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Google Drive Connector

🔑 Key Concepts

The Google Drive Connector allows you to bring the contents of your Google Drive directly into your LLM-powered workflows in INTELLITHING. It enables intelligent document ingestion, retrieval, and synthesis from files stored in shared Drive folders.

This block is optimized to be:

  • Efficient – Indexes only updated or new files to save time and compute.
  • Smart – Uses vector search, BM25, and ColBERT for accurate retrieval and reranking.
  • Scalable – Handles large folders and multiple documents seamlessly.
  • Flexible – Supports streamed responses or summaries from retrieved content.

📘 Key Definitions

Term Definition
Google Drive Connector A block that connects to your shared Drive folders and ingests documents for querying.
Service Account A Google Cloud identity used to programmatically access your Drive data securely.
FAISS A vector indexing library used for fast document search.
Workflow Node A modular step in the document pipeline (e.g., ingest, index, retrieve, synthesize).
RAG Retrieval-Augmented Generation — combines document search with LLMs to improve response quality.

⚙️ Setup Guide: Configuring Google Drive Access

To connect your Google Drive documents to INTELLITHING workflows:

1. Setup a Google Service Account

You need to create a Google Cloud service account with Drive access.

Step-by-Step:

  1. Go to Google Cloud Console.
  2. Create or select a project.
  3. Navigate to IAM & Admin > Service Accounts.
  4. Click “Create Service Account”.
  5. Name it (e.g., drive-indexer) and click “Create and Continue”.
  6. Skip roles or optionally assign Viewer role.
  7. Click Done.

2. Enable the Google Drive API

  1. Go to APIs & Services > Library.
  2. Search for Google Drive API.
  3. Click Enable.

3. Create and Download JSON Key

  1. In Service Accounts, select your service account.
  2. Go to the Keys tab.
  3. Click “Add Key > Create new key”.
  4. Choose JSON, click Create, and download the file.

⚠️ This file contains private credentials. Keep it safe.

4. Share Google Drive Folder with Service Account

  1. Open Google Drive.
  2. Right-click the folder you want to index > Share.
  3. Paste the service account email (e.g., drive-indexer@your-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com).
  4. Grant Viewer or Editor access.

📌 This step is mandatory. Public or link-based access will not work.

5. Add Folder ID(s) to Workflow Configuration

  • Collect the Folder ID from the URL (e.g., for https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ABC123, the ID is ABC123).
  • Provide the folder ID(s) in the block configuration.
  • Add a meaningful description for routing or documentation purposes.

🔀 Workflow Nodes

The Google Drive Connector uses a structured set of nodes to process documents and respond to queries.

gdrive_ingest_documents (First Node)

  • Fetches document metadata and prepares the file list from Drive.
  • Validates folder access.

gdrive_index_documents

  • Builds or reuses a FAISS index of document chunks.
  • Supports partial updates (only reindexes changed files).

gdrive_retrieve_nodes

  • Retrieves relevant chunks using both vector similarity and BM25 ranking.

gdrive_rerank_nodes

  • Applies reranker to refine results based on deep semantics.

gdrive_synthesize_response (Last Node)

  • Streams or returns a synthesized answer based on the query and document context.
  • Uses LLM summarization (Compact and Refine) for high-quality outputs.

✅ Best Practices for Google Drive Integration

  • Use small, well-scoped folders to improve indexing and retrieval efficiency.
  • Name folders clearly so you can differentiate them across workflows.
  • Only re-index when needed — reindexing will automatically skip unchanged files.
  • Test access by confirming the folder is visible to the service account before running.

📌 Example Use Case

You want to create a document assistant that answers questions about internal policies stored in a shared Google Drive folder:

  1. Share your folder Company-Policies with the service account.
  2. Add the folder ID in your INTELLITHING connector config.
  3. The workflow ingests and indexes documents.
  4. A user asks: “What is our remote work policy?”

  5. INTELLITHING:

  6. Retrieves matching content using vector + BM25 + ColBERT reranking.

  7. Synthesizes a concise answer using LLM.

🎯 Result: A fast, focused summary of your policy document, delivered live to the user.