Drive Labels API

Name: Drive Labels API API
Brand: Drive Labels API
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecProductivityCollaborationoauth216 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Create, publish, version, and manage taxonomy labels applied to Google Drive files for classification, retention, DLP, and search use cases.

Quickstart

Get started with Drive Labels API in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"create a Google Drive classification label"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Drive Labels API API.

Create draft labels with text, integer, date, user, or selection fields and a multi-locale title

Apply atomic multi-field changes to a label via the delta endpoint

Publish a draft label so it can be applied to Drive items, then version it for future edits

Disable or enable a published label without deleting it, preserving applied instances

GET STARTED

Start building with Drive Labels API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use for: Create a new 'Confidentiality' label with three selection options, Publish the draft 'Retention Class' label so users can apply it, Disable the legacy 'Project Phase' label without deleting historical applications, List all labels visible to admins in this customer

Not supported: Does not apply labels to specific files, manage Drive content, or enforce DLP rules — use for label taxonomy and lifecycle management only.

The Drive Labels API lets administrators and developers create, publish, and manage labels — structured taxonomies of fields applied to Google Drive files for classification, retention, and search. The API supports the full label lifecycle: create draft labels, attach text, integer, date, user, or selection fields, publish and version them, enable or disable, and delete. Atomic delta operations let multi-field changes apply in a single request, and limits endpoints expose label-system constraints. It is the canonical interface for governance, DLP, and compliance workflows that need machine-readable classifications on Drive content.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Drive Labels API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Records and Retention Classification

Records management teams use Drive Labels to apply a 'Retention Class' taxonomy across the organisation, tagging documents with retention durations that downstream tooling enforces. The API lets admins design the label, publish it, and version updates without breaking applied instances. End-to-end rollout is typically days rather than weeks for an in-house solution.

POST /v2/labels with a 'Retention Class' selection field of options 1-year, 3-year, 7-year, then call publish and confirm state == PUBLISHED.

DLP and Confidentiality Tagging

Security teams roll out a 'Confidentiality' label (Public, Internal, Confidential, Restricted) and combine it with Workspace DLP rules so external sharing is blocked on Confidential or Restricted documents. The API drives label creation and updates centrally; the same label IDs can be referenced by DLP policies. New rollouts move from spreadsheets-of-rules to enforced, queryable classifications.

POST /v2/{+name}:delta to add an 'External-share-blocked' selection choice to the existing Confidentiality label, then call publish.

Project and Workflow Tagging

Operations teams attach project, owner, and status fields to documents through Drive Labels so search and reporting can roll up by project even when documents live in different folders. User and date fields make labels first-class metadata for project tracking, and the disable endpoint retires a label without losing the historical attribution on existing files.

Create a 'Project' label with a user field 'Owner' and a selection field 'Status' with options Active, On Hold, Done, then publish it.

Agent-Driven Label Governance via Jentic

An AI agent helping a Workspace admin can propose label schemas, create draft labels, and publish them after review through Jentic. The agent understands the difference between a single delta-update and a publish call because Jentic returns the right operation per intent, with input schemas attached.

Search Jentic for 'create a Drive label', load POST /v2/labels schema, execute with the proposed fields, then call publish on the returned label name.

Key Endpoints

16 endpoints — the drive labels api lets administrators and developers create, publish, and manage labels — structured taxonomies of fields applied to google drive files for classification, retention, and search.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

POST

/v2/labels

Create a draft label

GET

/v2/labels

List labels for the customer

POST

/v2/{+name}:delta

Apply atomic multi-field changes to a label

POST

/v2/{+name}:enable

Enable a previously disabled label

POST

/v2/{+name}:disable

Disable a published label without deleting applications

GET

/v2/limits/label

Get label-system limits

POST

/v2/labels

Create a draft label

GET

/v2/labels

List labels for the customer

POST

/v2/{+name}:delta

Apply atomic multi-field changes to a label

POST

/v2/{+name}:enable

Enable a previously disabled label

POST

/v2/{+name}:disable

Disable a published label without deleting applications

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

OAuth refresh tokens with drive.labels scopes are stored in the Jentic vault. Agents only ever see short-lived Bearer tokens, so admin-only label operations cannot be replayed if an agent context is leaked.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g. 'create a confidentiality label') and Jentic returns the matching create-label, delta, or publish operation with its full input schema, including the field type union.

Time to first call

Direct Drive Labels integration: 1-2 days for OAuth, label schema, and the delta + publish flow. Through Jentic: under 1 hour for create-and-publish.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Complementary

Google Drive API

Applies labels to specific files via files.modifyLabels

Use alongside Drive Labels when the agent needs to apply a label to a file, not just define it

Complementary

Drive Activity API

Reports activity on labelled files for governance audits

Use to surface who changed labelled files and when

Complementary

Admin SDK Directory API

Manages users and groups referenced in user-type label fields

Use to resolve directory references for label user fields

FAQs

Specific to using Drive Labels API API through Jentic.

What authentication does the Drive Labels API use?

Drive Labels uses Google OAuth 2.0 with the drive.labels or drive.labels.readonly scope, plus drive.admin.labels for admin operations. Through Jentic the credentials live in the encrypted vault and the agent only receives scoped Bearer tokens.

Can I add fields to a published label with the Drive Labels API?

Yes. POST /v2/{+name}:delta accepts a list of update requests including createField. The API increments the label's revision; published versions and applied instances are preserved while new fields appear in the next published version.

What are the rate limits for the Drive Labels API?

Default per-project quota is 600 read requests per minute and 60 write requests per minute. The /v2/limits/label endpoint returns label-system constraints (max fields per label, max selection choices) which are enforced server-side independent of rate limits.

How do I publish a draft label through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'publish a Drive label', load the schema for POST /v2/{+name}:publish, and execute it with the label resource name. Jentic returns the published label with state == PUBLISHED.

Is the Drive Labels API free?

The API is free to call. Drive Labels itself requires a Google Workspace edition that includes Labels (Business Standard or higher, plus Enterprise editions). Quotas and label limits apply but there is no per-call charge.

How do I disable a label without losing applied data?

POST /v2/{+name}:disable transitions the label to DISABLED. Existing files keep their applied label values for historical audit, but the label cannot be applied to new files until /v2/{+name}:enable is called.