Cloud Shell & the gcloud CLI

By the end of this lesson you will be able to open Cloud Shell, run gcloud commands, switch between projects with named configurations, enable APIs, and print exactly the output you need with --format and --filter. These skills are used in every later lesson.

Cloud Shell: a terminal in your browser

Cloud Shell is a free Linux terminal that opens inside the console. Click the terminal icon at the top right of the console. After a few seconds a panel opens at the bottom with a prompt like this:

priya@cloudshell:~ (jaipur-coaching-dev)$

The part in brackets is your current project. Behind the panel is a small temporary virtual machine that Google runs for you. It comes ready with:

• the gcloud CLI, already signed in as you;
• tools such as Git, Docker, Python, pip, npm, Vim and Nano;
• a 5 GB persistent home directory ($HOME) that survives between sessions;
• Cloud Shell Editor, a browser code editor opened with the "Open Editor" button.

Remember three limits. Files outside $HOME disappear when the session ends. A session ends after about an hour of inactivity. If you do not open Cloud Shell for 120 days, Google deletes your home directory (after an email warning). There is also a weekly usage limit, described on the Cloud Shell limits page.

Cloud Shell is like a cyber café computer that already has all your software installed and keeps one locker ($HOME) for you. Do not leave valuables on the desk.

Installing gcloud on your own computer

For daily work you may prefer gcloud on your laptop. Download the installer for Windows, macOS or Linux from the official install page, then run:

gcloud init

gcloud init opens a browser to sign in, then asks you to choose a project and, optionally, a default region. Three sign-in commands are worth knowing:

gcloud auth list

     Credentialed Accounts
ACTIVE  ACCOUNT
*       priya@example.com

To set the active account, run:
    $ gcloud config set account `ACCOUNT`

The star marks the active account.

How a gcloud command is built

Every command follows the same shape, like a postal address that goes from big to small:

gcloud  compute     instances  create  web-1   --zone=asia-south1-a
        (group)     (group)    (verb)  (name)  (flag)

Groups match products: compute, run, storage, sql, iam, projects and so on. Some features first appear in gcloud beta or gcloud alpha. Prefer the normal commands for anything important. When you are lost, add --help to any command.

Step by step: properties and configurations

gcloud keeps settings called properties, such as your project and default region.

Step 1. Set the project and region:

gcloud config set project jaipur-coaching-dev
gcloud config set compute/region asia-south1

Updated property [core/project].
Updated property [compute/region].

Step 2. Check what is set:

gcloud config list

[compute]
region = asia-south1
[core]
account = priya@example.com
disable_usage_reporting = True
project = jaipur-coaching-dev

Your active configuration is: [default]

Step 3. Create a second named configuration for a college lab project. A configuration is a saved set of properties, like having two SIM cards in one phone and switching between them.

gcloud config configurations create college
gcloud config set project college-lab-2026
gcloud config configurations list

Created [college].
Activated [college].
Updated property [core/project].
NAME     IS_ACTIVE  ACCOUNT            PROJECT              COMPUTE_DEFAULT_ZONE  COMPUTE_DEFAULT_REGION
college  True       priya@example.com  college-lab-2026
default  False      priya@example.com  jaipur-coaching-dev                        asia-south1

Step 4. Switch back whenever you like with gcloud config configurations activate default. This prevents the classic mistake of running a command in the wrong project.

Enabling APIs

Most products must be enabled in a project before you use them. Enable several at once:

gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com run.googleapis.com
gcloud services list --enabled --filter="name:run.googleapis.com"

Operation "operations/acf.p2-987654321098-4c1f3d2e-7a8b-4f60-9e21-0d5c6b7a8f90" finished successfully.
NAME                TITLE
run.googleapis.com  Cloud Run Admin API

If you forget, gcloud usually offers to enable the API for you, or shows an error that names the API to enable.

Shaping output with --format and --filter

gcloud output is a table by default. Two flags make it far more useful:

• --filter keeps only matching rows, like a filter on a spreadsheet column.
• --format changes the layout: table(...), json, yaml, csv(...) or value(...).

gcloud compute instances list \
  --filter="status=RUNNING AND zone:asia-south1" \
  --format="table(name, zone.basename(), status)"

NAME   ZONE           STATUS
web-1  asia-south1-a  RUNNING
web-2  asia-south1-b  RUNNING

The basename() part shortens a long zone URL to just asia-south1-a. Use value(...) when you want to put a result into a shell variable:

PROJECT_NUMBER=$(gcloud projects describe jaipur-coaching-dev --format="value(projectNumber)")
echo "$PROJECT_NUMBER"

987654321098

Common mistakes

• Running commands in the wrong project. Check gcloud config list or the Cloud Shell prompt first. Named configurations help.
• Saving work outside $HOME in Cloud Shell. It is lost when the session ends.
• Mixing up gcloud auth login and gcloud auth application-default login. The first is for gcloud itself; the second is for code and tools on your machine.
• Parsing table output in scripts. Use --format="value(...)" or json instead; tables can change.

Key points

• Cloud Shell is a browser terminal with gcloud ready, a 5 GB persistent $HOME, and temporary everything else.
• Install gcloud locally from the official page and start with gcloud init.
• Commands follow gcloud GROUP ... VERB NAME --flags; add --help when unsure.
• Properties and named configurations store your project, account and region.
• --filter picks rows and --format controls the layout; use value(...) in scripts.

gcloud config configurations create dev
gcloud config set project kabir-shop-dev
gcloud config set compute/region asia-south1

gcloud config configurations create prod
gcloud config set project kabir-shop-prod
gcloud config set compute/region asia-south1

gcloud compute instances list --filter="status=RUNNING" --format="value(name)"