Mastering Gcloud Commands

Google Cloud CLI Expert Skill

A unified tool to manage Google Cloud resources from the terminal. This guide focuses on gcloud CLI patterns, practical examples, and production deployment workflows.

Contents

• Quick Start
• When Not to Use
• Decision Trees
• Global Flags
• Environment Variables
• Workflows
• Reference Files
• Scripts
• Troubleshooting
• Best Practices
• Common Mistakes
• Pre-Deployment Checklist

Quick Start

# Verify installation
gcloud --version

# Interactive login
gcloud auth login

# Set default project and region
gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID
gcloud config set compute/region us-central1

# Verify identity
gcloud auth list
gcloud config list

When Not to Use

• Terraform/Pulumi — This skill covers gcloud CLI, not Infrastructure as Code tools
• GCP Console UI — CLI-focused; use GCP documentation for console walkthroughs
• AWS/Azure CLI — Use mastering-aws-cli or azure-cli skills instead
• Client libraries — For Python/Go/Java SDK code, use programming documentation
• Kubernetes kubectl — For K8s cluster operations, use kubectl documentation

Decision Trees

Compute & Containers

Need compute?
├── Serverless containers ──────────► Cloud Run (references/cloud-run-deployment.md)
├── Virtual machines ───────────────► GCE (gcloud compute instances)
├── Kubernetes ─────────────────────► GKE (gcloud container clusters)
└── Serverless functions ───────────► Cloud Functions (gcloud functions)

Data & Databases

Need database?
├── PostgreSQL (managed) ───────────► AlloyDB (references/alloydb-management.md)
├── MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQL Server ────► Cloud SQL (gcloud sql instances)
├── NoSQL document ─────────────────► Firestore (references/firebase-management.md)
└── NoSQL key-value ────────────────► Bigtable (gcloud bigtable)

Networking

Need networking?
├── Custom VPC/subnets ─────────────► VPC (references/vpc-networking.md)
├── Cloud Run → private DB ─────────► VPC Connector (references/vpc-networking.md)
├── Private Google API access ──────► Private Service Connect
└── Firewall rules ─────────────────► VPC Firewall (references/vpc-networking.md)

Security & Identity

Need security/access?
├── Users, roles, policies ─────────► IAM (references/iam-permissions.md)
├── GitHub Actions → GCP ───────────► WIF (references/authentication.md)
├── Secrets & credentials ──────────► Secret Manager (references/secret-manager.md)
└── Service accounts ───────────────► SA (references/iam-permissions.md)

Build & Deploy

Need CI/CD?
├── GitHub Actions ─────────────────► WIF + deploy (references/cicd-integration.md)
├── Container builds ───────────────► Cloud Build (references/cicd-integration.md)
├── Container registry ─────────────► Artifact Registry (references/cicd-integration.md)
└── Deployment automation ──────────► Scripting (references/scripting-patterns.md)

Global Flags

Environment Variables

Workflows

Installation

macOS (recommended):

brew install --cask google-cloud-sdk
gcloud init

For other platforms: references/installation-macos.md, references/installation-linux.md, references/installation-windows.md

Authentication

# User login (interactive)
gcloud auth login

# Service account (automation)
gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=key.json

# Application Default Credentials
gcloud auth application-default login

# Impersonation (recommended over keys)
gcloud config set auth/impersonate_service_account SA@PROJECT.iam.gserviceaccount.com

For WIF, impersonation patterns, and ADC details, see references/authentication.md.

Multi-Account Configuration

# Create named configurations
gcloud config configurations create dev
gcloud config set project dev-project-123
gcloud config set compute/region us-west1

# Switch contexts
gcloud config configurations activate prod

# Override for single command
gcloud --configuration=prod compute instances list

For complete multi-account patterns, see references/multi-account-management.md.

Cloud Run Deployment

Phase 1: Prepare

# Verify project and region
gcloud config get-value project
gcloud config get-value compute/region

Phase 2: Build & Push (container deployments)

# Build and push to Artifact Registry
gcloud builds submit --tag REGION-docker.pkg.dev/PROJECT/REPO/IMAGE:TAG

Phase 3: Deploy (zero-traffic)

# Deploy from source (builds automatically)
gcloud run deploy SERVICE --source . --region us-central1 --no-traffic --quiet

# Or deploy from container
gcloud run deploy SERVICE --image IMAGE --region us-central1 --no-traffic --quiet

Phase 4: Validate & Shift Traffic

# Verify revision is ready
gcloud run revisions list --service=SERVICE --region=us-central1

# Shift traffic (full or canary)
gcloud run services update-traffic SERVICE --to-latest --region=us-central1
# Or canary: --to-tags canary=10

For VPC connectivity, secrets, and advanced patterns, see references/cloud-run-deployment.md.

