Google Docs MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server for Google Docs with full tab support — something most existing servers get wrong or skip entirely.

Uses Google service accounts with domain-wide delegation, so it works in Workspace orgs without OAuth consent screens.

What it does

Tool	Description
`list_tabs`	List all tabs (including nested) in a document
`read_document`	Read one tab or all tabs as markdown with proper heading levels
`get_document_info`	Lightweight metadata: title, ID, link, tab list
`create_document`	Create a new doc with optional initial text
`append_text`	Append text to the end of a specific tab
`insert_text`	Insert text at a character index in a tab
`replace_text`	Find and replace within a tab (or whole doc)
`batch_update`	Full batchUpdate access — formatting, tables, images, styles
`list_documents`	Search Drive for docs by name

All tab-targeting tools accept tab_id or tab_title (case-insensitive). The batch_update tool auto-injects tabId into requests so you don't have to.

Why this exists

Google Docs has supported tabs since late 2024, but most MCP servers either:

Ignore tabs entirely (only read the first tab)
Don't use includeTabsContent=True, so tab content is invisible
Don't handle nested tabs

This server handles all of that correctly and converts content to markdown with proper heading structure.

Install

bash

pip install google-docs-mcp-server

Or run directly with uv:

bash

uvx google-docs-mcp-server

Prerequisites

Python 3.11+
A Google Cloud service account with domain-wide delegation

Setup

1. Create a GCP service account

Go to Google Cloud Console and create (or select) a project
Enable the Google Docs API and Google Drive API
Create a service account under IAM & Admin > Service Accounts
Create a JSON key and download it

2. Enable domain-wide delegation

In GCP, on the service account details page, enable Domain-wide Delegation and note the Client ID
In Google Workspace Admin > Security > API Controls > Domain-wide Delegation

Add the Client ID with these scopes:

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly

3. Configure your MCP client

Add to your MCP config (e.g. ~/.claude/mcp.json or .mcp.json):

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-docs": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["google-docs-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_PATH": "/path/to/your-service-account-key.json",
        "SUBJECT_EMAIL": "you@yourdomain.com"
      }
    }
  }
}