Compute Engine client libraries

This page shows how to get started with the Cloud Client Libraries for the Compute Engine API. Client libraries make it easier to access Google Cloud APIs from a supported language. Although you can use Google Cloud APIs directly by making raw requests to the server, client libraries provide simplifications that significantly reduce the amount of code you need to write.

Read more about the Cloud Client Libraries and the older Google API Client Libraries in Client libraries explained .

To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me :

Guide me

Install the client library

C++

Follow the Quickstart .

C#

Install the Google.Cloud.Compute.V1 package from NuGet.

For more information, see Setting Up a C# Development Environment .

Go

go get cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1

For more information, see Setting Up a Go Development Environment .

Java

If you are using Maven , add the following to your pom.xml file. For more information about BOMs, see The Google Cloud Platform Libraries BOM .

 < dependencyManagement 
>  
< dependencies 
>  
< dependency 
>  
< groupId>com 
 . 
 google 
 . 
 cloud 
< / 
 groupId 
>  
< artifactId>libraries 
 - 
 bom 
< / 
 artifactId 
>  
< version>26 
 . 
 66 
 . 
 0 
< / 
 version 
>  
< type>pom 
< / 
 type 
>  
< scope>import 
< / 
 scope 
>  
< /dependency 
> </ 
 dependencies 
>
< /dependencyManagement 
>

< dependencies 
> <dependency> 
 <groupId>com.google.cloud</ 
 groupId 
>  
< artifactId>google 
 - 
 cloud 
 - 
 compute 
< / 
 artifactId 
>  
< /dependency 
>
< / 
 dependencies 
>

If you are using Gradle , add the following to your dependencies:

  implementation 
  
 'com.google.cloud:google-cloud-compute:1.82.0'

If you are using sbt , add the following to your dependencies:

  libraryDependencies 
  
 += 
  
 "com.google.cloud" 
  
 % 
  
 "google-cloud-compute" 
  
 % 
  
 "1.82.0"

The older version of the Cloud Client Libraries for Java for Compute Engine is available as version 0.120.x or earlier in the Maven artifact . Versions 0.120.x and earlier of this library are forward-incompatible with later versions.

For more information, see Setting Up a Java Development Environment .

Node.js

npm install @google-cloud/compute

The older version of the Cloud Client Libraries for Node.js for Compute Engine is available as version 2.5.x or earlier in the npm package . Versions 2.5.x and earlier of this library are forward-incompatible with later versions.

For more information, see Setting Up a Node.js Development Environment .

PHP

composer require google/cloud-compute

For more information, see Using PHP on Google Cloud .

Python

pip install --upgrade google-cloud-compute

For more information, see Setting Up a Python Development Environment .

Ruby

gem install google-cloud-compute-v1

For more information, see Setting Up a Ruby Development Environment .

Set up authentication

To authenticate calls to Google Cloud APIs, client libraries support Application Default Credentials (ADC) ; the libraries look for credentials in a set of defined locations and use those credentials to authenticate requests to the API. With ADC, you can make credentials available to your application in a variety of environments, such as local development or production, without needing to modify your application code.

For production environments, the way you set up ADC depends on the service and context. For more information, see Set up Application Default Credentials .

For a local development environment, you can set up ADC with the credentials that are associated with your Google Account:

Install the Google Cloud CLI. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:
```
gcloud  
init
```
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity .
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
```
gcloud  
auth  
application-default  
login
```
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity .

A sign-in screen appears. After you sign in, your credentials are stored in the local credential file used by ADC .

Use the client library

The following example shows how to use the client library to list instances in a particular zone. For more examples, see Using client libraries .

C#

  using 
  
  Google.Cloud.Compute.V1 
 
 ; 
 using 
  
 System 
 ; 
 using 
  
 System.Collections.Generic 
 ; 
 using 
  
 System.Threading.Tasks 
 ; 
 public 
  
 class 
  
 ListZoneInstancesAsyncSample 
 { 
  
 public 
  
 async 
  
 Task<IList<Instance> 
>  
 ListZoneInstancesAsync 
 ( 
  
 // TODO(developer): Set your own default values for these parameters or pass different values when calling this method. 
  
 string 
  
 projectId 
  
 = 
  
 "your-project-id" 
 , 
  
  
 string 
  
 zone 
  
 = 
  
 "us-central1-a" 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
 // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created 
  
 // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. 
  
