This page describes how to get started with the [gcloud CLI](https://docs.cloud.google.com/sdk/docs.md.txt) so you can use it to manage Cloud SQL instances. The gcloud CLI uses the Cloud SQL Admin API to access Cloud SQL, so you must enable the API before you can use the gcloud CLI to access Cloud SQL. For `gcloud` examples, see the [How-to page](https://docs.cloud.google.com/sql/docs/sqlserver/how-to) for the task. ## Getting started with the gcloud CLI To start with the gcloud CLI, review the [](https://docs.cloud.google.com/sdk/docs.md.txt)[gcloud CLI](https://docs.cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud.md.txt) Documentation. You can get help for the tool, resources, and commands by using the `--help` flag: ```bash gcloud sql --help gcloud sql instances --help gcloud sql instances create --help ``` The help displayed with the `--help` flag is also available in the [gcloud CLI](https://docs.cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud.md.txt) reference for [gcloud sql](https://docs.cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/sql). Finally, configure a project as your default project with two commands. The first command below lists the configuration for the gcloud CLI, including any default project already set. The second command sets the default project. ```bash gcloud config list gcloud config set project [PROJECT_ID] ```