---

name: gcloud description: "Google Cloud Platform CLI - manage GCP resources including Compute Engine, Cloud Run, GKE, Cloud Functions, Storage, BigQuery, and more."

GCloud Skill

Use the gcloud CLI to manage Google Cloud Platform resources and services.

Authentication

Check current auth:

gcloud auth list

Login interactively:

gcloud auth login

Login with service account:

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

Application default credentials:

gcloud auth application-default login

Project & Configuration

List projects:

gcloud projects list

Set default project:

gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

Show current config:

gcloud config list

Create named configuration:

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

Set default region/zone:

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

Compute Engine (VMs)

List instances:

gcloud compute instances list

Create instance:

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

SSH to instance:

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

Stop/start instance:

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

Delete instance:

gcloud compute instances delete my-vm --zone=us-central1-a

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

Update traffic split:

gcloud run services update-traffic my-service \
  --to-revisions=LATEST=100 \
  --region=us-central1

Cloud Functions

List functions:

gcloud functions list

Deploy function (2nd gen):

gcloud functions deploy my-function \
  --gen2 \
  --runtime=nodejs20 \
  --region=us-central1 \
  --trigger-http \
  --entry-point=handler \
  --source=.

View logs:

gcloud functions logs read my-function --region=us-central1

Delete function:

gcloud functions delete my-function --region=us-central1

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

List clusters:

gcloud container clusters list

Get credentials for kubectl:

gcloud container clusters get-credentials my-cluster \
  --zone=us-central1-a

Create cluster:

gcloud container clusters create my-cluster \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --num-nodes=3

Resize node pool:

gcloud container clusters resize my-cluster \
  --node-pool=default-pool \
  --num-nodes=5 \
  --zone=us-central1-a

Cloud Storage

List buckets:

gcloud storage buckets list

Create bucket:

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

List objects:

gcloud storage ls gs://my-bucket/

Copy files:

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

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

# Recursive
gcloud storage cp -r ./local-dir gs://my-bucket/

Sync directory:

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

Cloud SQL

List instances:

gcloud sql instances list

Create instance:

gcloud sql instances create my-instance \
  --database-version=POSTGRES_15 \
  --tier=db-f1-micro \
  --region=us-central1

Connect via proxy:

gcloud sql connect my-instance --user=postgres

Create database:

gcloud sql databases create mydb --instance=my-instance

BigQuery

List datasets:

bq ls

Run query:

bq query --use_legacy_sql=false 'SELECT * FROM dataset.table LIMIT 10'

Create dataset:

bq mk --dataset my_dataset

Load data:

bq load --source_format=CSV my_dataset.my_table gs://bucket/data.csv

Pub/Sub

List topics:

gcloud pubsub topics list

Create topic:

gcloud pubsub topics create my-topic

Publish message:

gcloud pubsub topics publish my-topic --message="Hello"

Create subscription:

gcloud pubsub subscriptions create my-sub --topic=my-topic

Pull messages:

gcloud pubsub subscriptions pull my-sub --auto-ack

Secret Manager

List secrets:

gcloud secrets list

Create secret:

echo -n "my-secret-value" | gcloud secrets create my-secret --data-file=-

Access secret:

gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=my-secret

Add new version:

echo -n "new-value" | gcloud secrets versions add my-secret --data-file=-

IAM

List service accounts:

gcloud iam service-accounts list

Create service account:

gcloud iam service-accounts create my-sa \
  --display-name="My Service Account"

Create key:

gcloud iam service-accounts keys create key.json \
  --iam-account=my-sa@PROJECT.iam.gserviceaccount.com

Add IAM binding:

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \
  --member="serviceAccount:my-sa@PROJECT.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
  --role="roles/storage.admin"

Cloud Build

Submit build:

gcloud builds submit --tag gcr.io/PROJECT/IMAGE

List builds:

gcloud builds list

View build logs:

gcloud builds log BUILD_ID

Artifact Registry

List repositories:

gcloud artifacts repositories list

Configure Docker:

gcloud auth configure-docker us-central1-docker.pkg.dev

Logging

Read logs:

gcloud logging read "resource.type=cloud_run_revision" --limit=50

Tail logs:

gcloud logging tail "resource.type=gce_instance"

App Engine

Deploy app:

gcloud app deploy

View logs:

gcloud app logs tail

Browse app:

gcloud app browse

Useful Flags

Format as JSON:

gcloud compute instances list --format=json

Format as 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

Cheat Sheet

Quick reference:

gcloud cheat-sheet

Interactive shell:

gcloud interactive