Google People

Warning: Google verification pending. Paperclip has not yet completed Google app verification. You may see an unverified-app warning during authorization. If Google offers an Advanced option to continue to Paperclip, you can choose to proceed after reviewing the requested access. This option is not available for every account; Workspace administrator restrictions and other Google access requirements still apply. Contact support@paperclip.ing if you cannot connect.

Note: While verification is pending, the Google Workspace connectors and any saved Google accounts are temporarily hidden from the Connectors page. This hides them from the list only. Existing Google connections keep running with their access and permissions unchanged, and an agent that needs a Google service can still ask you for it with a connection card on its task.

Agents can search your Google contacts, search your organization's Workspace directory, and read your own profile.

This connector is read-only. There is no capability group that writes, so an agent cannot create, edit, or delete a contact.

Warning: Google People needs Google Workspace Developer Preview registration before it will authorize. Google must register the Workspace email that signs in, and the Cloud project that owns the OAuth client if you bring your own. Apply first at Google Workspace Developer Preview.

Before you connect

  • A Google account with Developer Preview registration confirmed.
  • For directory search, a Google Workspace account. Directory availability depends on the Workspace account and its administrator's settings — a personal Google account has contacts but no organization directory.
  • Without Paperclip Cloud enrollment, your own Google OAuth client with the People API and People MCP API enabled. Set up your own Google OAuth app is the complete procedure — do it before you start here.

Connect Google People

  1. Open Connectors and select Google People.
  2. Read the access line above the main button. It says who the connection signs in as and which agents can use it. To pick a different identity, narrow the agents, or use another sign-in method, select Change.
  3. Paperclip uses Connect with Paperclip when your instance offers it. To use your own client instead, select Use your own Google OAuth app and supply the client ID and secret from Set up your own Google OAuth app.
  4. Complete Google's consent screen.

There is one capability group, Read contacts, requesting directory.readonly, userinfo.profile, and contacts.readonly.

Choose access

Two distinct sources of people, and it is worth knowing which one an answer came from:

Source What it covers Operation
Your contacts The personal contact list on the authorizing account search-contacts
The organization directory Workspace colleagues, subject to your administrator's directory settings search-directory-people
Your own profile The authorizing account's own profile get-user-profile

Directory reach is Google's decision, not Paperclip's. A Workspace administrator can limit or disable directory sharing, in which case directory searches return little or nothing even though authorization succeeded.

Warning: This connector returns personal data about real people — names, email addresses, and whatever else your directory exposes. Prefer Just agents I pick over Any agent, and give agents specific lookups rather than instructions that enumerate the directory.

How connector access works covers identity and agent selection.

Try it

Look up one person you can verify, rather than listing everyone:

Look up "Priya Raman" in our Google directory and tell me the email address on
that contact.

Use a full name, not a first name — a first name will often match several people, and then you are checking the agent's disambiguation rather than the connection. Expect the one address you already know.

If more than one person matches anyway, ask which source each result came from: contacts and the directory are different, and knowing which answered tells you what the connection actually reached.

Note: Illustrative task, not a recorded test result. Substitute a colleague whose address you can verify.

Troubleshooting and limitations

Problem Likely cause Fix
Google refuses before the consent screen Developer Preview registration is incomplete Finish registration and retry
Connect with Paperclip is not offered The instance is not enrolled with Paperclip Cloud, or Cloud is not advertising the People profile Use your own Google OAuth app
Directory searches return nothing, contacts work The account is not a Workspace account, or an administrator has restricted directory sharing Ask your Workspace administrator about directory visibility
A colleague is missing from directory results They are outside the shared directory scope your administrator configured Nothing to fix in Paperclip
An agent cannot add or edit a contact Expected — this connector is read-only Do it in Google Contacts
Needs attention The Google token expired or was revoked Select Reconnect

Limitations: read-only in every group. One connection covers one Google account. Contact groups and labels, and other people's private contact lists, are not exposed. Developer Preview applies.