Google Workspace approval
If you launched Formula Foundry in Google Sheets and saw “Your Google Workspace is blocking some permissions”, this page is for you — and for the administrator who can fix it. The whole thing takes an admin about two minutes.
What happened?
Google Workspace lets administrators decide which third-party apps may access company data. When that setting is turned on, Google still lets you install Formula Foundry, but it quietly removes the permissions the admin hasn’t approved. The add-on then opens but can’t read your spreadsheet or sign you in, so we stop and show you the blocked-permissions screen instead of half-working.
Nothing is wrong with your account, your spreadsheet, or the add-on. The restriction is applied by your organization’s Google Workspace policy, and only a Workspace administrator can lift it.
What Formula Foundry asks for
Formula Foundry requests the smallest set of permissions Google allows for a Sheets add-on:
| Permission (as Google names it) | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| View and manage the current spreadsheet | Read the formula in the selected cell, insert formulas, store variables. |
| Sign you in with your Google account | Silent sign-in — no password, no separate account. |
| Connect to an external service | Talk to the Formula Foundry servers for snippets, sync and AI. |
| Display content in Google Sheets | Show the Formula Foundry window inside your spreadsheet. |
The spreadsheet permission is the “current spreadsheet only” variant. Formula Foundry never sees any other file in your Drive.
For administrators: how do I approve Formula Foundry?
You need Google Workspace super-admin rights, or the API controls privilege.
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Open the Google Admin console and go to Security → Access and data control → API controls.
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Under App access control, click Manage third-party app access.
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Click Add app → OAuth App Name or Client ID.
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Search for Formula Foundry, or paste the add-on’s OAuth client ID:
906818232884-vjd141lajcknk12if1fiqgvbsudlp146.apps.googleusercontent.com -
Select the app, choose which organizational units get access (usually all), and set the access level to Trusted.
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Click Finish.
The change usually applies within a few minutes, sometimes up to 24 hours.
Alternative: allow all apps to use Sheets
If your organization is comfortable with the default Google behaviour, you can instead set the Google Drive service to Unrestricted under the same API controls page. Formula Foundry — and every other Sheets add-on — will then work without per-app approval. Most organizations that never changed this setting are already unrestricted, which is why this page mostly comes up in companies with a locked-down policy.
For users: after your admin approved it
Google keeps the permissions it granted at install time, so the add-on needs a fresh consent once the policy changes:
- In the Formula Foundry window, click Check again. If the screen goes away, you’re done.
- If it doesn’t, click Re-authorize with Google on the same screen and accept the permissions Google shows.
- If neither option appears, remove the old grant manually: go to Google Account → Security → Third-party apps & services , open Formula Foundry, choose Delete all connections, then relaunch the add-on from Extensions → Formula Foundry → Launch.
I’m not the admin — what do I send them?
The blocked-permissions screen has a Copy message for your admin button. It puts a short, ready-to-send note on your clipboard that names the blocked permissions, includes the client ID above, and links to this page. Paste it into an email or chat to your IT team.
Still blocked?
If the screen is still there after the admin change and a re-authorization, contact support and mention the domain of your Google account. We can see which permissions Google granted on our side and tell you exactly what’s missing.