Give an agent your Google files and calendar

Connect your Google account once, then choose, agent by agent, the files and calendars each agent can use. An agent only ever reaches what you chose for it.

Connect a Google card

1. Open Integrations and choose a Google card: Google Calendar, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Drive, Google Contacts or Google Chat.
2. Read What this lets agents reach, choose the access level if the card has one, and choose Sign in with Google.
3. On Google’s page, leave every box ticked and approve.

Google may show “Google hasn’t verified this app”. Choose Advanced, then Continue. The warning goes away once Google finishes its review of the sensitive permissions (Calendar booking and Contacts). The cards that need only the files you pick, and Calendar’s “Find free time”, show no warning.

If you untick a box, Omni Octo tells you which permission Google did not grant and changes nothing; sign in again and leave every box ticked.

Choose files for an agent

Open the agent, then Tools, and find the Google card. Choose Choose files (Sheets, Docs, Slides, Drive). Google’s file chooser opens; pick the files this agent may use. You can pick again at any time to add more, and remove any file from the list.

• Sheets works on Google Sheets files. For an Excel file, open it in Google Sheets and choose File, then Save as Google Sheets.
• Drive takes any file type you pick: PDF, Word, images, Google files. A folder grants only the folder itself, not what is inside it.
• Tabs. You can tick the tabs of a sheet an agent should work in. Tabs tell the agent where to look; they are a hint rather than a lock.
• Files an agent creates through Drive (a new file or a copy) are added to that agent’s list.
• Workflows choose files the same way: the whole workflow owns its files.

Only the person who signed in the Google account the agent uses can add files. Everyone else sees “Only {name} can add files here”. Google’s file chooser opens on that account.

Several Google accounts on one card

One Google card can hold more than one Google account, for example a shared mailbox and your own.

• Add an account. On the card’s page, choose Sign in with another account. Google asks which account to use. Each account is listed by its email.
• Choose an agent’s account. On the agent’s Tools tab, the menu above the card’s tools says which account the agent uses and who signed each one in. Agents you don’t change use the card’s default account.
• Workflows use the card’s default account. To change it, choose Make default on another account; Omni Octo asks first, because workflows and agents on the default account move with it.
• Files belong to an account. Files are chosen with the account the agent uses, and the agent can use them only while it uses that account. If you switch the agent to another account, the files chosen with the old one stay on its list, greyed out. Switch back, or remove them. The file limit counts only the files of the account the agent uses.
• Signing in again must be done with the same Google account. To add a different person’s account, use Sign in with another account.
• Calendar levels are set per card. When you move a card to Find free time and book, its other accounts show Sign in again and keep finding free time until they do.

Calendar: two levels

When you connect Google Calendar you choose what agents can do:

• Find free time. Agents see when you are busy or free on the calendars you choose, never what a meeting is. No Google warning.
• Find free time and book. Agents can also read, add, move and cancel events on the calendars you choose. Google asks for one more permission.

You can change the level later from the card; Google opens to ask for the new permissions, and nothing changes until you finish. Going from booking back to free time removes the booking tools from every agent that had them, and the card names those agents first.

Choose the calendars for each agent on its Tools tab. When an agent checks someone else’s availability, only the calendars you chose are checked.

Contacts and Chat

• Google Contacts searches your contacts and, on a Google Workspace account, your company directory.
• Google Chat posts messages in the spaces you choose, sent as you. Choose the spaces on the agent’s Tools tab.

Who can ask

Anyone who talks to an agent with these tools can ask about what the tools read. Tools that read nothing of yours start ticked; tick the others only if the agent needs them. Choose “Ask the customer first” on tools that change a file or a calendar so a person confirms before anything is written.

If something does not work

• “Your browser blocked Google’s file picker.” Allow third-party cookies for docs.google.com, or use Chrome or Edge.
• “These files were picked with a different Google account.” Pick them while signed in to Google as the account the integration uses.
• “Sign-in expired. Reconnect.” Google ended the sign-in (a password change or a removed permission). Sign in again from the card.
• “This integration is signed in as …” You signed in with another Google account when reconnecting. Use the account the integration was created with.
• “Google sign-in isn’t set up on this server yet.” or “File picking isn’t set up on this server yet.” Ask your administrator.

Remove a Google card

Removing a card deletes Omni Octo’s copy of the sign-in and the files and calendars agents were given. Your Google account still lists Omni Octo; remove it in your Google account’s third-party access page to end access everywhere.

Zapier

The Zapier Google Calendar and Google Sheets recipes are no longer offered for new tools. Tools you already added keep working.