gcloud-cli

gcloud CLI Reference

Complete gcloud command reference covering 121 Google Cloud services and 5090 GA commands. Every command is documented from the gcloud CLI's own help system (version-pinned, official) with full flags, value types, choices, defaults, synopses, and examples.

How to use this skill

1. Find the service in the index below and open its overview.md — it has the common workflows, a command-group map, service-specific tips, and links to the official Google documentation the content was sourced from.
2. For a specific command's exhaustive flags, open the linked command-group file (e.g. references/compute/instances.md) or scan index.md for the one-line command list.
3. For output shaping, filtering, projects, auth, and other cross-service behavior, see General gcloud conventions below.

Start by reading the overview.md for the service you need.

Service index

Service	Reference	Scope	Official docs
access-approval	access-approval/overview.md	manage Access Approval requests and settings — requests, service-account, settings	docs · ref
access-context-manager	access-context-manager/overview.md	manage Access Context Manager resources — authorized-orgs, cloud-bindings, levels, perimeters, policies, supported-services	docs · ref
active-directory	active-directory/overview.md	manage Managed Microsoft AD resources — domains, operations, peerings	docs · ref
ai	ai/overview.md	manage entities in Vertex AI — custom-jobs, endpoints, hp-tuning-jobs, index-endpoints, indexes, model-garden, model-monitoring-jobs, models	docs · ref
ai-platform	ai-platform/overview.md	manage AI Platform jobs and models — jobs, local, models, operations, versions	docs · ref
alloydb	alloydb/overview.md	create and manage AlloyDB databases — backups, clusters, instances, operations, users	docs · ref
anthos	anthos/overview.md	anthos command Group — auth, config	docs · ref
api-gateway	api-gateway/overview.md	manage Cloud API Gateway resources — api-configs, apis, gateways, operations	docs · ref
apigee	apigee/overview.md	manage Apigee resources — apis, applications, deployments, developers, environments, organizations, products	docs · ref
app	app/overview.md	manage your App Engine deployments — domain-mappings, firewall-rules, instances, logs, operations, regions, runtimes, services	docs · ref
apphub	apphub/overview.md	manage App Hub resources — applications, boundary, discovered-services, discovered-workloads, locations, operations, service-projects	docs · ref
artifacts	artifacts/overview.md	manage Artifact Registry resources — apt, attachments, docker, files, generic, go, locations, operations	docs · ref
asset	asset/overview.md	manage the Cloud Asset Inventory — feeds, operations, saved-queries	docs · ref
assured	assured/overview.md	read and manipulate Assured Workloads data controls — operations, workloads	docs · ref
audit-manager	audit-manager/overview.md	enroll resources, audit workloads and generate reports — audit-reports, audit-scopes, enrollments, operations	docs · ref
auth	auth/overview.md	manage oauth2 credentials for the Google Cloud CLI — application-default, enterprise-certificate-config	docs · ref
backup-dr	backup-dr/overview.md	manage Backup and DR resources — backup-plan-associations, backup-plan-revisions, backup-plans, backup-vaults, backups, data-source-references, data-sources, locations	docs · ref
batch	batch/overview.md	manage Batch resources — jobs, tasks	docs · ref
beyondcorp	beyondcorp/overview.md	manage Beyondcorp resources — operations, security-gateways	docs · ref
bigtable	bigtable/overview.md	manage your Cloud Bigtable storage — app-profiles, authorized-views, backups, clusters, hot-tablets, instances, logical-views, materialized-views	docs · ref
billing	billing/overview.md	manage billing accounts and associate them with projects — accounts, budgets, projects	docs · ref
bms	bms/overview.md	manage Bare Metal Solution resources — instances, networks, nfs-shares, operations, os-images, ssh-keys, volumes	docs · ref
bq	bq/overview.md	manage Bq resources — migration-workflows	docs · ref
builds	builds/overview.md	create and manage builds for Google Cloud Build — connections, repositories, triggers, worker-pools	docs · ref
certificate-manager	certificate-manager/overview.md	manage SSL certificates for your Google Cloud projects — certificates, dns-authorizations, issuance-configs, maps, operations, trust-configs	docs · ref
cloud-shell	cloud-shell/overview.md	manage Google Cloud Shell	docs · ref
