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

# Login interactively
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

Output Formatting

# 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