Manage uploaded knowledge and connectors (e.g., Google Drive, Gmail)

Key points

1. 1

   Connectors let Claude access apps and services, retrieve data and take actions. Google Workspace connectors (Gmail, Calendar, Drive) are available to all users; on Team and Enterprise plans an Owner or Primary Owner must enable a connector for the organisation before members can use it.

2. 2

   Enablement is not access: each person authenticates individually (OAuth) before a connector works for them, and connectors are toggled on per conversation.

3. 3

   Claude inherits each person's permissions from the connected service. If you cannot open a file, channel or record in the source system, Claude cannot reach it through the connector either. A "file not found" for a colleague's document usually means it is not shared with you.

4. 4

   Gmail: Claude can search and read emails and metadata (attachment metadata, not attachment content), and can send, reply to and forward. By default Claude asks for approval before each of these actions; on Team and Enterprise plans owners decide whether members may let actions run without asking.

5. 5

   Google Calendar: view events across shared calendars, create, update and delete events, find availability, manage invitations.

6. 6

   Google Drive: search and retrieve files, share, move and trash files (with approval), save Claude-generated files to Drive. Text content only is extracted; images embedded in documents are not processed.

7. 7

   Google Docs added to a private Project from Drive sync with the source, so Claude uses the latest version. An uploaded PDF or file is a static copy that must be replaced by hand when the original changes.

8. 8

   When a document is superseded, remove the old version rather than adding the new one alongside it; conflicting versions produce inconsistent or outdated answers.

9. 9

   Retrieval (RAG) mode for large project knowledge activates automatically on paid plans; there is nothing to switch on.

10. 10

    Custom connectors (remote MCP servers) connect Claude to services not verified by Anthropic. Only connect to servers from trusted organisations, use OAuth (never paste passwords), enable them only in conversations that need them, and watch the tool actions Claude proposes; malicious servers or tool content can attempt prompt injection. On Team and Enterprise plans only Owners can add them.

11. 11

    Organisational policy still governs connector use: keep the per-action approval where a person must sign off outbound messages, route sensitive content (payment details, regulated data) around Claude instead of relying on the model to detect and refuse it, and never use a shared credential with broader access than members have.

12. 12

    Do not dump a whole mailbox or database into project knowledge; supply the documents the task needs.

13. 13

    On Team and Enterprise plans, chats containing synced content cannot be shared, and connectors are available in private Projects.

Read the source

• Use connectors to extend Claude's capabilities
• Use Google Workspace connectors
• Getting started with custom integrations using remote MCP
• Retrieval augmented generation (RAG) for projects