cloudlocationfinder	cloudlocationfinder/overview.md	manage Cloudlocationfinder resources — cloud-locations	docs · ref
colab	colab/overview.md	manage Colab Enterprise resources — executions, runtime-templates, runtimes, schedules	docs · ref
compliance-manager	compliance-manager/overview.md	manage Compliance Manager resources — cloud-control-deployments, cloud-controls, framework-deployments, frameworks, operations	docs · ref
components	components/overview.md	list, install, update, or remove Google Cloud CLI components — repositories	docs · ref
composer	composer/overview.md	create and manage Cloud Composer Environments — environments, operations	docs · ref
compute	compute/overview.md	create and manipulate Compute Engine resources — accelerator-types, addresses, advice, backend-buckets, backend-services, commitments, diagnose, disk-types	docs · ref
config	config/overview.md	view and edit Google Cloud CLI properties — configurations	docs · ref
container	container/overview.md	deploy and manage clusters of machines for running containers — ai, attached, aws, azure, bare-metal, binauthz, clusters, fleet	docs · ref
data-catalog	data-catalog/overview.md	manage Data Catalog resources — entries, entry-groups, tag-templates, tags, taxonomies	docs · ref
database-migration	database-migration/overview.md	manage Database Migration Service resources — connection-profiles, conversion-workspaces, migration-jobs, objects, operations, private-connections	docs · ref
dataflow	dataflow/overview.md	manage Google Cloud Dataflow resources — flex-template, jobs, snapshots, yaml	docs · ref
dataplex	dataplex/overview.md	manage Dataplex resources — aspect-types, assets, content, datascans, encryption-config, entries, entry-groups, entry-types	docs · ref
dataproc	dataproc/overview.md	create and manage Google Cloud Dataproc clusters and jobs — autoscaling-policies, batches, clusters, jobs, node-groups, operations, workflow-templates	docs · ref
datastore	datastore/overview.md	manage your Cloud Datastore resources — indexes, operations	docs · ref
datastream	datastream/overview.md	manage Cloud Datastream resources — connection-profiles, locations, objects, operations, private-connections, routes, streams	docs · ref
deploy	deploy/overview.md	create and manage Cloud Deploy resources — automation-runs, automations, custom-target-types, delivery-pipelines, deploy-policies, job-runs, releases, rollouts	docs · ref
deployment-manager	deployment-manager/overview.md	manage deployments of cloud resources — deployments, manifests, operations, resources, types	docs · ref
design-center	design-center/overview.md	manage Application Design Center resources — locations, operations, spaces	docs · ref
developer-connect	developer-connect/overview.md	manage Developer Connect resources — connections, insights-configs, operations	docs · ref
dns	dns/overview.md	manage your Cloud DNS managed-zones and record-sets — dns-keys, managed-zones, operations, policies, project-info, record-sets, response-policies	docs · ref
domains	domains/overview.md	manage domains for your Google Cloud projects — registrations	docs · ref
edge-cache	edge-cache/overview.md	manage Media CDN resources — keysets, operations, origins, services	docs · ref
edge-cloud	edge-cloud/overview.md	manage edge-cloud resources — container, networking	docs · ref
emulators	emulators/overview.md	set up your local development environment using emulators — firestore, spanner	docs · ref
endpoints	endpoints/overview.md	create, enable and manage API services — configs, operations, services	docs · ref
essential-contacts	essential-contacts/overview.md	manage Essential Contacts	docs · ref
eventarc	eventarc/overview.md	manage Eventarc resources — audit-logs-provider, channel-connections, channels, enrollments, google-api-sources, google-channels, locations, message-buses	docs · ref
filestore	filestore/overview.md	create and manipulate Filestore resources — backups, instances, locations, operations, regions, zones	docs · ref
firebase	firebase/overview.md	work with Google Firebase — test	docs · ref
firestore	firestore/overview.md	manage your Cloud Firestore resources — backups, databases, fields, indexes, locations, operations, user-creds	docs · ref
functions	functions/overview.md	manage Google Cloud Functions — event-types, logs, regions, runtimes	docs · ref
gemini	gemini/overview.md	manage resources associated with Gemini Code Assist and Gemini Cloud Assist — code-repository-indexes, code-tools-settings, data-sharing-with-google-settings, gemini-gcp-enablement-settings, logging-settings, operations, release-channel-settings	docs · ref
