Set up a local development environment

Learn how to configure a local development environment for Google Cloud. This document covers the core tools required to build, test, and run applications with Google Cloud services:

gcloud CLI: Manage cloud resources, configure projects, and set up local Application Default Credentials (ADC).
Cloud Client Libraries: Access Google Cloud APIs programmatically using idiomatic libraries in your preferred programming language.

This document also shows how to install the google-cloud-developer plugin to get help with Google Cloud tasks and coding in a number of different agents.

For an overview of other tools and interfaces across Google Cloud, see Ways to interact with Google Cloud.

Before you begin

Ask your organization administrator to complete the following prerequisites:

Provision your user identity: Assign a Cloud Identity or Google Workspace account.
Grant project access and IAM roles: Assign the required Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles for your project.
Enable billing: Verify Cloud Billing is enabled on your project.

For organization-wide setup, see the Google Cloud Setup guided flow.

Set up the gcloud CLI and authentication

Configure gcloud CLI (gcloud) to manage resources and authenticate your local environment:

Install gcloud CLI on your local workstation.
Run gcloud init in your terminal to sign in and select your default project.
Run gcloud auth application-default login to configure Application Default Credentials (ADC). ADC enables local client libraries to authenticate automatically against your project.

Install Cloud Client Libraries

To access Google Cloud services programmatically from your application code:

Enable required Cloud APIs for your project.
Install Cloud Client Libraries for your programming language (such as Java, Python, or Go). Your code authenticates automatically using ADC.

Install the `google-cloud-developer` plugin

If you use an agent such as Claude Code, Antigravity CLI, or Codex CLI to assist you in your development work, you can install the google-cloud-developer plugin to get help with Google Cloud tasks and coding. This plugin includes:

Skills to help with account creation, billing setup, project management, and authentication to Google Cloud services and APIs.
The finding-google-skills skill, which locates and runs the right Google product skill on demand, thus avoiding the need to preload Google skills.
The Developer Knowledge remote MCP server, which provides the ability to search Google's official developer documentation and retrieve information for Google's products such as Google Cloud, Firebase, Android, Maps, and more.

Install the google-cloud-developer plugin using the following instructions based on your agent.

Antigravity CLI

Install the plugin by specifying its location in the Google Agent Skills repository:

agy plugin install https://github.com/google/skills/plugins/cloud/google-cloud-developer

Enable the Developer Knowledge API in your Google Cloud project by using the gcloud CLI:
```
gcloud services enable developerknowledge.googleapis.com --project=YOUR_PROJECT_ID
```

Claude Code

Add the Google plugins marketplace and then install the plugin:

claude plugin marketplace add google/skills
claude plugin install google-cloud-developer@google-plugins

Enable the Developer Knowledge API in your Google Cloud project by using the gcloud CLI:
```
gcloud services enable developerknowledge.googleapis.com --project=YOUR_PROJECT_ID
```

Codex CLI