# Google Sites

> Google Sites is Google's website builder inside Google Workspace. Its only public
> programmatic surface is the Google Sites Data API, a Google Data (GData) v1.4
> Atom/XML API. **The API is deprecated and reaches ONLY classic Google Sites.** It
> cannot read or write the rebuilt Google Sites launched 2016-11-22 — which is the only
> version a user can create today. Google publishes no replacement API for new Sites.

Generated by the API Evangelist enrichment pipeline on 2026-09-12 from the provider's
own documentation. Google does not publish an llms.txt; this file is generated, not
harvested.

## What an agent should know first

- **Status: deprecated.** Google's own banner: "Sites API is deprecated and might stop
  working at any time. Sites API can only access classic Sites."
- **No OpenAPI.** No OpenAPI, Swagger, GraphQL SDL, AsyncAPI or Google discovery
  document exists. The API is absent from Google's discovery directory (530 services,
  none is `sites`). The contract is prose plus XML examples.
- **No MCP server.** Nobody ships one — not Google, not a third party.
- **No webhooks and no events.** The Activity feed is polled, not pushed.
- **No published rate limits.** No quota numbers, no RateLimit headers, no Retry-After.
- **No idempotency keys.** A retried POST creates a duplicate. ETag `If-Match` protects
  updates and deletes only.
- **No undelete.** Deleted content stays visible with `include-deleted=true` and in the
  revision feed, but no API operation restores it and no retention window is published.

## Base and versioning

- Base: `https://sites.google.com/feeds/`
- Required header: `GData-Version: 1.4` (or `v=1.4` as a query parameter)
- Media type: `application/atom+xml`

## Authentication

- OAuth 2.0 authorization code, PKCE supported. No other protocol is accepted.
- Single coarse scope: `https://sites.google.com/feeds/` — read **and** write across all
  five feeds, including delete and ACL changes.
- Authorization server: `https://accounts.google.com`
- OAuth 1.0, AuthSub and ClientLogin were removed 2012-04-20.

## The five feeds

- **Site feed** — `GET|POST|PUT /feeds/site/{domain}/[{site}]`. List, create, copy and
  rename sites. Create and copy are Google Workspace domains only. No DELETE.
- **Content feed** — `GET|POST|PUT|DELETE /feeds/content/{domain}/{site}/[{entryId}]`.
  Pages, announcements, file cabinets, list pages, list items, comments, attachments,
  web attachments, templates. The one feed that may be readable anonymously, depending
  on the site's published settings.
- **Revision feed** — `GET /feeds/revision/{domain}/{site}/{entryId}/[{revisionId}]`.
- **Activity feed** — `GET /feeds/activity/{domain}/{site}/[{activityId}]`.
- **ACL feed** — `GET|POST|PUT|DELETE /feeds/acl/site/{domain}/{site}/[{aclEntryId}]`.

## Query conventions

Paging: `start-index`, `max-results`, plus `openSearch:startIndex` and a `rel="next"`
link. Filtering: `q`, `updated-min`, `updated-max`, `published-min`, `published-max`,
`kind`, `parent`, `ancestor`, `path`, `include-deleted`, `include-draft`,
`include-all-sites`, `with-mappings`.

## Concurrency and batching

Every feed and entry carries `gd:etag`. Writes take `If-Match` (`If-Match: *` to force).
Conditional reads use `If-None-Match` and answer 304 or 412. Batch requests POST a batch
feed to the feed's batch link with `query`/`insert`/`update`/`delete` operations; the
batch is **not atomic** and per-operation status must be read from the response feed.

## Documentation

- Overview: https://developers.google.com/workspace/sites
- Developer guide: https://developers.google.com/workspace/sites/docs/developers_guide
- Protocol guide (HTTP/XML): https://developers.google.com/workspace/sites/docs/1.0/developers_guide_protocol
- Reference guide: https://developers.google.com/workspace/sites/docs/1.0/reference
- Python guide: https://developers.google.com/workspace/sites/docs/1.0/developers_guide_python
- Java guide: https://developers.google.com/workspace/sites/docs/1.0/developers_guide_java
- Support: https://developers.google.com/workspace/sites/support
- Status: https://www.google.com/appsstatus/dashboard/
- Pricing (Google Workspace): https://workspace.google.com/pricing

## Client libraries

Both are the generic Google Data client libraries, both archived, both far older than
the docs that reference them:

- Python — `pip install gdata` — PyPI `gdata` 2.0.18, published 2013-06-14. Python 2 only.
  Repo https://github.com/google/gdata-python-client (archived).
- Java — `com.google.gdata:core` 1.47.1, published to Maven Central 2012-10-26.
  Repo https://github.com/google/gdata-java-client (archived).

There is no JavaScript, Go, Ruby, PHP, .NET or Rust client.

## Artifacts in this repository

- apis.yml — the API Evangelist index for Google Sites
- authentication/google-sites-authentication.yml — OAuth 2.0 profile
- scopes/google-sites-scopes.yml — the single OAuth scope
- conventions/google-sites-conventions.yml — pagination, ETags, batch, idempotency, reversibility
- data-model/google-sites-data-model.yml — the five feeds as an entity graph
- errors/google-sites-problem-types.yml — the documented HTTP statuses (and the gaps)
- lifecycle/google-sites-lifecycle.yml — the deprecation, versioning and status page
- conformance/google-sites-conformance.yml — Atom, AtomPub, OAuth 2.0, OpenSearch, GData
- packages/google-sites-packages.yml — the two archived first-party clients
- plans/google-sites-plans-pricing.yml — Google Workspace tiers
- rate-limits/google-sites-rate-limits.yml — an honest zero
- changelog/google-sites-changelog.yml — the shared Workspace release notes
- mcp/google-sites-mcp.yml — candidate tools; no server exists
- well-known/google-sites-well-known.yml — the /.well-known/ probe across eight hosts
- security/ — domain security probe and vulnerability disclosure program