Per-tenant isolation
Your server is yours. Separate OS-level user account, separate process, separate filesystem namespace, separate OAuth credentials. No shared multi-tenant processes, no shared file system.
Companion guide · Drive / Gmail / Docs / Sheets
Claude's built-in Google Drive connector handles Google Docs well and almost nothing else. For an SRL whose evidence sits in .msg files, HTML message exports, scanned PDFs, and spreadsheets, that's a problem. The Workspace MCP server fills the gap.
Capability matrix. ✓ works. ~ partial — read-only, metadata-only, or limited. · not supported.
| Capability | Claude native Drive | workspace-mcp |
|---|---|---|
| Read Google Docs | ✓ | ✓ |
| Read .docx, .pdf, .txt | ~ | ✓ |
| Read HTML files | · | ✓ |
| Read .msg Outlook archives | · | ✓ |
| Search Drive with structured queries | ~ | ✓ |
| Read / write Google Sheets cell-by-cell | · | ✓ |
| Create and edit Google Docs | ~ | ✓ |
| Search Gmail with sender + date filters | ✓ | ✓ |
| Draft Gmail messages | · | ✓ |
| Read full email threads | · | ✓ |
| Create calendar events | · | ✓ |
| Manage Google Tasks | · | ✓ |
| Run Apps Script projects | · | ✓ |
| Search Google Chat | · | ✓ |
~ means partial, read-only, or metadata only. · means not supported.
Workspace MCP is the right tool for reading, drafting in, and writing to your live Google account. For querying a large static corpus — legislation, case law, the other side's affidavit material — see our companion NotebookLM hosting. Different tool, different price, different use case. Many SRLs end up wanting both.
Three concrete situations that come up in almost every contested family law matter.
"I have 600 Facebook Messenger conversations as HTML exports."
"I want Claude to summarise my last fortnight of correspondence with the other side's solicitor."
"I need a chronology built from my evidence folder, with each entry hyperlinked to its source."
Honest about what self-hosting requires.
Running an MCP server yourself means provisioning a VPS or container host, configuring OAuth 2.0 credentials in Google Cloud Console, managing TLS certificates (Let's Encrypt or similar), and keeping the server patched as the MCP spec evolves and as Google's OAuth scopes change.
Doable, and the right answer if you're already technical. Slow if you're not — and slow at exactly the moment you should be doing case work, not infrastructure work. The hosted option exists for that reason. Self-hosting always remains an option; the workspace-mcp project is open source.
For SRLs who'd rather not manage a server. A$30 a month, cancel any time, fully isolated per customer.
Richer AI access than Claude's built-in Drive connector. Configured for you, isolated from other customers, cancellable monthly.
Built on the open-source workspace-mcp project — read the source at github.com/taylorwilsdon/google_workspace_mcp.
The three things that should be true of any service touching your evidence.
Your server is yours. Separate OS-level user account, separate process, separate filesystem namespace, separate OAuth credentials. No shared multi-tenant processes, no shared file system.
Access control lists restrict the server to incoming sessions from your authenticated assistant only. The server cannot be reached from anywhere else on the internet, and you cannot accidentally reach another customer's instance.
The MCP server passes requests between your assistant and Google in memory only. We log timestamp, endpoint, and tool name for billing and abuse detection. We do not log, cache, or persist your file contents, email bodies, or any Workspace data.
An honest answer: you can, and if you're already technical you probably should.
workspace-mcp is open source and you can absolutely self-host it. We do, and so do many of our customers' technical friends. Hosting it yourself means provisioning a VPS, configuring OAuth credentials in Google Cloud Console, managing TLS certificates, monitoring uptime, and keeping the server patched as the MCP spec evolves.
If you're comfortable with Docker, Linux administration, and OAuth setup, do it. It's the right answer for technical users — you keep total control of the infrastructure and there's no recurring cost.
If you'd rather not learn server administration in the middle of your matter — because every hour spent on infrastructure is an hour not spent on case work — that's what the hosted option is for. Source is at github.com/taylorwilsdon/google_workspace_mcp.
One extra hop — typically 50–200 ms of added latency per tool call, depending on where you are relative to the server region. For a chat-style assistant, that's effectively invisible. For a workflow doing hundreds of small calls in sequence (e.g. cell-by-cell spreadsheet edits) you'd notice it; we batch where the protocol allows.
Yes. The workspace-mcp project is open source — see github.com/taylorwilsdon/google_workspace_mcp. We host because most SRLs don't want to manage infrastructure mid-matter. If you're already comfortable with Docker, OAuth setup, and TLS, self-hosting is the right call.
Yes. Monthly billing, no contract, no minimum term. Cancel from your billing portal or by email; access ends at the close of the current billing cycle.
We keep our hosted servers in step with current spec. If you've cancelled, what was configured at that point keeps working until the protocol changes break it — you won't get spec updates after cancellation, but nothing actively reaches in and turns it off.
It will be able to read whatever you grant it access to via OAuth. You control the OAuth scope. Many SRLs choose to put privileged material — communications with their lawyer, draft submissions, legal-advice memos — in a separate Drive folder and not grant the MCP scope to access that folder. The server only ever sees what your scope allows.
Operational metadata only — timestamps, which endpoint was hit, request sizes — kept for 30 days for billing and abuse detection. File contents are not logged. We can produce a metadata export for your account on request.
Default region is Sydney (ap-southeast-2). EU or US regions available on request. Data stays in the region you select for the lifetime of your tenancy.
As long as you keep subscribing, yes — contested matters routinely run 18–24 months and the service is designed for that timescale. If you cancel, your data is gone within 7 days but the configuration knowledge transfers to you: we provide a setup document covering OAuth credentials, scope grants, and the assistant-side connection so you can spin up your own instance at any point with the open-source code. Nothing about the service is designed to lock you in.
The MCP server makes your assistant more useful. It doesn't make your assistant a lawyer. Substantive legal questions still go to a human admitted to practise — see the landing page FAQ for legal aid pointers if you can't afford private representation.
The free starter pack, install instructions, services, FAQ.
Configure Claude Projects once. Use it for the next eighteen months.
Static-corpus research engine + hosted MCP. The companion to this page.
The long-form companion document. Folders, drafting, cadence, MWD.