Set up Google sign-in

Bothy has no server, so it signs in to Google Drive with an OAuth client of your own Google Cloud project. You do this once; it takes about ten minutes and costs nothing.

One project per database

Google Drive shows a project only the files that that project’s clients created. Every device of one database, whether the CLI, your Flutter app or a robot, must use clients of the same Cloud project.

1. Create a project. Open the Google Cloud console, name it (for example my-notes-sync) and create it.

2. Enable the Google Drive API. In the project, open APIs & Services → Library → Google Drive API and click Enable.

3. Configure the consent screen. Open Google Auth Platform (the OAuth consent screen):

   • user type External;
   • app name and your email;
   • under Audience → Test users, add the Google accounts that will sign in.

4. Add the scopes. Under Data access, add:

   • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.appdata: the hidden per-app folder;
   • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file: a visible Bothy/<name> folder, needed for headless devices.

   Both are non-sensitive, so Google does not review them.

5. Create the clients. Under Clients → Create client, create what you need and download each JSON file:

   Client type	Used by	Settings
   Desktop app	CLI, macOS, Linux and Windows apps	none
   TVs and Limited Input devices	headless boards (device code sign-in)	none
   Android	Android apps	package name and the SHA-1 of the signing key
   Web application	Android apps (as the “server client id”)	no redirect URIs
   iOS	iOS apps	bundle id

6. Hand the clients to Bothy. For the CLI:

   bothy auth setup --client ~/Downloads/client_secret_desktop.json
   bothy auth setup --device-client ~/Downloads/client_secret_tv.json   # optional
   bothy auth login

   For apps, see the Flutter guide and the Python guide.

Things that go wrong

• “Access blocked” or “not a test user”: add the account under Audience → Test users.
• accessNotConfigured or “Google Drive API has not been used in project…”: the Drive API is not enabled for the project of this client (step 2).
• Signed out after a week: while the consent screen is in Testing, Google expires sign-ins after 7 days. Sign in again, or publish the app (In production). An unverified app shows a warning screen at sign-in, which is fine for your own project.
• The other device sees nothing: check that both use clients of the same project, and that both chose the same remote (appdata or the same folder:<name>).
• A headless board cannot join: Google refuses the drive.appdata scope in the device code flow, so headless devices can only use folder databases. Create the database with --remote folder:<name> if a board will ever join it.