[source-google-drive] Surface Google Drive label metadata for file filtering

[devin-ai-integration]

Feature Request

Describe the feature request

The Source Google Drive connector currently does not surface Google Drive label metadata when listing or syncing files. Google Drive supports Labels -- structured metadata (classification tags, custom fields) that organizations apply to files for governance, search, and policy enforcement. Users need the ability to access and filter files based on label metadata during ingestion.

Today, the connector requests basic file fields from the Drive API but does not include labelInfo, so there is no way to filter or expose label values in synced records.

Describe the solution you'd like

1. Surface label metadata in the Drive API request: Add labelInfo to the fields parameter in the files.list call so that label data is returned alongside each file. The Drive API supports includeLabels and labelInfo fields for this purpose (reference).

2. Expose label metadata in synced records: Include label names and field values as part of the file metadata record so downstream systems can access and use them.

3. Enable filtering by label metadata: Allow users to configure label-based filters (e.g., only sync files with a specific label or label value) in the connector spec. The Drive API supports q parameter filtering with label-based syntax.

This could be implemented at the file-based CDK level (benefiting all file-based connectors) or at the Google Drive source level specifically.

Describe alternatives you've considered

• Post-load filtering in dbt: Users could filter records after they land in the warehouse, but this requires syncing all files first and does not reduce ingestion volume.
• Google Drive API search queries: Users could manually construct Drive API queries outside Airbyte, but this defeats the purpose of a managed connector.
• Folder-based organization: Users could organize files into folders by label category, but this is fragile and does not scale for multi-dimensional metadata.

Additional context

• The Google Drive API files.list endpoint supports the includeLabels parameter to specify which label IDs to return, and labelInfo in the fields parameter to include label data in responses.
• Google Drive Labels API reference: https://developers.google.com/workspace/drive/labels/guides/overview
• Google Drive file label fields reference: https://developers.google.com/workspace/drive/api/guides/about-labels
• Connector code: stream_reader.py line 151 -- fields parameter in the files.list call

Use case

Using Airbyte as a connector to Google Drive for AI-ingestable data sources. Label metadata filtering is needed to selectively ingest files based on organizational classification and governance labels applied in Google Drive.

Category

• Type: New Feature
• Importance: Blocker
• Connector: source-google-drive

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Devin session

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Internal Tracking: https://github.com/airbytehq/oncall/issues/11819

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[devin-ai-integration]

Hi devin-ai-integration[bot], thank you for reporting this feature request!

This is a well-documented request. The Google Drive API does support label metadata via the includeLabels parameter and labelInfo field, and the source-google-drive connector does not currently surface this data. The specific gap is in the files.list call in stream_reader.py, where the fields parameter does not include labelInfo.

Summary of the requested changes:

1. Add labelInfo to the fields parameter in the Drive API files.list request
2. Expose label metadata in synced file records
3. Support label-based filtering via the Drive API q parameter

This is a valid feature request since the underlying API supports these capabilities but the connector does not currently expose them. This has been escalated to the internal team for prioritization.

Internal tracking: airbytehq/oncall#11819

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