Google Drive joins the workspace graph
By Steven Van ·
Connecting Drive is read-only and needs a paid Graphify Cloud workspace, and everyone in the workspace can search the folder's contents.
A Google Drive folder can now sit in the same Graphify workspace graph as the repositories already there. Per the announcement, once the first build finishes, Open graph, Wiki, and Ask can read the documents. Teammates can search a file even when they cannot open it in Google Drive.
How a folder is added
The Google account that connects Drive picks the folder, including a folder on a shared drive. Graphify stores it as a repository, the same kind of object as a GitHub repo. The external id is the folder id, and the name reads Google Drive followed by the folder name. The first build is queued as soon as the folder is added.
Graphify reads Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, plus PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, CSV, Markdown, text, and image files. A file it cannot read stays in the folder details with a reason next to the name, and the other files stay searchable. The details note that the list may be incomplete. Pull request review stays on GitHub and GitLab repositories.
Access and permissions
The grant is read-only. The connect dialog says "Read-only access. Graphify never edits your files." It asks Google for Drive access and for the email that identifies the account, not for Gmail or Calendar.
Search follows what was built, not each member's Drive permissions. The Drive list shows that the folder is visible to everyone in the workspace, and adding it requires ticking a checkbox: "I understand everyone in this workspace can read this folder's contents." Graphify rejects the add until it is ticked. Open in Drive links back to the file, and Drive decides who can open it there.
The announcement says Notion AI and Glean show a Drive file only to someone who can already open it, while Dust syncs what the connected admin can open. Graphify says it matches Dust.
The person who connected the account is the person who can add folders. Another owner or admin can change the account from Connection settings. A different Google account stops syncing the folders already added, so they are added again from the new account. Reconnecting the same account leaves them in place.
Sync schedule
- Checked is the last time Graphify listed the folder. After a successful check, the next one waits 15 minutes.
- Last synced is when the latest successful build finished. Graphify builds a new graph only when the file list has changed, so Checked can move while Last synced stays put. The row can then say Up to date.
- Changes found means the list has moved and the served graph is behind it.
- A failed check makes that folder wait longer, up to 6 hours. Other folders keep their own schedule.
If Drive does not respond or a folder takes too long to check, the folder can stay enabled and Graphify retries on its own. Before the first successful build, the row says "Graph, Wiki, and Ask are available after the first successful sync."
Stopping and availability
Stopping sync on one folder, or disconnecting the account, ends reading. The graph already built stays searchable. Disconnecting revokes the grant, and the toast reads "Google Drive disconnected. Folder syncing has stopped." Google Drive on Graphify Cloud is available on a paid workspace.