IAM Permissions

# Grant project role
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \
  --member="user:user@example.com" \
  --role="roles/viewer"

# Grant resource role
gcloud run services add-iam-policy-binding SERVICE \
  --region=REGION \
  --member="serviceAccount:sa@PROJECT.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
  --role="roles/run.invoker"

For custom roles and governance, see references/iam-permissions.md.

Secret Manager

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

# Access secret
gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=SECRET_NAME

# Mount in Cloud Run
gcloud run deploy SERVICE --set-secrets="ENV_VAR=SECRET_NAME:latest"

For IAM bindings and rotation, see references/secret-manager.md.

VPC Networking

# Create custom VPC
gcloud compute networks create my-vpc --subnet-mode=custom

# Create subnet with Private Google Access
gcloud compute networks subnets create my-subnet \
  --network=my-vpc --region=us-central1 --range=10.0.1.0/24 \
  --enable-private-ip-google-access

# Create VPC connector for Cloud Run
gcloud compute networks vpc-access connectors create my-connector \
  --region=us-central1 --network=my-vpc --range=10.8.0.0/28

For firewall rules, peering, and Private Service Connect, see references/vpc-networking.md.

AlloyDB

# Create cluster
gcloud alloydb clusters create CLUSTER --region=us-central1 --password=PASSWORD --network=default

# Create instance
gcloud alloydb instances create INSTANCE --cluster=CLUSTER --region=us-central1 \
  --instance-type=PRIMARY --cpu-count=2

For backups and connections, see references/alloydb-management.md.

CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions with WIF (recommended):

permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read

- uses: google-github-actions/auth@v2
  with:
    workload_identity_provider: ${{ secrets.WIF_PROVIDER }}
    service_account: ${{ secrets.WIF_SERVICE_ACCOUNT }}

For Cloud Build, multi-environment, and Firebase, see references/cicd-integration.md.

Enable APIs

# Core APIs for Cloud Run deployment
gcloud services enable \
    run.googleapis.com \
    cloudbuild.googleapis.com \
    artifactregistry.googleapis.com \
    secretmanager.googleapis.com \
    iam.googleapis.com \
    iamcredentials.googleapis.com

For complete API list, see references/api-enablement.md.

Reference Files

Scripts

Troubleshooting

Quick Debug Commands

# Check configuration
gcloud config list
gcloud auth list

# Enable debug output
gcloud COMMAND --verbosity=debug --log-http

# View logs
gcloud logging read 'resource.type="cloud_run_revision"' --limit=50

Common Errors

For complete troubleshooting guide, see references/troubleshooting.md.

Best Practices

Common Mistakes

Avoid these anti-patterns:

Bad vs Good Examples:

# BAD: No region, no quiet, hardcoded project
gcloud run deploy my-service --source . --project my-project-123

# GOOD: Explicit region, quiet mode, portable
gcloud run deploy my-service \
  --source . \
  --region="${REGION:-us-central1}" \
  --project="$(gcloud config get-value project)" \
  --quiet

# BAD: Using service account key file
gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=key.json

# GOOD: Using impersonation (no key file needed)
gcloud config set auth/impersonate_service_account deploy-sa@PROJECT.iam.gserviceaccount.com

Pre-Deployment Checklist

Run before every Cloud Run deployment:

[ ] 1. Verify identity: gcloud auth list
[ ] 2. Confirm project: gcloud config get-value project
[ ] 3. Check APIs enabled: gcloud services list --enabled | grep -E "run|build|artifact"
[ ] 4. Verify SA permissions: gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID --filter="bindings.members:SA_EMAIL"
[ ] 5. Test locally: docker run -p 8080:8080 IMAGE && curl localhost:8080/health
[ ] 6. Check secrets exist: gcloud secrets list --filter="name:SECRET_NAME"
[ ] 7. Verify VPC connector (if needed): gcloud compute networks vpc-access connectors describe CONNECTOR --region=REGION
[ ] 8. Deploy with --no-traffic first: gcloud run deploy SERVICE --image=IMAGE --no-traffic
[ ] 9. Verify revision ready: gcloud run revisions list --service=SERVICE --region=REGION
[ ] 10. Shift traffic: gcloud run services update-traffic SERVICE --to-latest --region=REGION