rclone - Google Drive CLI
Tool: rclone (open source, MIT license, 50k+ GitHub stars)
Traffic: Direct PC ↔ Google API, no third-party middleman
Config: ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf (or %APPDATA%\rclone\rclone.conf on Windows)
Remote name: gdrive:
🚨 Critical Limitation
rclone is READ-ONLY for native Google formats:
- •✅ Download/export (Sheets→xlsx, Docs→docx, Slides→pptx)
- •✅ List, search, navigate folders
- •✅ Upload/create regular files (pdf, xlsx, images)
- •❌ CANNOT create native Google Sheets/Docs/Slides
- •❌ CANNOT duplicate files preserving native format
- •❌ CANNOT edit Google Sheets in place
For creating Google Sheets: Use Chrome automation to create/duplicate, then MCP for cell manipulation.
When to Use
- •Reading/fetching Google Sheets data → download as xlsx, parse locally
- •Searching for files on Drive
- •Downloading any Drive files
- •Uploading regular files (NOT native Google formats)
Common Commands
# List folders at root rclone lsd gdrive: # List files in a folder rclone ls gdrive:"<YOUR_FOLDER>" # Upload file rclone copy file.txt gdrive:folder/ # Download file rclone copy gdrive:file.txt ./ # Create folder rclone mkdir gdrive:"New Folder" # Move file rclone move gdrive:file.txt gdrive:dest/ # Download Google Sheet as Excel rclone copy gdrive:"path/to/sheet.xlsx" ./ # Sync local folder to Drive rclone sync ./local-folder gdrive:remote-folder # List with details (size, date) rclone lsl gdrive:folder/ # Check what would be copied (dry run) rclone copy --dry-run source dest
Google Sheets Specifics
Clarification: Google Sheets ARE Google Drive files (native format). rclone handles them by exporting on download:
- •Sheets → .xlsx
- •Docs → .docx
- •Slides → .pptx
Use case: Reading Sheet data without browser automation. Download as xlsx, then parse locally.
# Download sheet and search contents rclone copy gdrive:"path/to/MySheet" /tmp/ unzip -p /tmp/MySheet.xlsx xl/sharedStrings.xml | tr '<' '\n' | grep -i "searchterm"
This is faster and more reliable than browser automation for data extraction.
Troubleshooting
Auth expired: Re-run rclone config and re-authenticate the gdrive remote.
Quota errors: Google Drive API has rate limits. Add --drive-pacer-min-sleep 100ms for heavy operations.
Path with spaces: Always quote paths containing spaces: gdrive:"Folder Name/file.txt"