See what changed in your Google Drive folders this week

SKILL.md---
name: google-drive-weekly-changes-digest
description: "Every Friday: the docs created or edited this week in the Drive folders you choose, who changed them, and one line on the larger edits. Use when the user asks for this, or when it runs on a schedule."
---

# Google Drive weekly changes digest

Every Friday: the docs created or edited this week in the Drive folders you choose, who changed them, and one line on the larger edits.

Shared folders change all week, and the only way to keep up is to open "Recent" and guess which edits matter. Product leads and founders lose track of the proposal that grew a new section or the research notes someone added on Tuesday.

Every Friday the agent lists what was created or edited in the folders you name, who did it and how much, and writes one line on what changed in the documents that moved most. You read the week's paperwork in two minutes and open only the docs that need you.

## Two ways to get the data

Use the API or MCP route when you have an MCP server, a CLI or an API token for the app. Otherwise, if you can drive a browser the user is signed in to (Claude in Chrome, a Playwright or Chrome DevTools MCP server), use the browser route. Say which one you used.

## Route A: API or MCP server

### What you need

- Read access to the folders, through the Claude Google Drive connector or a Google Cloud OAuth client with the `drive.readonly` and `drive.activity.readonly` scopes.
- The folder IDs to watch (the last part of each folder's URL).

If something is missing, say what and stop; do not invent numbers.

### Steps

1. **List changed files** (Google Drive): Call `files.list` with `q: "'<folderId>' in parents and modifiedTime > '2026-10-10T00:00:00Z' and trashed = false"`, `fields: "files(id,name,mimeType,createdTime,modifiedTime,lastModifyingUser(displayName),webViewLink)"`, and `supportsAllDrives=true` with `includeItemsFromAllDrives=true` for shared drives. Repeat for subfolders.
2. **See who did what** (Google Drive): Call the Drive Activity API `activity:query` with `ancestorName: "items/<folderId>"` and `filter: "time >= \"2026-10-10T00:00:00Z\" AND detail.action_detail_case:(CREATE EDIT RENAME MOVE)"`. Count edits per file and per person; actors come back as `people/<id>`, which the People API turns into names.
3. **Describe the larger edits** (Google Drive): For the Google Docs with the most edits, export the text with `files.export` (`mimeType: text/plain`) and compare it with the copy saved last Friday in a local folder: sections added, removed or rewritten. A new doc gets one line from its headings.
4. **Write the digest**: Group by folder: new files first, then edited files by number of edits, each with who changed it and the one-line summary, linked by `webViewLink`. Save this week's text exports for next Friday.

## Route B: the browser

### What you need

- Signed in to Google with an account that has at least Viewer access to each folder; shared drives need the account to be a member.

If something is missing, say what and stop; do not invent numbers.

### Steps

Start at https://drive.google.com/drive/recent. The user is signed in already; never type passwords or codes, and ask if a sign-in page appears.

1. **Open each folder**: Open `https://drive.google.com`, go to **My Drive** or **Shared drives**, and open the first folder you watch. Switch to list view and sort by **Last modified**; everything modified since last Friday is at the top. Repeat for subfolders.
2. **Read the activity panel**: Click the **View details** icon (the circled i) with the folder selected and open the **Activity** tab. It lists who created, edited, renamed or moved each file and when; count edits per file and per person for the last 7 days.
3. **Compare the busiest docs**: For the three Google Docs with the most edits, open **File > Version history > See version history**, select the last version from before the week, and read what the current text adds or removes. For a new doc, read its headings.
4. **Write the digest**: Group by folder: new files first, then edited files by number of edits, each with who changed it and one line on what changed, with the file link.

Note: The Activity panel is a scrolling feed, not a table, so a folder with hundreds of changes takes a long time to read; the API route is better past that. Version history only exists for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, not for uploaded files.

## The report

- **Files changed** this week, new and edited, per folder.
- **The list**: file, folder, what happened (new, edited N times, renamed, moved) and who.
- **One line per larger edit** on what changed in the document.
- **Most active people** in the folders this week.

## Post it to Briefkin

When `BRIEFKIN_TOKEN` is set, or `~/.config/briefkin/env` exists (the installer from https://briefkin.dev/docs writes it), also send the result to the user's Briefkin board as one card. Keep the `item_key` the same on every run so the card updates in place, use a new `event_id` per run, and put today's real numbers in place of the example ones. If the request fails, say so once and carry on.

```bash
[ -n "${BRIEFKIN_TOKEN:-}" ] || . ~/.config/briefkin/env
curl -sS -X POST "${BRIEFKIN_URL:-https://briefkin.dev}/v1/events" \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $BRIEFKIN_TOKEN" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d @- <<'JSON'
{
  "v": 1,
  "event_id": "google-drive-weekly-changes-digest/<date of this run, e.g. 2026-10-16>",
  "item_key": "google-drive-weekly-changes-digest",
  "project": "Acme",
  "source": "Google Drive weekly changes digest skill",
  "kind": "update",
  "title": "14 docs changed in 3 folders this week",
  "summary": "**5 new** and **9 edited** files across Product, Design and Customer research. The pricing proposal moved most: 4 people, 31 edits, and a new section on annual discounts.",
  "widget": [
    {
      "type": "Bars",
      "props": {
        "unit": "files",
        "items": [
          {
            "label": "Product",
            "value": 6
          },
          {
            "label": "Customer research",
            "value": 5
          },
          {
            "label": "Design",
            "value": 3
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Table",
      "props": {
        "columns": [
          "File",
          "Folder",
          "Change",
          "By"
        ],
        "align": [
          "left",
          "left",
          "left",
          "left"
        ],
        "rows": [
          [
            "Pricing proposal 2027",
            "Product",
            "Edited 31 times: annual discounts section added",
            "Dana, Sam, Priya, Theo"
          ],
          [
            "Q4 roadmap",
            "Product",
            "Edited 12 times: two items moved to Q1",
            "Dana"
          ],
          [
            "Interview notes: Contoso",
            "Customer research",
            "New",
            "Lena"
          ],
          [
            "Interview notes: Fabrikam",
            "Customer research",
            "New",
            "Lena"
          ],
          [
            "Onboarding flow v3",
            "Design",
            "Edited 9 times: new empty states",
            "Marco"
          ],
          [
            "Churn survey results",
            "Customer research",
            "New",
            "Priya"
          ]
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}
JSON
```

Widgets come from the Briefkin catalog (https://briefkin.dev/v1/catalog). Without a token, just give the user the report.

## Run it on a schedule

Suggested: Fridays at 16:00 (`0 16 * * 5`). From cron, with the agent signed in on that machine:

```bash
0 16 * * 5 claude -p "Run the google-drive-weekly-changes-digest skill"
# Codex: codex exec, Gemini CLI: gemini -p, Copilot CLI: copilot -p, OpenCode: opencode run
```

Or use the agent's own scheduler (Claude Code routines, Codex automations, Claude or ChatGPT scheduled tasks): https://briefkin.dev/skills/google-drive-weekly-changes-digest#schedule

Source: https://briefkin.dev/skills/google-drive-weekly-changes-digest