> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rootly.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Google Docs
> Connect Google Docs to Rootly to automatically create incident retrospective documents from templates using Liquid variables.
Rootly's Google Docs integration automates the creation of incident documentation. When an incident resolves or a retrospective begins, Rootly generates a Google Doc from your template and populates it with incident data, timeline events, affected services, and follow-up items — eliminating manual copy-paste work and ensuring consistent documentation across every incident.
You create a template document once with Liquid variables as placeholders. Rootly copies that template for each incident and replaces the variables with actual data. The generated document is saved to your specified Google Drive folder and can be automatically shared with the right people.
## Document Types
Post-incident analysis with timeline, root cause, and follow-up action items
High-level incident overviews for stakeholder communication
Step-by-step response procedures generated on incident creation
Stakeholder communication templates auto-populated with incident data
## Before You Begin
You must be an **Admin or Owner** in Rootly to install integrations.
* **OAuth:** Requires a Google account with access to Google Drive
* **Service Account:** Requires Google Workspace admin access and a Google Cloud project
Choose your setup method based on your environment:
**Best for:** Testing, evaluation, or personal use
Connects your personal Google account. If that account loses access or the person leaves, the integration breaks.
**Best for:** Teams and production environments
Uses a dedicated service account that isn't tied to any individual. More resilient and easier to manage at scale.
## Installation
Setup takes about 2 minutes via OAuth, or about 10 minutes via a service account.
### Quick Setup (OAuth)
OAuth connects your personal Google account in about 2 minutes.
Use the search bar to find **Google Docs** among the available integrations.
Select the OAuth connection method, then choose which Google account to connect.
Google will ask Rootly to access Google Drive and Docs on your behalf. Approve to complete the connection.
You'll be redirected back to Rootly once the authorization completes.
Google Docs is now connected. Next, [create a template and wire it up in a workflow](#creating-documents-from-templates).
### Production Setup (Service Account)
A service account keeps the integration running independent of any individual's Google account. This setup involves creating the account in Google Cloud, uploading its credentials to Rootly, and granting it domain-wide delegation.
If you don't have a project yet, create one first. You'll create the service account inside an existing project.
Click **Create Service Account**, fill in a name and description, then click **Done**.
After creating the account, click on its email address to open its details.
Go to the **Keys** tab → **Add Key** → **Create new key**. Select **JSON** as the key type and click **Create**.
A `.json` file will download automatically — keep it safe, you'll need it in the next step.
In Rootly, go to **Configuration → Integrations → Google Docs → Setup**. Choose the **Service Account** connection method and upload the JSON file you just downloaded.
You should see a success message confirming the integration is active.
The service account needs domain-wide delegation to create documents on behalf of users in your Google Workspace.
In [Google Admin Console](https://admin.google.com), go to **Security → API Controls → Domain-wide Delegation** and click **Add new**. Enter your service account's Client ID (found in GCP Console under the service account details), then add these OAuth scopes:
```text theme={null}
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.appdata
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents
```
Click **Authorize**.
Without domain-wide delegation, the service account can't create documents on behalf of users. If you skip this step, document creation will fail silently in workflows.
## Verify the Connection
Once connected, confirm the integration is working before building templates and workflows.
1. The integration should show **Connected** status with your Google account email
2. Try creating a test document in Google Drive to confirm access is working
1. The integration should show **Connected** status with the service account email
2. Confirm domain-wide delegation is active — changes can take up to 15 minutes to propagate
3. Run a test workflow (see [Creating Documents from Templates](#creating-documents-from-templates)) to validate end-to-end
## Creating Documents from Templates
Rootly generates Google Docs from your templates when incidents are created, updated, or resolved. The steps below cover creating a template, sharing it with Rootly, and wiring it up in a workflow.
### Step 1: Create Your Template Document
You create **one template document** with Liquid variable placeholders. Each time the workflow fires, Rootly copies that template and replaces the variables with real incident data — so you never manually copy-paste incident details again.