  InstancesClient 
 
  
 client 
  
 = 
  
 await 
  
  InstancesClient 
 
 . 
  CreateAsync 
 
 (); 
  
 IList<Instance> 
  
 allInstances 
  
 = 
  
 new 
  
 List<Instance> 
 (); 
  
 // Make the request to list all VM instances in the given zone in the specified project. 
  
 await 
  
 foreach 
 ( 
 var 
  
 instance 
  
 in 
  
 client 
 . 
  ListAsync 
 
 ( 
 projectId 
 , 
  
 zone 
 )) 
  
 { 
  
 // The result is an Instance collection. 
  
 Console 
 . 
 WriteLine 
 ( 
 $"Instance: {instance.Name}" 
 ); 
  
 allInstances 
 . 
 Add 
 ( 
 instance 
 ); 
  
 } 
  
 return 
  
 allInstances 
 ; 
  
 } 
 }

Go

  import 
  
 ( 
  
 "context" 
  
 "fmt" 
  
 "io" 
  
 compute 
  
 "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1" 
  
 computepb 
  
 "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1/computepb" 
  
 "google.golang.org/api/iterator" 
 ) 
 // listInstances prints a list of instances created in given project in given zone. 
 func 
  
 listInstances 
 ( 
 w 
  
 io 
 . 
 Writer 
 , 
  
 projectID 
 , 
  
 zone 
  
 string 
 ) 
  
 error 
  
 { 
  
 // projectID := "your_project_id" 
  
 // zone := "europe-central2-b" 
  
 ctx 
  
 := 
  
 context 
 . 
 Background 
 () 
  
 instancesClient 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 compute 
 . 
  NewInstancesRESTClient 
 
 ( 
 ctx 
 ) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "NewInstancesRESTClient: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 defer 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 Close 
 () 
  
 req 
  
 := 
  
& computepb 
 . 
 ListInstancesRequest 
 { 
  
 Project 
 : 
  
 projectID 
 , 
  
 Zone 
 : 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 } 
  
 it 
  
 := 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 List 
 ( 
 ctx 
 , 
  
 req 
 ) 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Fprintf 
 ( 
 w 
 , 
  
 "Instances found in zone %s:\n" 
 , 
  
 zone 
 ) 
  
 for 
  
 { 
  
 instance 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 it 
 . 
 Next 
 () 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 == 
  
 iterator 
 . 
  Done 
 
  
 { 
  
 break 
  
 } 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 err 
  
 } 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Fprintf 
 ( 
 w 
 , 
  
 "- %s %s\n" 
 , 
  
 instance 
 . 
 GetName 
 (), 
  
 instance 
 . 
 GetMachineType 
 ()) 
  
 } 
  
 return 
  
 nil 
 }

Java

  import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. Instance 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. InstancesClient 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.io.IOException 
 ; 
 public 
  
 class 
 ListInstance 
  
 { 
  
 public 
  
 static 
  
 void 
  
 main 
 ( 
 String 
 [] 
  
 args 
 ) 
  
 throws 
  
 IOException 
  
 { 
  
 // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample 
  
 String 
  
 project 
  
 = 
  
 "your-project-id" 
 ; 
  
 String 
  
 zone 
  
 = 
  
 "zone-name" 
 ; 
  
 listInstances 
 ( 
 project 
 , 
  
 zone 
 ); 
  
 } 
  
 // List all instances in the given zone in the specified project ID. 
  
 public 
  
 static 
  
 void 
  
 listInstances 
 ( 
 String 
  
 project 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 zone 
 ) 
  
 throws 
  
 IOException 
  
 { 
  
 // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created 
  
 // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. After completing all of your requests, call 
  
 // the `instancesClient.close()` method on the client to 
  
 // safely clean up any remaining background resources. 
  
 try 
  
 ( 
  InstancesClient 
 
  
 instancesClient 
  
 = 
  
  InstancesClient 
 
 . 
 create 
 ()) 
  
 { 
  
 // Set the project and zone to retrieve instances present in the zone. 
  
