Before you begin

This page describes the basic start-up tasks that you must complete before using Vertex AI Search.

Create a project

To create a Google Cloud project for your Vertex AI Search apps and data stores, follow these steps:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

  2. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project. Learn how to check if billing is enabled on a project.

  3. If you plan to use the API, install and initialize the Google Cloud CLI.

Turn on Vertex AI Search

To use Vertex AI Search, you must activate the Vertex AI Search service.

To turn on Vertex AI Search, follow these steps:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the AI Applications page.

    AI Applications

  2. Optional: Click Allow Google to selectively sample model input and responses.

  3. Optional: Review the terms for data use.

  4. Click Continue and activate the API.

Access control in Vertex AI Search

You can configure access control for Vertex AI Search at the project level. To grant access to Vertex AI Search using the console, grant the Discovery Engine Admin role to a principal for the project that contains the Vertex AI Search engine.

To grant access to Vertex AI Search, follow the instructions at Grant a single role in the IAM documentation using the following guidance:

  • Select the project that contains the Vertex AI Search engine.

  • When selecting a role, enter Discovery Engine in the filter, and then click Discovery Engine Admin.

If you are an owner of the project, you automatically have the Discovery Engine Admin role for that project.

To grant access to Vertex AI Search for other users, groups, and service accounts, see Access control with IAM.

If you are using the API, see Set up authentication on Google Cloud for authentication and access control.

What's next