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How it works

The Google Cloud Storage connector pulls in all documents from the specified GCS bucket. It supports various file formats including PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, and more. Documents are updated every 1 day.

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Setting up

Setup runs through four steps, shown in the left rail of the connector page: Credential, Connector, Space, and Advanced. Before you connect in the Admin panel, create a Google Cloud service account with read access to your bucket (see Authorization below).

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Authorization

Create a dedicated service account and download a JSON key. UtopikAI uses the GCS Access Key ID and GCS Secret Access Key from that key when you create a Google Storage credential.
  1. Log into your Google Cloud Console.
  2. Navigate to IAM & Admin → Service Accounts.
  3. Click Create Service Account.
Google Cloud Console — Create service account
  1. Set a name for the new service account (for example utopikai-gcs-connector) and click Create and Continue.
  2. For the role, select Storage Object Viewer or another appropriately permissive role and click Continue.
Google Cloud Console — assign Storage Object Viewer role
  1. Click Done to finish creating the service account.
  2. On the Service Accounts page, open the account you just created.
  3. In the Keys section, click Add Key → Create new key.
Google Cloud Console — create a new service account key
  1. Choose JSON as the key type and click Create.
  2. A JSON file downloads to your computer. Open it and note the following values:
  • client_id — use this as your GCS Access Key ID
  • private_key — use this as your GCS Secret Access Key
Store the JSON key securely. You will need the access key ID and secret access key when creating a Google Storage credential in the Admin panel.

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Add the connector

  1. Open Admin → Connectors → Add Connector.
  2. Under Storage, select Google Storage.
  3. Create or select a Google Storage credential (see below).
  4. Configure the bucket to index.
  5. Complete the remaining steps and save the connector to start indexing.

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Step 1: Select Credential

  1. Open Admin from the profile menu, then go to Connectors → Add Connector.
  2. Under Storage, select Google Storage.
  3. In Step 1, select an existing credential from the list, or click Create New to add one.
Step 1: Select Credential for Google Storage Existing credentials are listed with their ID, Name, Created date, and Last Updated date. If no credential has been set up yet, the list shows No credentials found.
Ensure the credential you select has read access to the GCS bucket you plan to index. A credential without the required bucket permissions cannot index its contents.

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Create a credential

Clicking Create New opens the Create Google Storage Credential modal: Create Google Storage Credential
  1. Enter an optional Name to label the credential (for example Production GCS).
  2. Enter the GCS Access Key ID and GCS Secret Access Key from the service account JSON key you created above.
  3. Click Create to save the credential.
Select the credential you created, then click Continue.

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Step 2: Configure the connector

  1. Enter a Connector Name — a descriptive name for this connector.
  2. Specify the GCS bucket you want to make searchable.
  3. Click Continue.
You can add more buckets later using the same credential.

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Step 3: Select a space

Choose the space to index the documents into. This controls which space the connector’s indexed content belongs to. Use the search field to filter the list if you have many spaces, then click Continue.

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Step 4: Advanced Configuration

The final step controls how often UtopikAI syncs with your GCS bucket and how far back it indexes. The defaults work for most setups. Entering 0 or leaving Refresh Frequency blank means UtopikAI will never pull new documents for this connector. Entering 0 or leaving Prune Frequency blank disables pruning for this connector. Pruning checks every document against the source, so lower values (more frequent pruning) increase load — raise the frequency with care on large buckets. Use Reset to restore the default values. When you are done, click Create Connector to save the connector and begin indexing your GCS files. You can return to any earlier step using the Previous button or the step list in the left rail.

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Understanding Google Cloud Storage Structure

Google Cloud Storage organizes data into buckets. Each bucket can contain an unlimited number of objects (files). You can think of a bucket as a root directory, and the objects as files within that directory. For more information on Google Cloud Storage structure, visit the Google Cloud Storage documentation.