Google Calendar

The Google Calendar connector makes scheduling features real: your app can read availability from an actual calendar and create actual events, invitations and all. It is the backbone of booking apps. This guide covers connecting it and the two shapes a calendar feature takes.

Connect it

1. Approve with Google

   Open Vault → Connectors and pick Google Calendar. Google's own sign-in window opens; choose the account whose calendars the app should use and approve.

2. Ask for the feature

   Describe the scheduling behavior in real-world terms:

   Clients pick a free 30-minute slot on my calendar for next week and book it. Booking creates the event with the client's name and email, and blocks the slot for everyone else.

3. Test with a real booking

   Book a slot in the preview and check your Google Calendar; the event is really there. Delete test events from the calendar as you go.

What your app can do with it

Read calendars and events (which is how availability works: free slots are the gaps between existing events) and create events. Managing the calendar itself, its sharing settings, or its permissions is not exposed; that stays in Google Calendar.

Whose calendar is it?

• Bookings onto your calendar is the common case and an owner-shared connection: every visitor books against the calendar you connected. A salon, a consultant, a tutor.
• Each user's own calendar is the per-user shape: users of your app connect their Google account and the app reads or writes their calendar. "Show me my week" or "add this to my calendar" features.

Say which you mean when asking; the scope page covers how each behaves in production.

Frequently asked

Can bookings avoid double-booking when two people pick the same slot?

Ask for it explicitly: "re-check that the slot is still free at the moment of booking, and show a friendly message if someone got there first". The re-check is cheap and closes the race.

Can the app use a specific calendar rather than my main one?

Yes. Create the calendar in Google Calendar first, then name it in your prompt: "book onto my Appointments calendar, not my personal one".

Do invitees get a Google invitation email?

Events are created with the details you specify, and attendees added to an event get Google's normal invitation flow. Say whether you want the client added as an attendee or just recorded in the event description.

Availability shows slots I am actually busy in

The app only sees the calendars of the connected account. Busy time that lives on another calendar (a personal account, a shared team calendar) is invisible unless that calendar is visible to the connected account; fix it in Google Calendar's sharing settings.