Claude connectors: connect your tools and find information

Your book club’s brief lives in a Google Doc. Instead of copying it into every chat, you can ask Claude: “Find the reading group doc in my Drive and tell me what’s still unconfirmed.” A connector makes that possible. In this guide you connect Google Drive, have Claude read one test document, check the answer against the original, and disconnect again.

What you need

A Free account is enough: Anthropic’s connector guide includes Free. You also need a personal Google account where you can create a test document. On a work account, ask your admin first, because Team and Enterprise owners must switch connectors on.

Google Drive is a remote connector: Claude talks to Google’s servers, so nothing is installed on your PC. The connector lesson explains the technology behind it, MCP, but you don’t need to know it to follow these steps.

Step 1: Create a test document

1. Create a Google Doc named Reading group connector test.
2. Paste the brief below into it.

Audience: adult neighbors in a casual reading group.
Purpose: a short invitation for a first meeting.
Meeting length: 45 minutes.
Date, time, location, and book: not confirmed.
Tone: friendly, plain US English.

Step 2: Connect Google Drive

These steps follow Anthropic’s connector walkthrough; they are the same in Claude Desktop and on claude.ai.

1. Open Customize > Connectors.
2. Click Discover and search for Google Drive.
3. Open the listing and read what the connector can do.
4. Click Connect to Claude.
5. Sign in to Google in the browser window that opens, read the permissions, and approve.
6. Back in Claude, check that Google Drive shows Connected under Your connectors.
7. Open its Tool permissions and set write and delete tools to Needs approval or Blocked.

Step 7 is the real safety setting. Writing “only read this file” in a prompt does not limit what the connector may do. If you don’t see these options, simply decline any request to change or share a file.

Step 3: Let Claude read the document

Start a new chat so Claude can’t answer from an earlier copy of the brief.

1. Start a new conversation.
2. Open the + menu in the message box, choose Connectors, and switch on Google Drive.
3. Send the request below.
4. If Claude asks to search or read, click Allow once.

Find the Google Doc titled "Reading group connector test" in my Drive. Report its audience, meeting length, and unconfirmed details, and link the document you used. If you can't open it, say so.

Now check the answer:

1. Click the document link in Claude’s answer.
2. Check that it is your test document.
3. Compare: adult neighbors, 45 minutes, and four unconfirmed details.

If there is no link or a fact differs, the test failed. Ask Claude which document it read before trying again.

What you have given access to

Claude can reach whatever your Google account can reach, not only the test document. According to Anthropic’s Google Workspace guide, the three Google connectors can do this:

• Drive: search and read files, and also share, move, or trash them.
• Gmail: search and read mail, draft replies, and send with your approval. It sees attachment names, not their contents.
• Calendar: read your calendars and create, change, or delete events.

Each one is connected separately, so add Gmail or Calendar only when a task needs it. What Claude reads through a connector is stored with that chat. Anthropic says it doesn’t train on raw connector data, but text that ends up in the conversation follows your normal training settings.

Step 4: Disconnect after the test

Switching Drive off in a chat’s + menu only pauses it for that chat. To end the connection:

1. Open Customize > Connectors.
2. Select Google Drive under Your connectors.
3. Click Disconnect and confirm.

To double-check from Google’s side, follow Google’s instructions for linked apps. Disconnecting doesn’t remove what was already copied into a chat.

Enterprise Search, briefly

Enterprise Search is a company-wide search for Team and Enterprise plans. An owner sets up the company’s sources, each employee signs in to the services they may use, and Claude answers questions about internal policies or decisions with links to the documents it used. Everyone still sees only what they already had access to. On Free or Pro you won’t find it, and you don’t need it.

Frequently asked questions

Why can’t Claude find my document?

Check three things: that you connected the right Google account, that Drive is switched on in this chat’s + menu, and that the account can open the document itself.

Does the connection work on the web and on my phone too?

Yes. A remote connector belongs to your account, so it works in every Claude app. Each chat still has its own on/off switch.

Next: Claude Research, where Claude searches many sources for you and you check what it found. This is part 5 of Claude beyond the basics; the beginner series covers the fundamentals.

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