Use developer tools

Google Cloud provides several ways for developers to improve the efficiency of their development workflow, including the following tools:

Before you begin

To make sure you can set up APIs and use tools, ask your administrators to complete the following tasks:

  • Create an account that you use to sign in and use Google Cloud products, including Google Cloud console and Google Cloud CLI.
  • Create a project that serves as an access boundary for your Google Cloud resources.
  • Enable billing on your project so you can pay for service and API usage.

For detailed instructions to complete setup steps, see Google Cloud setup checklist.

Cloud Workstations: Develop in standardized environments

As a developer, you require software and specific configurations to perform your tasks. The administrators at your company can help you with your workflows by creating and distributing a development environment template that is suited to your specific project.

Developers can use Cloud Workstations to obtain the following benefits:

  • A standardized environment that is consistent for each developer on a team.
  • Preconfigured settings established by administrators.
  • Options to access the web-based environment from a browser, SSH, or IDE.

For more details, see Cloud Workstations overview.

Google Cloud CLI: Write scripts and automate

The Google Cloud CLI tools help you create and manage Google Cloud resources from the command line, or through scripts and other automation. For example, you might create an automated script to push files to VMs.

Use the gcloud CLI to do the following:

  • Manage your local configuration.
  • Establish authentication.
  • Access Google Cloud services through the command line.

For installation steps, see Install the Google Cloud CLI.

Cloud Code: Develop directly in your IDE

Cloud Code includes tools that help you use Cloud Client Libraries and develop cloud applications. Use Cloud Code to do the following directly in VS Code or supported JetBrains IDEs:

  • Integrate Google Cloud APIs to work with Google Cloud services.
  • Access documentation.
  • Debug your application.
  • Use Gemini Code Assist.

Cloud Code is automatically installed on Cloud Workstations and Cloud Shell. To install the extension for your IDE, see the following:

Gemini Code Assist: Develop and deploy with AI assistance

Gemini Code Assist comes integrated with Cloud Code, and provides AI assistance with your code, including the following:

  • Generate and debug code.
  • Generate unit tests.
  • Chat to answer questions about code and other technical topics.

For an overview, see Gemini Code Assist.

What's next?

To explore more developer tools, see Google Cloud SDK, languages, frameworks, and tools overview.

To get familiar with development workflows, experiment with the following guides: