The gcloud CLI cheat sheet

A roster of go-to commands for the Google Cloud CLI, the primary command-line tool for Google Cloud.

(Also included: introductory primer, understanding commands, and a printable PDF.)

Cheat sheet

Getting started

Get going with the gcloud CLI.

• gcloud init: Initialize, authorize, and configure the gcloud CLI.
• gcloud version: Display version and installed components.
• gcloud components install: Install specific components.
• gcloud components update: Update your gcloud CLI to the latest version.
• gcloud config set project: Set a default Google Cloud project to work on.
• gcloud info: Display current gcloud CLI environment details.

Help

gcloud CLI is happy to help.

• gcloud help: Search the gcloud CLI reference documents for specific terms.
• gcloud feedback: Provide feedback to the gcloud CLI team.
• gcloud topic: Supplementary help material for non-command topics like accessibility, filtering, and formatting.

Personalization

Make the gcloud CLI your own; personalize your configuration with properties.

• gcloud config set: Define a property (like compute/zone) for the current configuration.
• gcloud config get: Fetch the value of a gcloud CLI property.
• gcloud config list: Display all the properties for the current configuration.
• gcloud config configurations create: Create a new named configuration.
• gcloud config configurations list: Display a list of all available configurations.
• gcloud config configurations activate: Switch to an existing named configuration.

Authorization and Credentials

Grant and revoke authorization to the gcloud CLI and manage credentials.

• gcloud auth login: Authorize Google Cloud access for the gcloud CLI with Google Cloud user credentials and set the current account as active.
• gcloud auth activate-service-account: Authorize Google Cloud access similar to gcloud auth login but with service account credentials.
• gcloud auth application-default: Manage your Application Default Credentials (ADC) for Cloud Client Libraries.
• gcloud auth list: List all credentialed accounts.
• gcloud auth print-access-token: Display the current account's access token.
• gcloud auth revoke: Remove access credentials for an account.

Projects

Manage project access policies.

• gcloud projects describe: Display metadata for a project (including its ID).
• gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding: Add an IAM policy binding to a specified project.

IAM

Configuring Identity and Access Management (IAM) preferences and service accounts.

• gcloud iam list-grantable-roles: List IAM grantable roles for a resource.
• gcloud iam roles create: Create a custom role for a project or org.
• gcloud iam service-accounts create: Create a service account for a project.
• gcloud iam service-accounts add-iam-policy-binding: Add an IAM policy binding to a service account.
• gcloud iam service-accounts set-iam-policy-binding: Replace existing IAM policy binding.
• gcloud iam service-accounts keys list: List a service account's keys.

Docker & Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

Manage containerized applications on Kubernetes.

• gcloud auth configure-docker: Register the gcloud CLI as a Docker credential helper.
• gcloud container clusters create: Create a cluster to run GKE containers.
• gcloud container clusters list: List clusters for running GKE containers.
• gcloud container clusters get-credentials: Update kubeconfig to get kubectl to use a GKE cluster.
• gcloud container images list-tags: List tag and digest metadata for a container image.

Virtual Machines & Compute Engine

Create, run, and manage VMs on Google Cloud infrastructure.

• gcloud compute zones list: List Compute Engine zones.
• gcloud compute instances create: Create a VM instance.
• gcloud compute instances describe: Display a VM instance's details.
• gcloud compute instances list: List all VM instances in a project.
• gcloud compute disks snapshot: Create snapshot of persistent disks.
• gcloud compute snapshots describe: Display a snapshot's details.
• gcloud compute snapshots delete: Delete a snapshot.
• gcloud compute ssh: Connect to a VM instance by using SSH.

Serverless & App Engine

Build highly scalable applications on a fully managed serverless platform

• gcloud app deploy: Deploy your app's code and configuration to the App Engine server.
• gcloud app versions list: List all versions of all services deployed to the App Engine server.
• gcloud app browse: Open the current app in a web browser.
• gcloud app create: Create an App Engine app within your current project.