healthcare	healthcare/overview.md	manage Cloud Healthcare resources — consent-stores, datasets, dicom-stores, fhir-stores, hl7v2-stores, operations	docs · ref
iam	iam/overview.md	manage IAM service accounts and keys — oauth-clients, policies, policy-bindings, principal-access-boundary-policies, roles, service-accounts, simulator, workforce-pools	docs · ref
iap	iap/overview.md	manage IAP policies — oauth-brands, oauth-clients, settings, tcp, web	docs · ref
identity	identity/overview.md	manage Cloud Identity Groups and Memberships resources	docs · ref
ids	ids/overview.md	manage Cloud IDS — endpoints	docs · ref
immersive-stream	immersive-stream/overview.md	manage Immersive Stream resources — xr	docs · ref
infra-manager	infra-manager/overview.md	manage Infra Manager resources — automigrationconfig, deployments, previews, resource-changes, resource-drifts, resources, revisions, terraform-versions	docs · ref
kms	kms/overview.md	manage cryptographic keys in the cloud — autokey-config, ekm-config, ekm-connections, import-jobs, inventory, key-handles, keyrings, keys	docs · ref
logging	logging/overview.md	manage Cloud Logging — buckets, links, locations, logs, metrics, operations, resource-descriptors, scopes	docs · ref
looker	looker/overview.md	manage Looker resources — backups, instances, operations, regions	docs · ref
lustre	lustre/overview.md	manage Lustre resources — instances, operations	docs · ref
managed-kafka	managed-kafka/overview.md	administer Managed Service for Apache Kafka clusters, topics, and consumer groups — acls, clusters, connect-clusters, connectors, consumer-groups, operations, topics	docs · ref
memcache	memcache/overview.md	manage Cloud Memorystore Memcached resources — instances, operations, regions	docs · ref
memorystore	memorystore/overview.md	manage Memorystore resources — backup-collections, instances, locations, operations	docs · ref
metastore	metastore/overview.md	manage Dataproc Metastore resources — federations, locations, operations, services	docs · ref
migration	migration/overview.md	the root group for various Cloud Migration teams — vms	docs · ref
ml	ml/overview.md	use Google Cloud machine learning capabilities — language, speech, video, vision	docs · ref
model-armor	model-armor/overview.md	model Armor is a service offering LLM-agnostic security and AI safety measures to mitigate risks associated with large language models (LLMs) — floorsettings, templates	ref
monitoring	monitoring/overview.md	manage Cloud Monitoring dashboards — dashboards, policies, snoozes, uptime	docs · ref
netapp	netapp/overview.md	create and manipulate Cloud NetApp Files resources — active-directories, backup-policies, backup-vaults, host-groups, kms-configs, locations, operations, storage-pools	docs · ref
network-connectivity	network-connectivity/overview.md	manage Network Connectivity resources — hubs, internal-ranges, locations, multicloud-data-transfer-configs, multicloud-data-transfer-supported-services, operations, policy-based-routes, regional-endpoints	docs · ref
network-management	network-management/overview.md	manage Network Management resources — connectivity-tests, operations, vpc-flow-logs-configs	docs · ref
network-security	network-security/overview.md	manage Network Security resources — address-groups, authorization-policies, authz-policies, backend-authentication-configs, client-tls-policies, dns-threat-detectors, firewall-endpoint-associations, firewall-endpoints	docs · ref
network-services	network-services/overview.md	manage Network Services resources — endpoint-policies, gateways, grpc-routes, http-routes, meshes, multicast-consumer-associations, multicast-domain-activations, multicast-domain-groups	docs · ref
notebooks	notebooks/overview.md	notebooks Command Group — environments, instances, locations, runtimes	docs · ref
observability	observability/overview.md	manage Observability resources — scopes	docs · ref
oracle-database	oracle-database/overview.md	manage Oracle Database resources — autonomous-database-backups, autonomous-database-character-sets, autonomous-databases, autonomous-db-versions, cloud-exadata-infrastructures, cloud-vm-clusters, database-character-sets, databases	docs · ref
org-policies	org-policies/overview.md	create and manage Organization Policies	docs · ref
organizations	organizations/overview.md	create and manage Google Cloud Platform Organizations	docs · ref
pam	pam/overview.md	manage Privileged Access Manager entitlements and grants — entitlements, grants, operations	docs · ref