#### Create the Document
Go to **New → Google Docs**. Give it a clear, descriptive name so it's easy to find later — for example:
* "Rootly Retrospective Template"
* "Executive Summary Template"
* "Incident Runbook Template"
Design your document the way you'd want every generated doc to look. Use Liquid variables anywhere you want incident data to appear. See the template examples below for a starting point.
#### Template Examples
```liquid theme={null}
# Retrospective: {{ incident.title }}
**Date:** {{ incident.started_at | date: "%B %d, %Y" }}
**Severity:** {{ incident.severity }}
**Status:** {{ incident.status }}
## What Happened
{{ incident.summary }}
## Timeline
- Started: {{ incident.started_at | date: "%I:%M %p" }}
- Mitigated: {{ incident.mitigated_at | date: "%I:%M %p" | default: "In progress" }}
- Resolved: {{ incident.resolved_at | date: "%I:%M %p" | default: "In progress" }}
- Total Duration: {{ incident.duration | divided_by: 60 }} minutes
## Services Affected
{{ incident.services | join: ", " }}
## Team
- Created By: {{ incident.creator.name }}
## Communication
Slack Channel: #{{ incident.slack_channel_name }}
```
```liquid theme={null}
# Retrospective: {{ incident.title }}
## Incident Overview
- **ID:** #{{ incident.id }}
- **Date:** {{ incident.started_at | date: "%B %d, %Y" }}
- **Duration:** {{ incident.duration | divided_by: 3600 }} hours {{ incident.duration | modulo: 3600 | divided_by: 60 }} minutes
- **Severity:** {{ incident.severity }}
## Summary
{{ incident.summary }}
## Impact
- **Services:** {{ incident.services | join: ", " }}
- **Groups:** {% for group in incident.groups %}{{ group.name }}{% unless forloop.last %}, {% endunless %}{% endfor %}
- **Environments:** {{ incident.environments | join: ", " }}
## Timeline of Events
{{ incident.timeline_table_markdown }}
## Root Cause Analysis
[To be completed during review]
## What Went Well
- [Add items]
## What Could Be Improved
- [Add items]
## Action Items
[To be added during review]
## Participants
{% for role in incident.roles %}
{%- if role.user -%}
- {{ role.incident_role.name }}: {{ role.user.full_name }}
{%- else -%}
- {{ role.incident_role.name }}: Unassigned
{%- endif -%}
{% endfor %}
```
```liquid theme={null}
# Executive Brief: {{ incident.title }}
**Incident Duration:** {{ incident.duration | divided_by: 60 }} minutes
**Customer Impact:** [To be assessed]
## What Happened
{{ incident.summary }}
## Current Status
{{ incident.status }} as of {{ "now" | date: "%I:%M %p" }}
## Services Affected
{{ incident.services | join: ", " }}
## Next Steps
1. [Add next steps]
2. [Add next steps]
**Created By:** {{ incident.creator.name }}
**Full Report:** {{ incident.url }}
```
#### Common Liquid Variables
For the full variable reference, see [Rootly's Liquid documentation](/liquid/incident-variables). Use the [Liquid Variable Explorer](https://rootly.com/account/help/liquid-explorer) to test variables against real incident data before committing them to your template.
```liquid theme={null}
# Basic Info
{{ incident.id }} # Incident ID
{{ incident.title }} # Title
{{ incident.summary }} # Description
{{ incident.severity }} # SEV1, SEV2, etc.
{{ incident.status }} # Current status
# Timestamps
{{ incident.started_at }} # Start time
{{ incident.mitigated_at }} # Mitigation time
{{ incident.resolved_at }} # Resolution time
{{ incident.duration }} # Duration in seconds
# People
{{ incident.creator.name }} # Creator name
{{ incident.creator.email }} # Creator email
# Services & Groups
{{ incident.services }} # Array of services
{{ incident.groups }} # Array of groups (teams)
{{ incident.environments }} # Array of environments
# Communication
{{ incident.slack_channel_name }} # Slack channel
{{ incident.url }} # Rootly incident URL
```
### Step 2: Share Your Template with Rootly
Before Rootly can use your template, it needs read access to the document.
