Enable the Secret Manager API

Secret Manager exposes a REST API and a gRPC API for using and managing secrets directly or in your applications. This topic describes how to enable the Secret Manager API and configure your Google Cloud project to use Secret Manager for the first time. This step is a prerequisite for all tasks in Secret Manager, including the quickstart.

When you are becoming familiar with Secret Manager, we recommend using a separate Google Cloud project. Deleting the project also deletes all resources created during testing, including billable resources.

If you are developing an application in an IDE with Cloud Code installed, Secret Manager comes integrated into the extension. This means that you can create, view, update, and use secrets without having to leave your IDE. For more on using Secret Manager with Cloud Code, refer to the secret managing guide for your preferred IDE, VS Code, IntelliJ, or Cloud Shell Editor.

Enable the Secret Manager API and the Google Cloud CLI

1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

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

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

4. Enable the required API.

   Enable the API

5. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

6. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

   gcloud init

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

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

8. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

9. Enable the required API.

   Enable the API

10. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

11. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

    gcloud init

What's next

• Learn more about authentication and access to the Secret Manager API.
• Learn more about creating secrets.
• Learn more about adding a secret version.