gcloud

GCloud CLI

Core Capability: Manage Google Cloud Platform resources and services from the command line.

Quick Start

# Install
curl https://sdk.cloud.google.com | bash
exec -l $SHELL

# Verify
gcloud version

# Check auth
gcloud auth list

Set project

gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

Show current config

gcloud config list


---

## THE EXACT PROMPT — Auth & Config

gcloud auth login

Service account auth

gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=key.json

Application default credentials

gcloud auth application-default login

Set project

gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

Set region/zone

gcloud config set compute/region us-central1 gcloud config set compute/zone us-central1-a

Named configurations

gcloud config configurations create my-config gcloud config configurations activate my-config


---

## THE EXACT PROMPT — Compute Engine

List VMs

gcloud compute instances list

Create VM

gcloud compute instances create my-vm
--zone=us-central1-a
--machine-type=e2-medium
--image-family=debian-12
--image-project=debian-cloud

SSH to VM

gcloud compute ssh my-vm --zone=us-central1-a

Stop/start

gcloud compute instances stop my-vm --zone=us-central1-a gcloud compute instances start my-vm --zone=us-central1-a


---

## THE EXACT PROMPT — Cloud Run

List services

gcloud run services list

Deploy from source

gcloud run deploy my-service --source . --region=us-central1

Deploy container

gcloud run deploy my-service
--image=gcr.io/PROJECT/IMAGE
--region=us-central1
--allow-unauthenticated

View logs

gcloud run services logs read my-service --region=us-central1


---

## THE EXACT PROMPT — Cloud Storage

List buckets

gcloud storage buckets list

Create bucket

gcloud storage buckets create gs://my-bucket --location=us-central1

Upload/download

gcloud storage cp local-file.txt gs://my-bucket/ gcloud storage cp gs://my-bucket/file.txt ./

Sync directory

gcloud storage rsync -r ./local-dir gs://my-bucket/remote-dir


---

## Essential Commands

| Service | List | Create | Delete |
|---------|------|--------|--------|
| Compute | `gcloud compute instances list` | `gcloud compute instances create` | `gcloud compute instances delete` |
| Cloud Run | `gcloud run services list` | `gcloud run deploy` | `gcloud run services delete` |
| Functions | `gcloud functions list` | `gcloud functions deploy` | `gcloud functions delete` |
| GKE | `gcloud container clusters list` | `gcloud container clusters create` | `gcloud container clusters delete` |
| Storage | `gcloud storage buckets list` | `gcloud storage buckets create` | `gcloud storage rm` |

---

## Output Formatting

```bash
# JSON output
gcloud compute instances list --format=json

# Table with specific columns
gcloud compute instances list --format="table(name,zone,status)"

# Filter results
gcloud compute instances list --filter="status=RUNNING"

# Quiet mode (no prompts)
gcloud compute instances delete my-vm --quiet

Quick Reference

gcloud cheat-sheet      # Built-in cheat sheet
gcloud interactive      # Interactive shell
gcloud --help           # General help
gcloud compute --help   # Service-specific help

AGENTS.md Blurb

Copy this to your project's AGENTS.md:

### Google Cloud CLI (gcloud)

`gcloud` is installed and authenticated.

Auth:

\`\`\`bash
gcloud auth login
gcloud auth application-default login  # For API libraries
\`\`\`

Project:

\`\`\`bash
gcloud config set project <PROJECT_ID>
\`\`\`

Enable APIs:

\`\`\`bash
gcloud services enable aiplatform.googleapis.com
gcloud services enable analyticsdata.googleapis.com
\`\`\`

Useful commands:

\`\`\`bash
gcloud projects list
gcloud services list --enabled
gcloud beta billing accounts list
\`\`\`

When to Use

Enabling APIs for Gemini, Vertex AI, or other Google services
Managing billing and cost alerts
Creating service accounts for CI/CD
Deploying containers to Cloud Run
Managing GKE clusters

References

Topic	Reference
All services	SERVICES.md
IAM & Security	IAM.md