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Make a form to collect input (and land the answers where your agent can use them)

Put a few questions in front of people, send one link, and watch the answers pile up in a spreadsheet your agent can read. Use Google Forms — free, unlimited responses, no account needed to answer.

Time: your agent can draft every question; building the form in the browser is the one un-delegable step (~5–15 min, depending on how many questions). After that, sharing is one link and the answers collect themselves. [confirmed] Last verified: 2026-06-07 · the Publish/Manage-access model, the link-to-Sheets step, the one-response limit, and closing the form come from Google Docs Editors Help. [confirmed]

Before you begin

  • A Google account. Forms lives at forms.google.com; sign in once and you're ready.
  • The questions you want to ask — or a rough idea of them. Your agent can turn a one-line brief into a clean question list (see below).
  • The recipient's email — only if you'll restrict the form to named people or to your organisation. The "anyone with the link" path needs no email at all.

New to letting an agent help? Start with Set up Claude Code, then How to ask your agent; come back once claude runs.

What your agent does, and what only you can do

Your agent is great at the wording and useless at the clicking. Forms has no clean command-line path, so the build is yours — but you don't start from a blank page. Ask:

Draft 6 short questions for a Google Form to collect <what you need>.
Tell me the question type for each (short answer, paragraph, multiple choice,
checkboxes, dropdown, or linear scale), and which should be required.

You get a ready-to-type list — question text, the right field type, and which to mark required. Then you paste them into the form yourself. [estimate] Naming this honestly: creating the form is the un-delegable step. Everything around it (drafting questions, later reading the answers) the agent handles.

Build the form

  1. Go to forms.google.com → Blank form (or pick a template).
  2. Give it a title and a one-line description so responders know what they're answering.
  3. For each question: type the text, pick the type from the dropdown (Short answer, Paragraph, Multiple choice, Checkboxes, Dropdown, Linear scale, and more), and flip Required on for the ones you must have. [confirmed]
  4. Click + in the side toolbar to add the next question.

That's the whole build. Plain questions take ~5 min; a longer survey with branching, ~15.

Click Publish (top-right) — a form must be published before anyone can answer. Then Manage decides who's allowed in, under General access: [confirmed]

  • Anyone with the link — anybody who has the link can answer, no Google account needed. The widest reach; right for public surveys, sign-ups, RSVPs.
  • Restricted / specific people or groups — only the accounts you name (or a Google Group) can open it. Each must sign in.
  • Your organisation (work/school accounts) — anyone in your Workspace domain with the link can answer; the public option appears only if your admin allows it. [confirmed]

Then grab the link: Publish (now showing Published) → Copy responder link (tick Shorten URL for a tidy one) → send it wherever your people are. [confirmed]

A form usually gathers personal or sensitive answers — names, emails, opinions, sometimes more. Who can reach the responses is exactly the Who can see it? question: the answers live in your Forms account and any spreadsheet you link them to, so guard that the way you'd guard the raw data. The responder-access setting controls who can fill it in, not who can read what came back.

Land the answers in a spreadsheet (so your agent can use them)

This is the step that makes a form useful to an agent: responses flow into a Google Sheet in real time, and your agent reads, filters, and summarises the sheet.

In the form, click the Responses tab → Link to Sheets (the green Sheets icon, top-right; also labelled View in Sheets). [confirmed] Choose:

  • Create a new spreadsheet — a fresh sheet that fills as answers arrive. The usual choice.
  • Select existing spreadsheet — append into one you already have.

Every submission now adds a row, timestamp included, with no further action from you. [confirmed] Point your agent at that sheet:

Read this Google Sheet of form responses and summarise the answers to question 3.

(Your agent reaches the sheet through the Google tooling — see Set up Claude Code if it isn't connected yet.)

