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>26.49.0</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:1.62.0'

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

libraryDependencies += "com.google.cloud" % "google-cloud-compute" % "1.62.0"

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:

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command: 

    gcloud init

  2. 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.

    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.