Skills google-doc-format

Create professionally formatted Google Docs from markdown using gog docs create. Produces clean documents with proper heading hierarchy, real Google Docs tables (not tab-separated text), bold text, bullet lists, numbered lists, and clickable hyperlinks. Use when creating or recreating Google Docs that need proper formatting, especially documents with data tables, link indexes, or structured reports. Triggers on: format google doc, create formatted doc, fix google doc tables, google doc formatting, format doc for client, create master index, create deliverable doc, format audit report.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/openclaw/skills

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/brandrainmakerai/google-doc-format" ~/.claude/skills/clawdbot-skills-google-doc-format && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/brandrainmakerai/google-doc-format/SKILL.md

source content

Google Doc Format Skill

Create professionally formatted Google Docs from markdown using

gog docs create --file

. The key insight: markdown tables and formatting render properly as native Google Docs elements when passed through the

--file

flag.

Core Method

Always use

gog docs create

with

--file

to import markdown. Never use

gog docs write

gog docs insert

for full documents — those don't parse markdown tables.

gog docs create "Doc Title" --file source.md --parent "FOLDER_ID" --pageless --force --no-input

Flags:

```
--file
```
— Import markdown file (required for proper table rendering)
```
--parent
```
— Google Drive folder ID
```
--pageless
```
— Use pageless layout (recommended for reports/audits)
```
--force
```
— Skip confirmations

Markdown → Google Docs Mapping

Markdown	Google Docs Element
`# Heading 1`	HEADING_1
`## Heading 2`	HEADING_2
`### Heading 3`	HEADING_3
`bold text`	Bold text
`italic text`	Italic text
`- item` or `* item`	Bullet list
`1. item`	Numbered list
`\| col1 \| col2 \|`	Native TABLE element
`[link text](url)`	Clickable hyperlink
`---`	Horizontal rule
`> blockquote`	Indented text

Table Formatting Rules

Markdown pipe tables render as native Google Docs tables — this is the main value of this skill. Tables are the element most likely to break when creating docs any other way.

Correct format:

| # | Document | Link |
|---|----------|------|
| 01 | Technical SEO Audit | [Open doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/DOC_ID/edit) |
| 02 | On-Page SEO Audit | [Open doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/DOC_ID/edit) |

What NOT to do:

❌ Tab-separated values (no
```
\t
```
between columns)
❌ Plain text pretending to be a table
❌ Using
```
gog docs write
```
with raw text (doesn't parse markdown)
❌ Putting tables inside code blocks (won't render as tables)

Document Templates

Master Index / Link Index Doc

# Project Name — Deliverables Master Index

*Last updated: DATE*

---

## 📋 Section Name

### Subsection

| # | Document | Link |
|---|----------|------|
| 01 | Document Name | [Open doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/DOC_ID/edit) |
| 02 | Document Name | [Open doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/DOC_ID/edit) |

---

## 🎨 Another Section

### Subsection

| # | Document | Link |
|---|----------|------|
| 01 | Document Name | [Open doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/DOC_ID/edit) |

---

## 📂 Folder Structure

- **Root:** Folder Name
  - **Subfolder**
    - Document 1
    - Document 2

Audit/Report Doc

# Report Title: Descriptive Subtitle

**URL:** /page-slug/
**Target Keywords:** keyword1, keyword2, keyword3
**Meta Title:** SEO Title (60 chars)
**Meta Description:** Meta description (155 chars)

---

## Section Heading

Body paragraph with **bold key terms** and normal text.

### Subsection

| Metric | 2024 | 2023 | Change |
|--------|------|------|--------|
| Value 1 | 232 | 274 | -15% |

**Key takeaway:** Summary sentence after the table.

### Another Subsection

- **Bold label** — Description text
- **Bold label** — Description text

Workflow

Write markdown to temp file —
```
cat > /tmp/doc_name.md << 'EOF'
```

Create doc —

gog docs create "Title" --file /tmp/doc_name.md --parent FOLDER_ID --pageless --force --no-input

Verify structure —

gog docs structure DOC_ID --no-input | grep -i table

Verify content —

gog docs cat DOC_ID --no-input | head -20

Verification Checklist

After creating, verify:

```
gog docs structure
```
shows TABLE elements (not just NORMAL_TEXT with pipe characters)
Table row counts match expected dimensions (e.g.,
```
[table 6x3]
```
)
Links are clickable:
```
[Open doc](url)
```
renders as hyperlinks
Heading hierarchy is correct (H1 > H2 > H3)
Bold text renders (check structure output for inline formatting)

Replacing an Existing Doc

To replace a badly formatted doc:

Create new doc with
```
--file
```
flag
Verify formatting on the new doc

Rename new doc to match old name:

gog drive rename NEW_ID "Original Name" --force --no-input

Delete old doc:

gog drive delete OLD_ID --force --no-input

Move new doc to correct folder if needed:

gog drive move NEW_ID --parent FOLDER_ID --force --no-input

Common Issues

Problem	Cause	Fix
Tables show as pipe-separated text	Used `gog docs write` instead of `--file`	Recreate with `gog docs create --file`
Links not clickable	Used plain URLs, not markdown link syntax	Use `[text](url)` format
No headings	Used underline-style headings	Use `#` prefix headings
Missing bold	Used HTML `<b>` tags	Use `text` markdown
Rate limit (429)	Too many API calls in short time	Add `sleep 3` between operations

Rate Limiting

Google Docs API has per-minute write quotas. When creating multiple docs:

Add
```
sleep 3
```
between create operations
If you get 429 errors, wait 60 seconds and retry
For large batches (5+ docs), add
```
sleep 5
```
between each

Getting Doc IDs for Link Tables

To build a link index:

List folder contents:

gog drive ls --parent FOLDER_ID --json --no-input

Extract IDs and names with:

python3 -c "import json,sys; data=json.load(sys.stdin); [print(f'{f[\"name\"]} | {f[\"id\"]}') for f in data.get('files',[])]"

Build Google Doc URLs:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/DOC_ID/edit