Two controls worth knowing

  • One answer per person. Settings → Responses → turn on Limit to 1 response. This stops repeat submissions — but it forces every responder to sign in to a Google account, so it closes the "anyone, no account" door. Use it for votes and registrations; skip it for open public surveys. [confirmed]
  • Collect email addresses. Settings → Responses → Collect email addresses → Verified (responder must be signed in) or Responder input (they type it, unverified). Off by default — leave it off if you promised anonymity. [confirmed]

Close the form when you're done

Click Published (top-right) → toggle Accepting responses off → Save. The link still opens, but shows "no longer accepting responses." [confirmed] To close it automatically, under Accepting responses click Set close date or response limit — pick a date and time, or after a number of responses. You can edit the message responders see when it's shut. [confirmed]

A prettier alternative

Typeform makes one-question-at-a-time forms that feel like a conversation — worth it when the form is the brand impression (a polished intake, a donor survey). The catch: its free tier caps responses (currently a low monthly limit), where Google Forms is unlimited. [unclear] (Typeform's free-tier response cap changes; check typeform.com/pricing before relying on it — checked 2026-06-07.) Responses still export to a sheet, so the agent-reads-the-answers step is the same.

If it doesn't work

  • Responses aren't showing up in the sheet → you opened the sheet before linking it, or never linked it. In the form: Responses → Link to Sheets. Already-collected answers backfill into the new sheet; new ones append from then on. [confirmed]
  • Responders see "You need permission" / can't open the form → it's either unpublished or restricted. Click Publish, then Manage → General access → Anyone with the link. On a work/school account this option may be missing because an admin limited external sharing — share inside your org, or use a personal Google account. [confirmed]
  • It's forcing people to sign in when you wanted anonymous → Limit to 1 response and Collect email addresses → Verified both require a Google account. Turn both off (Settings → Responses) for truly anonymous, account-free answers. [confirmed]
  • You wanted emails but didn't get them → Collect email addresses is off by default. Settings → Responses → Collect email addresses → choose Verified or Responder input. [confirmed]
  • People can submit twice → that's the default. Settings → Responses → Limit to 1 response (accepting that it now requires sign-in). [confirmed]
  • You're worried who can read the answers → responses are visible to you (the owner), any editors you added to the form, and anyone with access to the linked sheet. Sharing the form link widely does not expose the answers — only form-editors and sheet-viewers see those. Keep the sheet's sharing tight. [confirmed]

Prefer to do it all by hand?

  1. forms.google.com → Blank form. Add a title, then each question (text + type + Required as needed).
  2. Responses tab → Link to Sheets → Create a new spreadsheet.
  3. Publish → Manage → General access → Anyone with the link (or your org / named people).
  4. Copy responder link → send it.
  5. Optional: Settings → Responses for Limit to 1 response / Collect email addresses. Done collecting? Published → Accepting responses off. [confirmed]

Watch / read

Best written walkthrough: Google's own Publish & share your form with responders — the authoritative Publish/Manage-access steps, the responder-link copy, and the one-response limit, kept current. Pair it with View & manage form responses for Link to Sheets and the Accepting responses toggle. [confirmed]

Short videos (YouTube transcripts couldn't be verified from this machine this session, so titles/channels/durations are the signal):

Other ways to share

  • Just need a shared spreadsheet people edit directly, not a structured form? → share a Google Sheet and let them type into it.
  • A whole pile of files to hand over alongside the answers? → a Google Drive folder shares everything behind one link.
  • You want responses to drive an app, not just a sheet? → build it as a website your agent deploys with its own form and database — more setup, full control.

Sources

  • Publish & share your form with responders — Google Docs Editors Help (Publish/Manage access, General access: anyone-with-link vs target audiences, Copy responder link + Shorten URL, Limit to 1 response, Collect email addresses) — checked 2026-06-07
  • View & manage form responses — Google Docs Editors Help (Responses tab, Link to Sheets / View in Sheets, new vs existing spreadsheet, Accepting responses toggle under Published, Set close date or response limit) — checked 2026-06-07
  • Learn about updates in Google Forms — Google Docs Editors Help (the upgraded Publish + granular responder-access model rolling out through 2025) — checked 2026-06-07
  • Share responder access for users in trusted domains in upgraded forms — Google Docs Editors Help (work/school org access; trusted-domain access removed, use groups or named individuals) — checked 2026-06-07
  • Typeform pricing — Typeform (free-tier response cap; figure volatile, re-check) — checked 2026-06-07