Connect Google to Guardian

About 10 minutes, once. You create your own Google “app” so Guardian talks to Google directly from your computer. No company sits in the middle, and nothing is shared with anyone.

What you get: Calendar, Tasks, unread Gmail and recent Drive files in your morning briefing, an Agenda card on Today, schedule and email search in Ask, and an “Export to Google Sheets” button for your workouts and journal.

Access: read-only for Calendar, Tasks, Gmail and Drive. Guardian can only write to the one spreadsheet it creates (“Guardian Log”). Email is summarized by the local model on your computer.

Step 1: Create a Google Cloud project (free)

1. Go to https://console.cloud.google.com and sign in with the Google account you want to connect.
2. If asked, accept the terms. No billing or credit card is needed.
3. Click the project picker at the top left → New project.
4. Name it Guardian → Create. Make sure it’s selected in the project picker afterwards.

Step 2: Turn on the five APIs

1. Open https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/library (menu → APIs & Services → Library).
2. Search for each of these, open it, and click Enable:
   • Google Calendar API
   • Google Tasks API
   • Gmail API
   • Google Drive API
   • Google Sheets API

Step 3: Set up the sign-in screen

1. Open https://console.cloud.google.com/auth/overview (menu → APIs & Services → OAuth consent screen, which Google now calls Google Auth Platform). Click Get started.
2. App information: App name Guardian, and your email as the support email → Next.
3. Audience: choose External → Next.
4. Contact information: your email → Next → agree to the policy → Create.
5. In the left menu open Audience:
   • Under Test users, click Add users, enter your own Gmail address, Save.
   • Then click Publish app → Confirm. This matters: apps left in “Testing” get signed out by Google every 7 days. Publishing your own private app is fine; it just shows an “unverified app” warning when you connect (step 6), because Google hasn’t reviewed it. Nobody else can use it without your file.

Step 4: Create the Desktop client and download it

1. In the left menu open Clients → Create client.
2. Application type: Desktop app. Name: Guardian Desktop → Create.
3. In the dialog, click Download JSON. Save the file (it looks like client_secret_….json). Keep it private. It identifies your app.

Step 5: Add it to Guardian

1. Open Guardian on your computer → Settings → Google.
2. Click Choose file and select the JSON file you downloaded. You’ll see “✓ Client added.”
3. Click Connect Google.

Step 6: Approve in your browser

1. Your browser opens Google’s sign-in page. Choose your account.
2. You’ll see “Google hasn’t verified this app.” This is expected for your own app. Click Advanced → Go to Guardian (unsafe).
3. Tick the permissions (Calendar, Tasks, Gmail, Drive) → Continue.
4. The page says “Guardian is connected to Google.” Close the tab.

Settings → Google now shows “Connected as you@gmail.com”.

Step 7: Check it works

• Today → Run briefing now. You should get Schedule & tasks, Inbox and Drive activity sections, and an Agenda card with today’s events.
• Ask: “What’s on my calendar tomorrow?” or “Search my email for messages from my professor this week”.
• Settings → Google → Export workouts + journal to Google Sheets creates “Guardian Log” in your Drive.
• Optional: set google.export_after_briefing: true in Settings to refresh that sheet every morning.

Troubleshooting

Where things are stored

• ~/Guardian/secrets/google-client.json: your Desktop client (from step 4)
• ~/Guardian/secrets/google-token.json: the sign-in token, renewed automatically

The secrets folder is never included in the GitHub backup. On the phone you see your calendar and mail summaries through your computer. The phone never holds Google access itself.