Setting up a .NET development environment

This tutorial shows how to prepare your local machine for developing .NET and .NET core apps that run on Google Cloud and call Google Cloud APIs.

Install a development environment

The recommended development environment for running the .NET tutorials and sample apps in this documentation is Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code.

Create a Google Cloud project

Create a Google Cloud project to run your apps. Google Cloud projects form the basis for creating, enabling, and using all Google Cloud services.

Set up authentication

Your .NET app must authenticate itself to use Google Cloud APIs. You use Application Default Credentials (ADC), which let you provide credentials for either local development or in a production environment.

Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

gcloud auth application-default login

For more information, see Authenticate for using client libraries. For general information about authentication, see Authentication at Google.

(Optional) Install .NET tools and SDKs

Even though you can create and manage Google Cloud resources via your web browser using the Google Cloud console, if you'd prefer to manage your Google Cloud resources from within Visual Studio or from the command-line, you can consider installing the following tools:

  • Google Cloud CLI: The gcloud CLI is a command-line interface for Google Cloud products and services.

  • Tools for Visual Studio: Tools for Visual Studio enables development in Visual Studio on Google Cloud.

  • Tools for PowerShell: Tools for PowerShell is a set of cmdlets for Windows PowerShell that lets you manage Google Cloud resources.

What's next