💡 New script: workspace-onboarding-kit (template-based Drive project workspace generator)

[github-actions[bot]]

Summary

Creates standardized Google Drive folder hierarchies with pre-configured documents, spreadsheets, and templates from a single template definition. When triggered (manually or on schedule), copies a template folder structure into a destination, optionally customizing document titles with date/project-name variables and setting sharing permissions. Ideal for recurring project setups, client onboarding, or team workspace initialization — eliminating the repetitive manual folder-and-file creation that small teams perform weekly.

Market Signal

Template management is a proven high-value feature across productivity platforms — Notion templates, Airtable bases, and Monday.com templates are among the most-used features on their respective platforms. Google Workspace has no native equivalent for Drive folder structure templating. Tools like Orangedox ($10-30/month) and Folgo provide Drive template management as paid SaaS. The gap is clear: Google's most popular productivity suite lacks a free, automated way to stamp out standardized project workspaces.

User Signal

Recurring folder creation is a common request in Google Apps Script community forums and Stack Overflow. Small teams frequently recreate identical folder structures: client folders with subfolders for contracts, deliverables, and assets; project folders with docs, designs, and data; course/class folders with syllabus, assignments, and grades. The project's deploy page can make this accessible without any coding — the same zero-friction promise that differentiates the entire suite.

Technical Opportunity

The implementation is straightforward with well-established GAS APIs:

• DriveApp.getFolderById(templateId) to read the template structure
• folder.makeCopy() / DriveApp.createFolder() to replicate it
• doc.setName() with variable substitution (e.g., {{PROJECT_NAME}}, {{DATE}})
• folder.addEditor() / file.addEditor() for sharing configuration

The config.gs pattern naturally supports template definitions:

var TEMPLATES = [
  {
    templateFolderId: "...",
    destinationParentId: "...",
    namingPattern: "{{PROJECT_NAME}} - {{DATE}}",
    sharing: [{ email: "team@example.com", role: "EDITOR" }]
  }
]

The deploy page's Drive Picker integration already handles folder selection, making configuration zero-friction.

Assessment

Dimension	Score	Rationale
Feasibility	high	Uses standard DriveApp APIs (copy, create, share). Well-understood pattern. Follows existing project architecture.
Impact	med	Addresses a real pain point for small teams and freelancers. Less universal than Sheets monitoring but high value for its audience.
Urgency	low	Evergreen need with no time-sensitive API window. Competitors exist but are paid.

Adversarial Review

Strongest objection: Personal users rarely need project templating — this is primarily a team/enterprise feature that doesn't align with the project's personal-productivity focus.

Rebuttal: The project already serves small teams: the deploy page supports multiple users, calendar-to-sheets is frequently shared, and the PRD explicitly includes small-team scenarios. Freelancers, consultants, tutors, and small business owners regularly onboard new clients/projects/classes with identical folder structures. A 2-person team creating the same 5-folder structure monthly saves 10+ minutes per instance — a small but compounding time savings that exemplifies the project's "reclaim your time" mission. The script also serves as a gateway to the project's broader automation catalog: users who discover it for onboarding often need calendar sync, email archival, or data monitoring next.

Suggested Next Step

Define the template schema in config.gs: source template folder ID, destination parent folder ID, naming pattern with variable substitution ({{PROJECT_NAME}}, {{DATE}}, {{CLIENT}}), and optional sharing rules. Implement MVP supporting recursive folder copy with document title templating, then add deploy-page configuration in a follow-up.