# Initial setup (interactive)
gcloud init
Login
gcloud auth login
gcloud auth application-default login   # For local dev with client libraries
Check current config
gcloud config list
Set project
gcloud config set project my-project-id
Set region/zone
gcloud config set compute/region europe-west1
gcloud config set compute/zone europe-west1-b
Switch between configurations
gcloud config configurations create staging
gcloud config configurations activate staging
gcloud config configurations list

# Current project and account
gcloud config get-value project
gcloud config get-value account
List projects
gcloud projects list
Describe a project
gcloud projects describe my-project-id
Set project for single command
gcloud compute instances list —project other-project

# List instances
gcloud compute instances list
Create instance
gcloud compute instances create my-vm 

—machine-type=e2-medium 

—zone=europe-west1-b 

—image-family=debian-12 

—image-project=debian-cloud
SSH into instance
gcloud compute ssh my-vm —zone=europe-west1-b
Start / stop / delete
gcloud compute instances start my-vm —zone=europe-west1-b
gcloud compute instances stop my-vm —zone=europe-west1-b
gcloud compute instances delete my-vm —zone=europe-west1-b
Describe (get details)
gcloud compute instances describe my-vm —zone=europe-west1-b

# List rules
gcloud compute firewall-rules list
Allow HTTP
gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-http 

—allow=tcp:80 

—target-tags=http-server
Allow SSH from specific IP
gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-ssh 

—allow=tcp:22 

—source-ranges=1.2.3.4/32
Delete rule
gcloud compute firewall-rules delete allow-http

# List buckets
gcloud storage ls
List objects
gcloud storage ls gs://my-bucket/
gcloud storage ls gs://my-bucket/** —recursive
Copy files
gcloud storage cp file.txt gs://my-bucket/
gcloud storage cp gs://my-bucket/file.txt ./
gcloud storage cp -r ./dist gs://my-bucket/
Sync (like rsync)
gcloud storage rsync ./dist gs://my-bucket/ —delete-unmatched-destination-objects
Create bucket
gcloud storage buckets create gs://my-new-bucket —location=europe-west1
Delete
gcloud storage rm gs://my-bucket/file.txt
gcloud storage rm gs://my-bucket/** —recursive
Make public
gcloud storage objects update gs://my-bucket/file.txt —add-acl-grant=entity=allUsers,role=READER

# Deploy from source (builds automatically)
gcloud run deploy my-service --source . --region=europe-west1
Deploy from container image
gcloud run deploy my-service —image=gcr.io/my-project/my-app —region=europe-west1
List services
gcloud run services list
Get URL
gcloud run services describe my-service —region=europe-west1 —format=‘value(status.url)‘
Set environment variables
gcloud run services update my-service —set-env-vars=“KEY=value,DB=prod” —region=europe-west1
View logs
gcloud run services logs read my-service —region=europe-west1
Allow unauthenticated access
gcloud run services add-iam-policy-binding my-service 

—member=“allUsers” —role=“roles/run.invoker” —region=europe-west1
Delete
gcloud run services delete my-service —region=europe-west1

# List service accounts
gcloud iam service-accounts list
Create service account
gcloud iam service-accounts create deploy-bot —display-name=“Deploy Bot”
Create key for service account
gcloud iam service-accounts keys create key.json —iam-account=deploy-bot@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Grant role to user
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding my-project 

—member=“user:alice@example.com” 

—role=“roles/editor”
Grant role to service account
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding my-project 

—member=“serviceAccount:deploy-bot@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com” 

—role=“roles/storage.admin”
View IAM policy
gcloud projects get-iam-policy my-project

# Read recent logs
gcloud logging read "resource.type=cloud_run_revision" --limit=50
Filter by severity
gcloud logging read “severity>=ERROR” —limit=20
Filter by time
gcloud logging read “timestamp>=“2026-03-14T00:00:00Z"" —limit=50
Stream logs (live tail)
gcloud logging tail “resource.type=cloud_run_revision”
Logs for specific service
gcloud logging read “resource.type=cloud_run_revision AND resource.labels.service_name=my-service” —limit=20