Google Drive connector re-prompts for “Download file content” despite permission set to “Always allow”
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- [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
- [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
- [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code
What's Wrong?
Summary:
The Google Drive MCP connector’s tool-level permission for “Download file content” is set to “Always allow” in the connector settings page, but Claude Code still shows an interactive approval prompt (“Download File Content requests permission” / “Allow once” / “Deny”) for that tool on subsequent sessions. This happens repeatedly, defeating the purpose of the “Always” setting.
Steps to reproduce:
- Connect the Google Drive connector.
- Set the “Download file content” tool permission to “Always allow” in the connector’s permission settings.
- Use Claude Code across multiple sessions/days, each of which calls download_file_content on the same connector.
- Observe that the approval prompt reappears in a later session even though the setting still shows “Always.”
Expected behavior: Once a tool’s permission is set to “Always allow,” it should never prompt again for that tool, regardless of session boundaries or connector reconnects.
Actual behavior: The prompt reappears intermittently, seemingly after the connector reconnects.
Suspected cause: The tool’s fully-qualified name appears to change across connector reconnects — e.g. observed as mcp__Google_Drive__download_file_content in one session and mcp__b2e2a2d1-3179-41c5-9d84-0fd831d385ef__download_file_content (a UUID-scoped prefix) in another session, for what is the same underlying Google Drive connector/tool. If the “Always allow” grant is stored keyed to that specific qualified name rather than to the stable tool concept, a reconnect that changes the prefix would silently invalidate the grant — while the settings UI continues to display “Always,” since it’s reading the current instance’s default, not the (now-orphaned) grant tied to the old instance name
<img width="1194" height="580" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/15b3cfa3-5502-42b8-80b9-dfe43bf7033c" />
<img width="1160" height="1316" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c3c81a41-2c23-42b4-90e3-7d54a28f0054" />
What Should Happen?
Claude should not ask for permission to download Drive files.
Error Messages/Logs
Steps to Reproduce
Steps to reproduce:
- Connect the Google Drive connector.
- Set the “Download file content” tool permission to “Always allow” in the connector’s permission settings.
- Use Claude Code across multiple sessions/days, each of which calls download_file_content on the same connector.
- Observe that the approval prompt reappears in a later session even though the setting still shows “Always.”
Expected behavior: Once a tool’s permission is set to “Always allow,” it should never prompt again for that tool, regardless of session boundaries or connector reconnects.
Claude Model
Sonnet (default)
Is this a regression?
No, this never worked
Last Working Version
N/A
Claude Code Version
2.1.214
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
macOS
Terminal/Shell
Terminal.app (macOS)
Additional Information
_No response_