Nothing to do here — the Google account you connected in the installation step already has access to documents you own.
You need to explicitly share the template with the service account email.
The email follows the pattern `name@project.iam.gserviceaccount.com`. You can find it in Google Cloud Console under **IAM & Admin → Service Accounts**.
Open your template document, click **Share**, add the service account email, and set the permission to **Editor**.
The permission must be **Editor**, not Viewer or Commenter. Rootly needs write access to copy and populate the template — anything less will cause workflow failures.
### Step 3: Create a Workflow
With the template ready and shared, create a workflow that triggers document generation automatically.
Go to **Rootly → Workflows → Create Workflow**.
Choose the event that should kick off document creation:
* **Incident** — triggers on incident events like creation or resolution
* **Retrospective** — triggers when retrospective status changes
* **Action Item** — for follow-up documentation
Click **Add Action → Google Docs → Create Doc**.
Choose the template document you created in Step 1 from the dropdown.
Set any additional options — a descriptive name, conditions to filter which incidents trigger the workflow, and a destination folder in Google Drive.
Save and toggle the workflow to active. It will fire on the next matching event.
### Configuration Reference
| Setting | Description | Example |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------- |
| **Template** | The Google Doc to use as the source template | Select from dropdown |
| **Trigger** | When to generate a document | Incident Created, Incident Resolved |
| **Conditions** | Optional filters to narrow which incidents apply | `Severity = SEV1`, `Duration > 30 min` |
| **Folder** | Where to save the generated doc in Drive | `/Incidents/2024` |
| **Permissions** | Who can access the generated doc | Domain, Team, Private |
| **Delay** | Wait before generating | 24 hours (useful for retrospectives) |
## Best Practices
* **Test with a real incident** before relying on the workflow in production
* **One template per document type** — keep retrospective, runbook, and executive summary templates separate
* **Use `| default:` for optional fields** so missing data doesn't leave blank placeholders in your docs
* **Version your templates** by keeping a dated copy before making significant changes
## Troubleshooting
**OAuth:** Try signing in again using a different browser or an incognito window.
**Service Account:** Verify the JSON key file is valid and hasn't been corrupted or truncated.
This is almost always a domain-wide delegation issue. Check that:
* The Client ID in Google Admin matches your service account exactly
* All three OAuth scopes are entered as shown (no extra spaces or typos)
* You've waited at least 15 minutes for Google to propagate the changes
**OAuth:** Re-authenticate to refresh your access token.
**Service Account:** Confirm the service account has **Editor** access to the target folder in Google Drive.
***
### Template and Workflow Issues
* Is the workflow toggled to active?
* Does the incident meet all the workflow conditions?
* Is your template shared with Rootly? (Service Account only)
* Check the workflow execution log for errors
* Double-check variable spelling — Liquid is case-sensitive
* Test the variable in the [Liquid Explorer](https://rootly.com/account/help/liquid-explorer)
* Make sure the field has data on the incident (for example, `mitigated_at` won't exist on an unmitigated incident)
* Use `| default: "N/A"` to handle missing values gracefully
* OAuth: Re-authenticate if your access token has expired
* Service Account: Confirm the template is shared with the service account as **Editor**
* Confirm domain-wide delegation is still active in Google Admin
* Folder paths use forward slashes — confirm the path is correct
* Parent folders must already exist in Drive; Rootly won't create them
* Test any Liquid expressions in the folder path separately
## Uninstall
To remove the Google Docs integration, go to **Configuration → Integrations**, find **Google Docs**, and click the **Connected** button to reveal the disconnect option.
Disconnecting stops Rootly from creating new documents. Documents already generated by Rootly are not affected.
***