Enables debugging on a VM instance. This allows you to use the SSH command to connect to the virtual machine where the instance lives. While in "debug mode", the instance continues to serve live traffic. You should delete the instance when you are done debugging and then allow the system to take over and determine if another instance should be started.
Only applicable for instances in App Engine flexible environment.
HTTP request
POST https://appengine.googleapis.com/v1beta/{name=apps/*/services/*/versions/*/instances/*}:debug
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-06-16 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis feature enables debugging on a VM instance in the App Engine flexible environment, allowing SSH access while the instance serves live traffic.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe HTTP request is a POST operation to a specific URL, using gRPC Transcoding syntax, and includes the instance's name in the path parameters.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe request body requires a JSON object containing the public SSH key (\u003ccode\u003esshKey\u003c/code\u003e) that will be added to the instance for SSH access.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSuccessful requests return an \u003ccode\u003eOperation\u003c/code\u003e instance in the response body, and this operation requires \u003ccode\u003eappengine.instances.enableDebug\u003c/code\u003e IAM permission.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsing this feature requires OAuth scope: \u003ccode\u003ehttps://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform\u003c/code\u003e and the instance should be deleted after debugging.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]