<api>:<version> syntax for unlisted APIs is advertised but not implemented #670

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1. boatnoy commented on Apr 11, 2026

   

   boatnoy

   on Apr 11, 2026

   Last edited by boatnoy

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   +1 — confirming this still happens on v0.22.5 (macOS arm64, installed via brew install googleworkspace-cli).

   Another concrete use case: YouTube Data API v3

   Hit this today trying to read public YouTube video metadata via gws:

   $ gws youtube:v3 videos list --params '{"part":"snippet","id":"Zh17z6Omn-s"}'
   error[validation]: Unknown service 'youtube'. Known services: drive, sheets, ...
   Use '<api>:<version>' syntax for unlisted APIs.
   
   $ gws schema youtube:v3.videos.list
   error[validation]: Unknown service 'youtube:v3'. ...
   

   Noticed a small inconsistency: the main command parser splits on : (the error says 'youtube'), but gws schema does not split (the error says 'youtube:v3' — treating it as a single token).

   Source code pointers (for anyone fixing)

   Colon-splitting happens in crates/google-workspace-cli/src/main.rs:335-343:

   if let Some((svc, ver)) = service_arg.split_once(':') {
       service_arg = svc;
       if version_override.is_none() {
           version_override = Some(ver.to_string());
       }
   }
   let (api_name, default_version) = services::resolve_service(service_arg)?;

   But resolve_service in crates/google-workspace/src/services.rs:142-157 is a hard lookup against the SERVICES constant — no Discovery fallback path.

   The gws schema command path in schema.rs:43 calls resolve_service(service_name) directly without the colon-split preprocessing from main.rs, which is why error text differs between the two commands.

   Suggested paths forward

   Option A (quick — ~1h): Fix the error message in services.rs:153 to describe current behavior only. Remove the <api>:<version> fallback hint since it's not implemented. Stops costing users debugging time. 2-line change.

   Option B (real feature — larger): When resolve_service(svc) fails AND the user provided a version via : syntax, attempt to fetch the Discovery document from https://www.googleapis.com/discovery/v1/apis/{svc}/{version}/rest and build the command tree dynamically. Unlocks any Google API with a Discovery Document (YouTube, AdMob, Analytics, Ads, etc.) but raises questions about OAuth scope selection and consent screen configuration for non-Workspace APIs.

   Also worth fixing alongside either option: make gws schema use the same colon-split preprocessing as the main command parser, so error messages are consistent.

   Happy to send a small PR for Option A if maintainers prefer the quick win — it's a tiny change and removes UX friction immediately. Option B is worth a design discussion.

   Thanks @s2mr for the original report and thanks to the gws team — tool is otherwise delightful to use.

   _{Context: found this while pair-debugging gws setup with Claude Code for a Thai-language tutorial. Happy to share the full write-up if useful.}

   ❤️React with ❤️1Reacted by Kazumasa Shimomura
2. nuthalapativarun

   added a commit that references this issue on Apr 12, 2026

   feat: implement <api>:<version> syntax for unlisted Discovery APIs

   ...

   This issue will close once commit f88e494 is merged into the 'main' branch.

   f88e494
3. sebastianarena

   added a commit that references this issue on Oct 14, 2026

   fix: honor explicit version in <api>:<version> syntax for unlisted se…

   ...

   This issue will close once commit 4fed56d is merged into the 'main' branch.

   4fed56d