 System 
 . 
 out 
 . 
 printf 
 ( 
 "Listing instances from %s in %s:" 
 , 
  
 project 
 , 
  
 zone 
 ); 
  
 for 
  
 ( 
  Instance 
 
  
 zoneInstance 
  
 : 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 list 
 ( 
 project 
 , 
  
 zone 
 ). 
 iterateAll 
 ()) 
  
 { 
  
 System 
 . 
 out 
 . 
 println 
 ( 
 zoneInstance 
 . 
 getName 
 ()); 
  
 } 
  
 System 
 . 
 out 
 . 
 println 
 ( 
 "####### Listing instances complete #######" 
 ); 
  
 } 
  
 } 
 }

Node.js

  /** 
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment and replace these variables before running the sample. 
 */ 
 // const projectId = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID'; 
 // const zone = 'europe-central2-b' 
 const 
  
 compute 
  
 = 
  
 require 
 ( 
 ' @google-cloud/compute 
' 
 ); 
 // List all instances in the given zone in the specified project. 
 async 
  
 function 
  
 listInstances 
 () 
  
 { 
  
 const 
  
 instancesClient 
  
 = 
  
 new 
  
 compute 
 . 
  InstancesClient 
 
 (); 
  
 const 
  
 [ 
 instanceList 
 ] 
  
 = 
  
 await 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 list 
 ({ 
  
 project 
 : 
  
 projectId 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 }); 
  
 console 
 . 
 log 
 ( 
 `Instances found in zone 
 ${ 
 zone 
 } 
 :` 
 ); 
  
 for 
  
 ( 
 const 
  
 instance 
  
 of 
  
 instanceList 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
 console 
 . 
 log 
 ( 
 ` - 
 ${ 
 instance 
 . 
 name 
 } 
 ( 
 ${ 
 instance 
 . 
 machineType 
 } 
 )` 
 ); 
  
 } 
 } 
 listInstances 
 ();

PHP

  use Google\Cloud\Compute\V1\Client\InstancesClient; 
 use Google\Cloud\Compute\V1\ListInstancesRequest; 
 /** 
 * List all instances for a particular Cloud project and zone. 
 * 
 * @param string $projectId Your Google Cloud project ID. 
 * @param string $zone Zone to list instances for (like "us-central1-a"). 
 * 
 * @throws \Google\ApiCore\ApiException if the remote call fails. 
 */ 
 function list_instances(string $projectId, string $zone) 
 { 
 // List Compute Engine instances using InstancesClient. 
 $instancesClient = new InstancesClient(); 
 $request = (new ListInstancesRequest()) 
 ->setProject($projectId) 
 ->setZone($zone); 
 $instancesList = $instancesClient->list($request); 
 printf('Instances for %s (%s)' . PHP_EOL, $projectId, $zone); 
 foreach ($instancesList as $instance) { 
 printf(' - %s' . PHP_EOL, $instance->getName()); 
 } 
 }

Python

  from 
  
 __future__ 
  
 import 
 annotations 
 from 
  
 collections.abc 
  
 import 
 Iterable 
 from 
  
 google.cloud 
  
 import 
 compute_v1 
 def 
  
 list_instances 
 ( 
 project_id 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 zone 
 : 
 str 
 ) 
 - 
> Iterable 
 [ 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 Instance 
 ]: 
  
 """ 
 List all instances in the given zone in the specified project. 
 Args: 
 project_id: project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to use. 
 zone: name of the zone you want to use. For example: “us-west3-b” 
 Returns: 
 An iterable collection of Instance objects. 
 """ 
 instance_client 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 InstancesClient 
 () 
 instance_list 
 = 
 instance_client 
 . 
 list 
 ( 
 project 
 = 
 project_id 
 , 
 zone 
 = 
 zone 
 ) 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 "Instances found in zone 
 { 
 zone 
 } 
 :" 
 ) 
 for 
 instance 
 in 
 instance_list 
 : 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 " - 
 { 
 instance 
 . 
 name 
 } 
 ( 
 { 
 instance 
 . 
 machine_type 
 } 
 )" 
 ) 
 return 
 instance_list

