Integrations
Connecting to Google Docs
Read, create and edit documents where your team already writes.
The difference between a draft in a chat window and a draft in a doc is whether anyone edits it. This connection puts the output where the editing happens.
One connection covers four products
Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Drive share a single Google Workspace grant, so connecting any one of them connects all four. Google Sheets is separate.
What it can do
- Read a document in full.
- Create a document.
- Edit a document, including structured changes rather than replacing the text.
That is a short list, and it is short because Docs is a small API doing one thing well. Finding a document is Drive's job.
How to connect
Open Integrations
app.ginicomputer.com → Integrations → Google Workspace.
Authorise with Google
Google's consent screen lists what is granted.
Come back
Gini can now read and write your documents.
What changes anything
| Operation | What it does | Changes anything? |
|---|---|---|
| Get document | Read it in full | No |
| Create document | Add a new doc | Yes |
| Batch update | Edit the content in place | Yes |
What it's great for
- The first draft that lands where it belongs. Research in the channel, document in Drive, with no copy-paste step in the middle. The draft being in Docs rather than in Slack is most of why anyone edits it.
- Long output. Anything past a few hundred words is easier to read, comment on and share as a doc.
- Updating a living document. "Add what we decided today to the launch plan, under Open questions."
- Reading a document you were sent. "Summarise this and tell me what it wants from us."
- Meeting notes with the work attached. Pair with Granola so the doc is written from the actual call.
Example routine
A weekly update that assembles itself:
- Every Friday at 15:00, gather what shipped from Linear and what moved in the channels.
- Append a dated section to the running update doc.
- Post the link in the team channel with a two-line summary.
The doc becomes the archive, and the channel gets the version people read.
Good to know
- Every Docs operation names one account. Unlike Drive search, none of them spans your connected accounts. In practice you notice this only if you have several: find the document with Drive first, and the edit that follows knows which account holds it.
- Version history is your undo. An edit you did not want is one revert away, which makes Docs a comparatively safe thing to let Gini write to.
- Say what not to touch. "Add a section at the end, don't restructure anything" works, and it removes the only genuinely annoying failure mode: a tidy-up nobody asked for.
- Edits are reported. Gini says what it changed and links the document.
Troubleshooting
Gini can't find the document
Finding is Drive's job, so this is usually a Drive access question rather than a Docs one. Check that the connected account can open the file, or paste the link.
It rewrote more than you wanted
Google's version history will restore it. Then say what to leave alone next time. "Append only" is the phrasing that holds.
The formatting came out wrong
Complex layouts, tables and columns are where structured edits are least predictable. On a heavily formatted document, ask Gini to draft the text and paste it yourself.