Google Colab CLI Authentication

When to Use

Use this skill when a user needs to authenticate, reauthenticate, verify identity, log out of, or recover an OAuth authorization flow for the Google Colab CLI. Load colab-operator as well for runtime/session operations.

Manage the local authentication lifecycle for the colab CLI, including OAuth2 re-login, PKCE authorization-code handling, identity verification, and logout. This skill covers CLI authentication only; colab auth is a separate VM-side credential flow and must not be used to fix CLI authentication errors.

First determine the authentication mode

Inspect the installed CLI before assuming a command exists:

PYTHONPATH="" colab help
PYTHONPATH="" colab version

The global --auth={oauth2,adc} option selects the CLI provider and must appear before the subcommand. In installed versions where the default is OAuth2, the token is normally cached at: