Gmail accounts in Claude Code · Multiple Google Drive accounts in Claude · Claude Code multiple accounts · Claude Code MCP · Google Drive MCP · Best AI assistants for Google Drive
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