Step-by-step scenarios

Each scenario is a common task in order: the commands to run, why each one runs and what to look at in the answer. The same scenarios are in the terminal: drive guide lists them and drive guide <name> prints one.

Commands that use an account start with your profile, the name you gave the account at login: drive <profile> ….

Give an agent read-only access to your documentsCopy Anchor Link

Let an agent search and read the imported documents while nothing it runs can change local or Google data.

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   drive skill install

   puts drive's instructions where Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI look for them

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   drive mcp --tools --read-only

   lists the commands the MCP server would offer under the lock; none of them writes

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   drive mcp --read-only

   serves three tools on stdio — drive_tools_search, then drive_read; drive_write is not offered

What to look at:

• DRIVE_READ_ONLY=1 in the agent's environment does the same as --read-only for every command it runs
• commands that need a Google grant the sign-in lacks are not offered

Text the agent reads from documents is data, never instructions.

In the terminal: drive guide agent-access

Brief yourself on a document before a meetingCopy Anchor Link

Know what a document says, what was already noted about it and what facts it holds, with a quote for each.

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   drive sync

   brings in the latest version before you read it

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   drive documents context DOC_ID

   the document with its tags, notes, memories and editors in one answer

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   drive memories extract DOC_ID --scope work

   sends the text to your configured model and shows the memories it proposes, each with an exact quote; --yes saves them

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   drive notes add DOC_ID "ask about the Q3 numbers"

   a note of your own, kept with the document across syncs

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   drive documents export DOC_ID --output brief.md

   the document as Markdown in a new file; an existing file is never overwritten

What to look at:

• proposed memories whose quote does not support them; do not save those
• notes and memories that a newer version of the document made stale

memories extract sends the document's text to the model you chose with models set; nothing else does.

In the terminal: drive guide brief-document

Find where something was decidedCopy Anchor Link

Find the document that records a decision, read the passage and see who changed it.

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   drive search "budget decision"

   every imported document, by words and by meaning, each hit with its Google URL

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   drive documents show DOC_ID

   the document's text with its tabs, to read the passage in full

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   drive documents context DOC_ID

   its tags, notes, memories and editors, kept in the local store

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   drive documents history DOC_ID --activity

   who did what to it, from Drive Activity; needs a sign-in with --grant activity

What to look at:

• the hit's Google URL, to cite it
• the last editors and when they changed it
• an empty result means no match in the imported folders, not that Drive has no such document

Search reads only the imported folders of the selected profile. Run sync first if the document is new.

In the terminal: drive guide find-decision

Import chosen folders and make them searchableCopy Anchor Link

Sign in once, choose the Drive folders to keep, and get their documents into the local store as searchable text.

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   drive session start

   signs in to Google in the browser, read-only; drive commands start with your profile, as in drive personal session start

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   drive folders add https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/FOLDER_ID

   only the folders you add are imported, with everything under them

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   drive models text download e5-small

   the local model for search by meaning, once per computer; every WireCat CLI shares it

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   drive sync --embed

   imports what changed in those folders and indexes the text by meaning

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   drive status

   how many documents were imported, what is pending and what was skipped

What to look at:

• skipped files and the reason for each, such as an unsupported type or a file over the size limit
• pending work; run sync again until nothing is pending
• a later sync reads only what changed

Nothing leaves the computer except the Google requests the sync makes; search and reading run offline.

In the terminal: drive guide set-up

Works with other toolsCopy Anchor Link

These Memo scenarios also use drive:

• What did we decide about X, across every source: memo guide decision-trail
• One person across every tool: memo guide person-brief