Google Cloud CLI (gcloud)

The gcloud CLI is part of the Google Cloud SDK. It manages authentication, local configuration, and developer workflows for GCP.

When to Use

• App Engine / Cloud Run: gcloud app deploy and gcloud run deploy are the standard ways to ship code.
• Kubernetes: gcloud container clusters get-credentials is essential for GKE access.
• Auth: gcloud auth login sets up Application Default Credentials (ADC).

Quick Start

# Initialize
gcloud init

# Authenticate for local code (ADC)
gcloud auth application-default login