Cloud Code for Cloud Shell limitations and restrictions

Cloud Shell with Cloud Code integrated, as of the latest release, has the following known limitations and restrictions.

Note: The majority of these limits are not present in Cloud Workstations. Cloud Workstations lets you customize, rightsize and secure your development environment. Upgrade to Cloud Workstations for managed secure development environments provisioned in your VPC.

Usage quotas

The default weekly Cloud Code quota is 50 hours.

Viewing your weekly Cloud Code quota

If you reach your quota, you'll need to wait until the date and time specified before you can use Cloud Code again or check with your Cloud Code administrator to increase your quota.

To view your weekly quota:

• Click Session information and then click Usage quota. A dialog appears and displays the hours remaining in your quota, the total number of hours in your quota, and the date and time that the quota resets.

Requesting a quota increase

We strongly recommend upgrading to Cloud Workstations, which does not have weekly usage limitations. Cloud Workstations lets you customize, rightsize and secure your development environment. Upgrade to Cloud Workstations for managed secure development environments provisioned in your VPC without usage limits.

Cloud Shell quota can be increased only in certain cases and must go through a customer support request. Cloud Shell quota cannot be updated using the Google Cloud console. To request a quota increase, contact Cloud Customer Care (not Billing).

If your quota increase request requires approval, you can expect to receive an email from Google Cloud acknowledging receipt of your request. You can respond to this email if you need further assistance. Cloud Customer Care processes your request, typically within 2-3 business days, and then sends you a second email notifying you whether the quota increase was approved or denied. The email provides the effective date of the increase, if applicable.

For more about the quota increase process, see About quota increase requests.

Cloud Code inactivity

Warning: If you delete your $HOME directory, or if you don't access Cloud Code for 120 days, Cloud Code automatically deletes your $HOME directory and can't recover your files. You'll receive an email notification before this occurs.

To prevent your $HOME directory from being deleted due to inactivity for 120 days, start a session. For sensitive data you want to store long term, consider a different solution on Cloud Storage.

Non-interactive usage

Cloud Code is intended for interactive use only. Non-interactive sessions are ended automatically after 40 minutes. Cloud Code sessions are capped at 12 hours, after which sessions automatically terminate. You can start a new session immediately after.

Restoring a session after a service limit violation

If your session is terminated or can't be established because you exceeded a service limit, Cloud Code displays an error with a link to a form that allows you to appeal the limit violation. Click the feedback link and submit the form with more information about the tasks you were performing before your session was terminated.

Warning: Violating the Terms of Service will result in Cloud Code being disabled for your account.
This constitutes activity that adversely impacts Google Cloud services, other customers' or their end users' use of services, or the Google network used to provide these services. Coin mining and network scanning using Cloud Code are strictly prohibited.

Limitations and restrictions

Custom installed software packages and persistence

The virtual machine instance that backs your Cloud Code for Cloud Shell session isn't permanently allocated to a Cloud Code session and terminates if the session is inactive for 20 minutes. After the instance is terminated, any modifications that you made to it outside your $HOME are lost.

To have your configurations persist across sessions, consider customizing your environment.

Users younger than 18 or whose age is unknown

Cloud Code isn't available to users younger than 18 or whose age is unknown. By default, Google Workspace for Education blocks access to Cloud Code for all users. If your institution has students older than 18 who you want to have access to age-restricted services including Cloud Code, see Control access to Google services by age for steps to identify users who are 18 years or older.

Cloud Shell Editor extensions

Cloud Shell Editor does not support the installation of custom editor extensions. However, the Cloud Shell Editor comes with a set of essential extensions already installed and kept up-to-date.

.bashrc content

Cloud Code can produce errors if the .bashrc file is modified or deleted. The .bashrc file must contain the following lines:

  if [ -f "/google/devshell/bashrc.google" ]; then
    source "/google/devshell/bashrc.google"
  fi

gcloud output formatting

By default, Cloud Code enables gcloud accessibility features. With accessibility features enabled, gcloud table output is rendered as a flattened list of items.

To restore the default behavior of boxed tables for many commands, append the following command to the end of your $HOME/.bashrc file:

  gcloud config set accessibility/screen_reader false

Slow connection performance

Connecting to a Cloud Code for the first time involves creating your home disk and can currently take up to 25 seconds. Subsequent connections to existing virtual machine instances take about five seconds. However, if you haven't used Cloud Code for a week, connection performance will be slower since the home directory is restored from an archive.

Cloud Code also offers Ephemeral mode which is the Cloud Code experience without persistent disk storage. Ephemeral mode offers faster connection performance but all the files you create in your session are lost on session end.

Browser support

Cloud Code supports the latest versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Internet Explorer 11+, and Apple Safari 8+. Safari in private browser mode is not supported.

Private browsing and disabled third-party cookies

The Cloud Shell Editor can't load in Cloud Code if third-party cookies are disabled. Some browsers have third-party cookies disabled by default and most browsers' Incognito or Private Browser modes block these cookies as well.

With third-party cookies disabled, you can still use the Cloud Shell Editor in its own window by clicking the Open in New Window button accessible when you open an editor session .

Alternatively, you can navigate to port 970 using the Web Preview .

Tip: If you're using Google Chrome, you can enable third-party cookies by clicking the Third-party cookie blocking icon in your address bar , selecting Site not working?, clicking Allow cookies, and reloading your page.

Disk storage

Cloud Code provisions 5 GB of free persistent disk storage mounted as your $HOME directory on the virtual machine instance. This storage is on a per-user basis and is available across projects. All files you store in your home directory, including installed software, scripts, and user configuration files like .bashrc and .vimrc, persist between sessions and count towards the 5 GB limit.

Clearing disk space

If you encounter a no space left on device error, free up space by removing files from your home directory using the Cloud Code terminal. Use the du -hs $(ls -A) command to see the space each file uses within each sub-directory. Consider removing those that are no longer needed or take up a large chunk of storage.

Note: If you don't access Cloud Code regularly, the $HOME directory persistent storage may be recycled. You receive an email notification before this occurs. Starting a Cloud Code session prevents the persistent storage from being recycled.