parametermanager	parametermanager/overview.md	parameter Manager is a single source of truth to store, access and manage the lifecycle of your application parameters	docs · ref
policy-intelligence	policy-intelligence/overview.md	a platform to help better understand, use, and manage policies at scale — simulate, troubleshoot-policy	docs · ref
policy-troubleshoot	policy-troubleshoot/overview.md	troubleshoot Google Cloud Platform policies	docs · ref
privateca	privateca/overview.md	manage private Certificate Authorities on Google Cloud — certificates, locations, pools, roots, subordinates, templates	docs · ref
projects	projects/overview.md	create and manage project access policies	docs · ref
publicca	publicca/overview.md	manage accounts for Google Trust Services' Certificate Authority — external-account-keys	docs · ref
pubsub	pubsub/overview.md	manage Cloud Pub/Sub topics, subscriptions, and snapshots — lite-operations, lite-reservations, lite-subscriptions, lite-topics, message-transforms, schemas, snapshots, subscriptions	docs · ref
recaptcha	recaptcha/overview.md	manage reCAPTCHA Enterprise Keys — firewall-policies, keys	docs · ref
recommender	recommender/overview.md	manage Cloud recommendations and recommendation rules — insight-type-config, insights, recommendations, recommender-config	docs · ref
redis	redis/overview.md	manage Cloud Memorystore Redis resources — clusters, instances, operations, regions, zones	docs · ref
resource-manager	resource-manager/overview.md	manage Cloud Resources — capabilities, folders, org-policies, tags	docs · ref
run	run/overview.md	manage your Cloud Run applications — domain-mappings, jobs, multi-region-services, regions, revisions, services	docs · ref
scc	scc/overview.md	manage Cloud SCC resources — assets, bqexports, custom-modules, findings, iac-validation-reports, manage, muteconfigs, notifications	docs · ref
scheduler	scheduler/overview.md	manage Cloud Scheduler jobs and schedules — cmek-config, jobs, locations, operations	docs · ref
secrets	secrets/overview.md	manage secrets on Google Cloud — locations, replication, versions	docs · ref
service-directory	service-directory/overview.md	command groups for Service Directory — endpoints, locations, namespaces, services	docs · ref
service-extensions	service-extensions/overview.md	manage Service Extensions resources — authz-extensions, lb-edge-extensions, lb-route-extensions, lb-traffic-extensions, wasm-plugin-versions, wasm-plugins	docs · ref
services	services/overview.md	list, enable and disable APIs and services — api-keys, operations, peered-dns-domains, vpc-peerings	docs · ref
source	source/overview.md	cloud git repository commands — project-configs, repos	docs · ref
source-manager	source-manager/overview.md	manage Secure Source Manager resources — instances, locations, operations, repos	docs · ref
spanner	spanner/overview.md	command groups for Cloud Spanner — backup-schedules, backups, databases, instance-configs, instance-partitions, instances, operations, rows	docs · ref
sql	sql/overview.md	create and manage Google Cloud SQL databases — backups, databases, export, flags, import, instances, operations, ssl	docs · ref
storage	storage/overview.md	create and manage Cloud Storage buckets and objects — batch-operations, buckets, folders, hmac, insights, intelligence-configs, managed-folders, objects	docs · ref
tasks	tasks/overview.md	manage Cloud Tasks queues and tasks — cmek-config, locations, queues	docs · ref
telco-automation	telco-automation/overview.md	manage Telco Automation resources — operations, orchestration-cluster	docs · ref
topic	topic/overview.md	gcloud supplementary help	docs · ref
transcoder	transcoder/overview.md	manage Transcoder jobs and job templates — jobs, templates	docs · ref
transfer	transfer/overview.md	manage Transfer Service jobs, operations, and agents — agent-pools, agents, jobs, operations	docs · ref
vmware	vmware/overview.md	manage Google Cloud VMware Engine resources — announcements, datastores, dns-bind-permission, locations, network-peerings, network-policies, networks, node-types	docs · ref
workbench	workbench/overview.md	workbench Command Group — instances	docs · ref
workflows	workflows/overview.md	manage your Cloud Workflows resources — executions	docs · ref
workspace-add-ons	workspace-add-ons/overview.md	manage Google Workspace Add-ons resources — deployments	docs · ref
workstations	workstations/overview.md	manage Cloud Workstations resources — clusters, configs	docs · ref

