Google Drive Labels API
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For Agents
Create, publish, version, and manage taxonomy labels applied to Google Drive files for classification, retention, DLP, and search use cases.
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.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Drive Labels API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Drive Labels API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Drive Labels 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
List labels available in the customer with view filtering for admin or end-user contexts
Retrieve label-system limits (max fields, max selection choices) before designing a label
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Drive Labels 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
GET
/v2/limits/label
Get label-system limits
Why 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.
FAQs
Specific to using Drive Labels 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.
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