The short version
Tell your agent where the file is, in plain words, and it picks the best way in. You never need to upload the file yourself. These are the routes it tries, best first:
- The file is in your Google Drive. Your agent finds it by name, or uses the Drive link you paste. LinkDrop fetches it from Google itself.
- The file has a public web link. Your agent gives LinkDrop the link and LinkDrop downloads it.
- The file is on your computer. Your agent hands LinkDrop the file directly, when LinkDrop runs on the same computer.
- The file is only in your agent's own workspace. Your agent uploads it to a one-time LinkDrop address.
- Your AI client blocks that upload. Your agent saves the PDF to your Downloads folder and tells you where it is.
1. From Google Drive (the best way)
Connect your Google Drive once on the Integrations page, under Data ingestion, then ask, for example "Share the Q3 board deck from my Google Drive with Priya". Your agent searches your Drive by the file's name and asks which one if more than one matches. You can also paste the file's link from your browser's address bar: a Google Docs, Slides or Sheets link, or a Google Drive file link, works as it is.
Nothing is downloaded to your computer or uploaded through your AI client. Google Docs, Slides and Sheets are turned into a PDF, and PDFs are shared as they are. The new document keeps a link to the original: From Google Drive at the top of the document's page opens it in Drive.
If Drive is not connected yet, your agent gives you the link to the Integrations page and stops. Connect it there and ask again. Google Drive has the details.
2. From a public link
If the PDF is online, give your agent the link. LinkDrop downloads it, up to 50 MB. A LinkDrop share link works too. A Google Drive link to a PDF works this way without connecting Drive, as long as the file is shared with anyone who has the link; a Google Docs, Slides or Sheets link needs Drive connected, because Google shows a web page there, not a file.
OneDrive and SharePoint links do not work, because Microsoft shows a sign-in page instead of the file. Download the PDF first and use one of the other routes.
3. From your computer
If the file is on your computer, say where it is, for example "the board update in my Downloads folder". If you did not say, your agent asks. This works when LinkDrop's MCP server runs on the same computer as the file, which is how a developer usually sets it up. The hosted server at mcp.lnkdrp.com cannot read files on your computer, so a hosted agent uses route 4 instead.
4. From your agent's own workspace
Cloud agents, such as Cowork, work in a workspace of their own in the cloud. A file the agent made or downloaded there is not on your computer and has no public link, so the agent asks LinkDrop for a one-time upload address, uploads the file to it, and shares it. You do not need to do anything.
- The address takes one PDF of up to 50 MB and expires after 15 minutes.
- Only the connection that asked for it can use the file, and only once. Once the file arrives, the upload server keeps it for 5 minutes for the share, and deletes its copy as soon as the document is shared.
- The connection needs permission to make changes. A connection that can only read, such as a Viewer's, cannot upload.
5. When your AI client blocks the upload
Some AI clients do not let the agent send files out of its workspace. Claude Cowork, for example, follows your organization's network settings, and those can block uploads to LinkDrop. When that happens, your agent:
- saves the PDF to your Downloads folder, if it can write to your computer,
- tells you in one sentence that the upload was blocked and where the file is,
- and stops.
It will not ask you to upload the file yourself, to make a file public, or to use another service. To share that file, put it in your Google Drive and use route 1, or give your agent a public link to it.
Which route did my agent use?
Every document your agent shares shows up in your workspace and in the activity feed like any other, attributed to the agent. A document that came from Google Drive shows From Google Drive on its page. Connect your agent covers setting the agent up.