Ruby

  require 
  
 "google/cloud/compute/v1" 
 # Lists all instances in the given zone in the specified project. 
 # 
 # @param [String] project project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to use. 
 # @param [String] zone name of the zone you want to use. For example: "us-west3-b" 
 # @return [Array<::Google::Cloud::Compute::V1::Instance>] Array of instances. 
 def 
  
 list_instances 
  
 project 
 :, 
  
 zone 
 : 
  
 # Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created 
  
 # once, and can be reused for multiple requests. 
  
 client 
  
 = 
  
 :: 
 Google 
 :: 
 Cloud 
 :: 
 Compute 
 :: 
 V1 
 :: 
 Instances 
 :: 
 Rest 
 :: 
 Client 
 . 
 new 
  
 # Send the request to list all VM instances in the given zone in the specified project. 
  
 instance_list 
  
 = 
  
 client 
 . 
 list 
  
 project 
 : 
  
 project 
 , 
  
 zone 
 : 
  
 zone 
  
 puts 
  
 "Instances found in zone 
 #{ 
 zone 
 } 
 :" 
  
 instances 
  
 = 
  
 [] 
  
 instance_list 
 . 
 each 
  
 do 
  
 | 
 instance 
 | 
  
 puts 
  
 " - 
 #{ 
 instance 
 . 
 name 
 } 
 ( 
 #{ 
 instance 
 . 
 machine_type 
 } 
 )" 
  
 instances 
 << 
 instance 
  
 end 
  
 instances 
 end

Additional resources

C++

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for C++:

C#

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for C#:

Go

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for Go:

Java

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for Java:

Node.js

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for Node.js:

PHP

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for PHP:

Python

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for Python:

Ruby

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for Ruby:

Older client libraries

Cloud Client Libraries use our latest client library model and are the recommended option for accessing Cloud APIs programmatically.

For cases where you can't use Cloud Client Libraries, the following Google API Client Libraries are available:

Language	Library	Resources
Go	Google API Go Client Library	Documentation
Java	Google API Java Client Library	Documentation
JavaScript	Google API JavaScript Client Library	Documentation
.NET	Google API .NET Client Library	Documentation
Node.js	Google API Node.js Client Library	Documentation
Objective-C	Google API Objective-C Client Library	Documentation
PHP	Google API PHP Client Library	Documentation
Python	Google API Python Client Library	Documentation
Ruby	Google API Ruby Client Library	Documentation
Dart	Google API Dart Client Library	Documentation

Third-party Compute Engine API client libraries

libcloud

libcloud is a Python library used for interacting with multiple cloud service providers through a single unified API.

The Apache libcloud API project has received support and updates for Compute Engine since July 2013. It supports a broad set of Compute Engine features including instances, disks, networks, and load balancers. The getting started demo provides a code example of how to use libcloud and Compute Engine together.

jclouds

jclouds is an open source library that allows you to use Java and Clojure across multiple Cloud providers.

The jclouds cloud API supports Compute Engine and lets you manage resources such as virtual machines, disks, and networks. As of version 1.9, Compute Engine was promoted to the jclouds core.

fog.io

fog.io is an open source Ruby library that lets you interact with multiple cloud services through one API.

The fog.io cloud API has had support for Compute Engine since version 1.11.0 in May 2013. It supports instance operations such as create and delete, along with management operations for other resources like disks, networks, and load balancers.

Compute Engine client libraries Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.

Install the client library

C++

C#

Go

Java

Node.js

PHP

Python

Ruby

Set up authentication

Use the client library

C#

Go

Java

Node.js

PHP

Python

Ruby

Additional resources

C++

C#

Go

Java

Node.js

PHP

Python

Ruby

Older client libraries

Third-party Compute Engine API client libraries

libcloud

jclouds

fog.io

Compute Engine client libraries