# Import files from Google Cloud Storage

Robot: `/google/import`

🤖/google/import imports whole directories of files from Google Cloud Storage.

> [!WARNING]
> **Keep your credentials safe**
>
> Since you need to provide credentials to this Robot, always use this together with Templates and/or Template Credentials, so that you can never leak any secrets while transmitting your Assembly Instructions.

> [!NOTE]
> Transloadit supports file sizes up to 200 GB. If you require a higher limit for your application, [get in touch](mailto:hello@transloadit.com?subject=Large%20filesizes).

Stage: ga

## Usage example

Import files from the `path/to/files` directory and its subdirectories:

```json
{
  "steps": {
    "imported": {
      "credentials": "YOUR_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS",
      "path": "path/to/files/",
      "recursive": true,
      "robot": "/google/import"
    }
  }
}
```

## Parameters

<span aria-hidden="true" id="interpolate"></span>



### `interpolate`

Controls whether Assembly Variables are interpolated for individual instruction fields.

By default, most Robot instruction fields interpolate Assembly Variables. Set this to `false` to treat every instruction field as literal text, or set an individual field path to `false` to treat only that field as literal text. For Robot-specific fields that are literal by default, set this to `true` or set that field path to `true` to opt back into interpolation.

Use field names such as `path`, or dotted paths such as `ffmpeg.vf` for nested objects.

Type: `boolean | Record<string, boolean>`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="output_meta"></span>



### `output_meta`

Allows you to specify a set of metadata that is more expensive on CPU power to calculate, and thus is disabled by default to keep your Assemblies processing fast.

For images, you can add `"has_transparency": true` in this object to extract if the image contains transparent parts and `"dominant_colors": true` to extract an array of hexadecimal color codes from the image.

For images, you can also add `"blurhash": true` to extract a [BlurHash](https://blurha.sh) string — a compact representation of a placeholder for the image, useful for showing a blurred preview while the full image loads.

For images, `"thumbhash": true` instead extracts a base64-encoded [ThumbHash](https://evanw.github.io/thumbhash/) into `meta.thumbhash`, together with `meta.has_alpha` (whether an alpha channel exists, even when fully opaque). It describes EXIF-oriented pixels and uses the first frame of animated images. Extraction is best-effort: images above 40 megapixels, unsupported formats, or a failed/bounded decode produce no placeholder. Successful extraction adds a metadata charge equivalent to 20% of that file's bytes. No ThumbHash surcharge applies when disabled or when no hash is produced.

Set this option on the Step producing the image, such as `/upload/handle` for uploaded originals or `/image/resize` for processed outputs. Setting it only on `/transloadit/store` does not request extraction: storage preserves the producer's metadata. Transloadit Storage persists a generated hash with its immutable version and returns it in stored results and native asset reads. Direct S3 uploads do not generate placeholders. A placeholder contains image information, so protect it with the same access controls as the full image.

For videos, you can add the `"colorspace": true` parameter to extract the colorspace of the output video.

For videos, you can also add `"interlaced": true` to detect whether the video is interlaced. This combines the cheap ffprobe `field_order` flag with a bounded `idet` sampling pass over the first frames of the source, exposing `interlaced`, `field_order`, and a diagnostic `interlace_detection` object under `file.meta`. This is computationally expensive and billed accordingly.

For audio, you can add `"mean_volume": true` to get a single value representing the mean average volume of the audio file.

You can also set this to `false` to skip metadata extraction and speed up transcoding.

Type: `Record<string, boolean> | boolean | Array<string>`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="user_meta"></span>



### `user_meta`

Adds custom JSON metadata to each emitted file without changing its contents. Nested objects and arrays are supported.

Inheritance depends on the Robot. Values merge with existing `user_meta` on the output file; the current Step replaces matching top-level keys. Assign required keys explicitly when a Robot creates fresh outputs.

In processing Steps, `${file.*}` refers to the first input and `${result.*}` to the emitted file. Values are evaluated per output after the Robot runs, before subsequent metadata extraction and temporary storage. On `:original`, values are evaluated per upload before metadata extraction.

Downstream Steps read `${file.user_meta.key}`. See [Custom metadata](https://transloadit.com/docs/topics/assembly-variables.md#user-meta) for a complete example and inheritance rules.

Type: `Record<string, any>`

Default: `{}`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="result"></span>



### `result`

Whether the results of this Step should be present in the Assembly Status JSON

Type: `boolean`

Default: `false`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="queue"></span>



### `queue`

Setting the queue to 'batch', manually downgrades the priority of jobs for this step to avoid consuming Priority job slots for jobs that don't need zero queue waiting times

Type: `batch`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="force_accept"></span>



### `force_accept`

Force a Robot to accept a file type it would have ignored.

By default, Robots ignore files they are not familiar with.
[🤖/video/encode](/docs/robots/video-encode.md), for
example, will happily ignore input images.

With the `force_accept` parameter set to `true`, you can force Robots to accept all files thrown at them.
This will typically lead to errors and should only be used for debugging or combatting edge cases.

Type: `boolean`

Default: `false`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="ignore_errors"></span>



### `ignore_errors`

Ignore errors during specific phases of processing.

Setting this to `["meta"]` will cause the Robot to ignore errors during metadata extraction.

Setting this to `["execute"]` will cause the Robot to ignore errors during the main execution phase.

Setting this to `["import"]` will cause the Robot to ignore errors while importing the source file. The `"import"` phase is only available to import Robots.

Setting this to `true` is equivalent to `["meta", "import", "execute"]` and will ignore errors in all three phases.

Type: `boolean | Array<meta | import | execute>`

Default: `[]`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="force_name"></span>



### `force_name`

Custom name for the imported file(s). By default file names are derived from the source.

Type: `string | Array<string> | null`

Default: `null`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="import_on_errors"></span>



### `import_on_errors`

Setting this to `["meta"]` will still import the file on metadata extraction errors. `ignore_errors` is similar, it also ignores the error and makes sure the Robot doesn't stop, but it doesn't import the file.

Type: `Array<meta>`

Default: `[]`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="credentials"></span>



### `credentials`

Create a new [Google service account](https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/authentication). Choose “JSON” for the key file format and download it to your computer. You will need to upload this file when creating your <dfn>Template Credentials</dfn>.

Go back to your Google credentials project and enable the "Google Cloud Storage JSON API" for it. Wait around ten minutes for the action to propagate through the Google network. Grab the project ID from the dropdown menu in the header bar on the Google site. You will also need it later on.

Grant the service account the “Storage Object Viewer” role on the bucket you want to import from. This provides `storage.objects.get` to download objects and `storage.objects.list` to list them. Imports do not need permission to create or delete objects. See [Google’s IAM roles for Cloud Storage](https://docs.cloud.google.com/storage/docs/access-control/iam-roles).

Then, create your associated [Template Credentials](/c/template-credentials/) in your Transloadit account and use the name of your <dfn>Template Credentials</dfn> as this parameter's value.

Type: `string`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="path"></span>



### `path`

The path in your bucket to the specific file or directory. If the path points to a file, only this file will be imported. For example: `images/avatar.jpg`.

If it points to a directory, indicated by a trailing slash (`/`), then all files that are direct descendants of this directory will be imported. For example: `images/`.

Directories are **not** imported recursively. If you want to import files from subdirectories and sub-subdirectories, enable the `recursive` parameter.

If you want to import all files from the root directory, please use `/` as the value here. In this case, make sure all your objects belong to a path. If you have objects in the root of your bucket that aren't prefixed with `/`, you'll receive a 404 `GOOGLE_IMPORT_NOT_FOUND` error.

You can also use an array of path strings here to import multiple paths in the same <dfn>Robot</dfn>'s <dfn>Step</dfn>.

Type: `string | Array<string>` — Required

<span aria-hidden="true" id="recursive"></span>



### `recursive`

Setting this to `true` will enable importing files from subdirectories and sub-subdirectories (etc.) of the given path.

Please use the pagination parameters `next_page_token` and `files_per_page` wisely here.

Type: `boolean`

Default: `false`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="next_page_token"></span>



### `next_page_token`

A string token used for pagination. The returned files of one paginated call have the next page token inside of their meta data, which needs to be used for the subsequent paging call.

Type: `string`

Default: `""`

<span aria-hidden="true" id="files_per_page"></span>



### `files_per_page`

The pagination page size. This only works when recursive is `true` for now, in order to not break backwards compatibility in non-recursive imports.

Type: `string | number`

Default: `1000`