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Google Drive: Search and list files — MCP tool

Google Drive MCP tool: Finds files and folders by name, content, type or location, with pagination.

Technical name: search_files

What task it solves

I want to find files and folders in Google Drive.

Searches and lists Drive files with convenience filters (name, full text, mimeType, parent folder, folders-only) that combine with a raw Drive query expression.

When to use it

Use it before any other operation: everything in Drive is addressed by file id, and names are not unique, so search first and act on ids. It also lists a folder's children (parent_id) and browses shared drives (drive_id / include_all_drives).

What to provide

  • query — optional. Raw Drive q expression, AND-ed with the filters below.
  • name_contains / full_text_contains / mime_type / parent_id / only_folders — optional convenience filters.
  • include_trashed — optional. Trashed files are hidden by default.
  • order_by, page_size (1..1000), page_token — optional ordering and pagination.
  • drive_id or include_all_drives — optional shared-drive scope.

What it returns

A compact JSON page: files[] with id, name, mimeType, size, parents, driveId, modifiedTime, trashed, starred, webViewLink and shortcutDetails, plus nextPageToken and incompleteSearch.

What changes in Google Drive

Nothing — this is a pure read.

Example request

Find the latest PDF reports in the "Finance" folder in Google Drive and show me their links.

Errors and limitations

Values inside the filters are escaped automatically, but a malformed raw query fails with HTTP 400. incompleteSearch=true means some corpora were skipped — narrow the search. Shared-drive items appear only with drive_id or include_all_drives.

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Technical details