Drive on Demand

Browse, sync and edit your Google Drive from inside Obsidian — files-on-demand, selective offline, and automatic two-way sync. Works on desktop and mobile (iPhone/iPad included).

Google Drive's official desktop app keeps your files in sync on macOS/Windows, but there is no such thing on iOS. Drive on Demand brings your Drive into Obsidian on every platform: navigate a lazy Drive tree, tick exactly the folders/files you want available offline, and let the plugin keep them in sync in both directions.

⏳ Free for now — a subscription is coming

This plugin is free during the current beta. Later, a low-cost subscription (planned around 1–2 €/month) will be introduced to cover the hosted authentication service and ongoing development.

• You get 1 month free. Early adopters keep a free first month once the paid plan launches — you will be notified well in advance inside the plugin and here.
• A free tier with core functionality is intended to remain available.
• No payment is required today, and nothing is charged automatically. When the paid plan arrives, full access will require an account and a subscription (this notice is your disclosure per Obsidian's developer policies).

Features

• Lazy Drive panel — browse your whole Drive (tested on 15 000+ items) without downloading anything.
• Selective sync — a small status mark per file and folder (synced, partly synced, not synced). Only what you choose is materialised in your vault. Long-press (mobile) or right-click (desktop) a row to sync it or see its details: progress, partly synced folders, failed files, free up local space, open in Google Drive.
• Files-on-demand — text, Markdown, PDFs, images and other binaries download on demand, no size limit.
• Automatic two-way sync — edits made in Obsidian push to Drive; changes made elsewhere (Drive web, Drive Desktop, another device) are pulled back automatically (checked every ~60 s via Google's efficient Changes API). Renames, moves and deletions follow in both directions.
• Safe deletions — a deletion is never permanent: it goes to the Google Drive trash (30 days) or to the vault's .trash folder. A file with local edits not yet uploaded is never deleted. More than 10 deletions at once ask for confirmation first. Unticking a file only removes the local copy, never the Drive one.
• Offline-resilient — a persistent outbox re-sends your local changes when you come back online; nothing is lost during an outage.
• Conflict-safe — if both sides changed, a (conflict …) copy is created; your data is never silently overwritten.
• Google Docs / Sheets / Slides — synced as clickable .md link notes to their native editor.
• Working folder — pick any sub-folder of your Drive as the root of your vault.
• Connection status — a single indicator in the status bar (online / offline / syncing).
• Localised — English and French (follows your Obsidian language).

How it works & what it talks to (network disclosure)

To keep your credentials safe, Drive on Demand does not embed any Google client secret in the plugin. Instead it uses a small hosted authentication broker operated by Real-IT.

The plugin communicates with exactly two remote services:

1. Google Drive API (googleapis.com) — to list, download and upload the files you choose to sync. This is the whole point of the plugin.
2. Real-IT authentication broker (https://obsidian-drive-on-demand-server.real-it.org) — used only for the Google sign-in flow: it exchanges the one-time authorization code for tokens and refreshes your access token server-side, so the Google client secret never ships inside the plugin (which would be insecure on a public/mobile app). The broker never receives your notes or file contents — only OAuth tokens tied to your Google account.

Your Google refresh token is stored locally in the plugin's own data (data.json) on your device. The broker holds the client secret required to refresh it; see the Privacy Policy for exactly what the broker stores and for how long.

Account requirement (disclosure)

A Google account is required (to authorise Drive access). You connect it once via Settings → Drive on Demand → Connect my account. When the paid plan launches, a Real-IT account/subscription will additionally be required for full access.

Advanced: use your own Google credentials (no user cap)

Prefer to stay fully independent of the Real-IT broker? You can connect the plugin to your own Google Cloud project — this removes the managed service's 100-user cap and the weekly re-login. See the step-by-step guide: docs/setup-byo.md.

Installation

Community plugins (once approved)

Settings → Community plugins → Browse → search "Drive on Demand" → Install → Enable.

Beta via BRAT (available now)

1. Install the BRAT plugin.
2. BRAT → Add beta plugin → realitorg/app-realitorg-obsidiandriveondemand-client-obsidian-ts.
3. Enable Drive on Demand, then open Settings → Drive on Demand → Connect my account and follow the Google sign-in.

Privacy & security

• No client-side telemetry. No ads.
• The plugin only accesses your vault and the Google Drive scope you authorise.
• Full details: Privacy Policy and https://real-it.org/drive-on-demand.

Building from source

npm install
npm run build      # produces main.js
npm test           # unit tests (vitest)
npm run check      # type-check

Support

Issues and feature requests: this repository's issue tracker. Project page: https://real-it.org/drive-on-demand

License

MIT © Real-IT (Loïc Bertrand)