google-docs-md

name	google-docs-md
displayName	Google Docs Markdown Export
description	Export Google Docs as clean markdown via native URL parameter. No auth needed for public docs. Use when fetching Google Doc content for vault ingestion, runbook building, or any doc-to-markdown pipeline.
version	0.1.0
author	joel
tags	["google-docs","markdown","export","content-extraction"]

Google Docs Markdown Export

Google Docs natively supports markdown export via a URL parameter. This is the most reliable way to get markdown from a Google Doc — better than defuddle, jina, or any scraping tool.

URL Pattern

For any Google Doc URL like:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/{DOC_ID}/edit?tab=t.0

Replace everything after the document ID with export?format=md:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/{DOC_ID}/export?format=md

Extracting the Document ID

The DOC_ID is the long alphanumeric string between /d/ and the next /:

# From any Google Docs URL, extract the ID:
echo "https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mt8aYM88Jj5qkep1xYC5vj0wBlbX2u6gdxhf_puaiQI/edit?tab=t.0" \
  | grep -oP '(?<=/d/)[^/]+'
# → 1mt8aYM88Jj5qkep1xYC5vj0wBlbX2u6gdxhf_puaiQI

Fetching

# Public docs — no auth needed, follow the 307 redirect:
curl -L "https://docs.google.com/document/d/${DOC_ID}/export?format=md" -o output.md

# Private docs — needs OAuth bearer token:
curl -L "https://docs.google.com/document/d/${DOC_ID}/export?format=md" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" -o output.md

Important: The endpoint returns a 307 redirect. Always use curl -L (follow redirects) or equivalent.

Other Export Formats

The same pattern works for other formats:

• export?format=pdf — PDF
• export?format=docx — Word
• export?format=txt — Plain text
• export?format=html — HTML
• export?format=epub — ePub

Batch Pattern

When you have a list of Google Doc URLs (e.g. extracted from Front emails):

# Extract doc IDs from a file of URLs
grep -oP '(?<=/d/)[^/]+' urls.txt | sort -u | while read id; do
  echo "Fetching $id..."
  curl -sL "https://docs.google.com/document/d/${id}/export?format=md" \
    -o "docs/${id}.md"
  sleep 1  # Be polite
done

When to Use

• Always prefer this over defuddle/scraping for Google Docs
• Works for public docs without any authentication
• Native markdown quality is superior to any HTML→markdown conversion
• Handles tables, formatting, links, images (as URLs) correctly

Limitations

• Private docs require a valid OAuth token (use gog when available)
• Very large docs may take a few seconds
• Images are referenced as URLs, not embedded
• Comments and suggestions are not included in the export