Release tracks: this reference covers GA commands. Many services also expose additional commands under gcloud beta <service> and gcloud alpha <service>; each service overview notes where important capabilities are beta/alpha-only.

Top-level CLI commands (not services)

These manage the CLI itself rather than cloud resources:

• gcloud init — interactive first-time setup (auth + default project/region).
• gcloud auth — manage credentials. See auth/overview.md.
• gcloud config — view/set CLI properties (project, region, zone, account). See config/overview.md.
• gcloud components — install/update/remove CLI components. See components/overview.md.
• gcloud info — show CLI environment/diagnostics. gcloud version — show component versions.

---

General gcloud conventions

These behaviors apply across every gcloud command. (Run gcloud topic <name> locally for the authoritative deep-dive on any of these — e.g. gcloud topic formats, gcloud topic filters.)

Global flags (available on every command)

--project=PROJECT_ID              Override the active project for this command
--account=ACCOUNT                 Use a specific authenticated account
--impersonate-service-account=SA  Run as a service account via short-lived credentials
--billing-project=PROJECT_ID      Project to bill/quota for user-project-enabled APIs
--configuration=NAME              Use a named gcloud configuration
--format=FORMAT                   Output format (see below)
--filter=EXPRESSION               Client-side resource filtering (see below)
--sort-by=FIELDS                  Sort list output by resource fields (e.g. --sort-by=~creationTimestamp)
--limit=N                         Max resources to list
--page-size=N                     Server page size for list calls
--quiet, -q                       Disable interactive prompts; accept defaults (use in scripts)
--verbosity=LEVEL                 debug|info|warning|error|critical (default warning)
--flags-file=YAML                 Read flags from a YAML file
--flatten=KEY                     Flatten a repeated/nested field into separate records
--log-http                        Log raw HTTP requests/responses (debugging)
--user-output-enabled=false       Suppress normal output (keep --format output)
--help                            Full help for the command

Output formats (--format)

By default gcloud pretty-prints. Override with --format:

gcloud compute instances list --format=json          # full JSON (machine-readable)
gcloud compute instances list --format=yaml          # YAML
gcloud compute instances list --format=text          # flat key: value lines (great for discovering field names)
gcloud compute instances list --format='table(name, zone, status)'   # custom table columns
gcloud compute instances list --format='value(name)'                 # bare values, one per line (scripting)
gcloud compute instances list --format='csv(name,zone,status)'       # CSV

• value(...) is the scripting workhorse — no headers, tab/newline separated:

  for i in $(gcloud compute instances list --format='value(name)'); do echo "$i"; done
  

• Discover available fields with --format=text or --format=json on a single resource:

  gcloud compute instances list --limit=1 --format=text
  

• Format attributes/transforms exist too, e.g. --format='table(name, creationTimestamp.date())'.

Filtering (--filter)

Client-side selection of listed resources. Combine with AND, OR, NOT, parentheses.

gcloud compute instances list --filter="machineType:f1-micro"          # field contains
gcloud compute instances list --filter="zone ~ us"                     # regex match (~)
gcloud compute instances list --filter="status=RUNNING"                # equality
gcloud compute instances list --filter="tags.items=(web,prod)"         # any of
gcloud compute instances list --filter="tags.items=web AND -status=TERMINATED"
gcloud compute instances list --filter="creationTimestamp>2024-01-01"

Operators: : (contains/has-key), =/!=, </<=/>/>=, ~/!~ (regex). --filter is applied by the client after retrieval; some commands also support a server-side filter flag.

Projects, regions, and configurations

gcloud config set project MY_PROJECT          # default project for all commands
gcloud config set compute/region us-central1  # default region
gcloud config set compute/zone us-central1-a  # default zone
gcloud config list                            # show active config
gcloud config configurations create staging   # named config (switch with --configuration or activate)
gcloud config configurations activate staging

Precedence: explicit --project/--region/--zone flag → active configuration property → environment variable (CLOUDSDK_CORE_PROJECT, CLOUDSDK_COMPUTE_REGION, …).

Authentication

gcloud auth login                              # user login (browser)
gcloud auth list                               # show credentialed accounts; * marks active
gcloud auth application-default login          # set up Application Default Credentials (ADC) for client libraries/Terraform
gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=key.json   # authenticate as a service account
gcloud auth print-access-token                 # short-lived OAuth token (e.g. for curl)

Prefer [email protected] over downloading service-account keys when possible.

Enabling APIs

Most services require their API to be enabled on the project first:

gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com
gcloud services list --enabled

Each service overview.md notes the API to enable.

Scripting tips

set -euo pipefail
PROJECT=$(gcloud config get-value project)
gcloud ... --quiet --format='value(...)'        # no prompts, parseable output

• gcloud exits non-zero on error — check $? or rely on set -e.
• Use --quiet to auto-confirm destructive operations in automation.
• Many long-running commands accept --async (return immediately with an operation) and have a matching operations subgroup or --wait/wait command to poll for completion.

Release tracks: GA / beta / alpha

The same command often exists on multiple tracks:

gcloud compute instances create ...        # GA  (documented in this skill)
gcloud beta compute instances create ...   # beta: newer features, may change
gcloud alpha compute instances create ...  # alpha: earliest, may change/break

This skill documents the GA surface. When a capability is beta/alpha-only, the service overview says so; prepend beta or alpha to the command (install the component if prompted).

Sourcing & accuracy

All command and flag data is generated directly from the gcloud CLI's own help system (gcloud <command> --help, the canonical source Google publishes at cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference), pinned to the installed SDK version. Per-service conceptual docs, quickstarts, and how-to guides are linked from each service's overview.md and sources.md (official cloud.google.com sources only).