Skip to content
Get packs

Watch Google Drive Changes

Set up and manage notifications when a Google Drive file or folder changes.

Source Download skill
Repository
googleworkspace/cli
Stars
32,059
Licence
Apache-2.0
Files
1 file

What it does

This skill gives an AI agent a step-by-step recipe for subscribing to change notifications on a Google Drive file or folder using the gws command-line tool. Once installed, the agent can create a subscription that sends events to a Google Cloud Pub/Sub topic, list your active subscriptions, and renew them before they expire. It is a workflow for engineers wiring Drive activity into other systems, not a tool for reading or editing documents directly.

Great for

  • Developers building automations that react when a Drive file or folder is updated
  • Teams that already use Google Cloud Pub/Sub and the gws CLI and want to manage Drive watch subscriptions through an agent
  • Ops staff who need to check or renew existing Drive change subscriptions

Skip it if

  • People who only want to read, edit, or share Drive files, since this skill only manages change subscriptions (no file access is described)
  • Users without a Google Cloud project, Pub/Sub topic, and the gws CLI set up, because the recipe cannot run without them
  • Anyone wanting real-time monitoring without ongoing maintenance, since subscriptions expire and need periodic renewal

Try asking

  • “Watch my team's shared Drive folder for updates and send the events to my Pub/Sub topic”
  • “List all active Drive change subscriptions in my project”
  • “Renew the Drive subscription with ID abc123 before it expires”
  • “Set up a subscription that includes the full resource in each notification”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Watch Google Drive ChangesInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 1 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.

    recipe-watch-drive-changes.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip recipe-watch-drive-changes.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip recipe-watch-drive-changes.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Replace placeholders such as DRIVE_ID, PROJECT, TOPIC and SUBSCRIPTION_ID with real values before running commands
  • Ask the agent to list subscriptions regularly and renew them, since the recipe notes renewal is needed before expiry
  • Review the subscription JSON before running it, as it creates live notifications tied to your Google account and Pub/Sub topic

What's inside

  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from googleworkspace/cli under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.