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Prerequisites

Before using Cloud Agent, you need to set up a few things.

Required

Google Cloud SDK

Install and configure the gcloud CLI:

# Install (see https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install)
# Then authenticate and configure:
gcloud auth login
gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID

Project Setup

Make sure your GCP project has Compute Engine API enabled: 

gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com

Terraform

Cloud Agent uses Terraform to provision GCP resources:

brew install terraform

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y gnupg software-properties-common
wget -O- https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hashicorp.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install terraform

SSH Key for GitHub

You need an SSH key that can clone your repositories:

# Generate a new key (if you don't have one)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/cloud-agent -C "cloud-agent"

# Add the public key to GitHub
cat ~/.ssh/cloud-agent.pub
# Copy and add to: GitHub → Settings → SSH Keys

Optional

AI Agent Authentication

Depending on which agent you use, you may need to authenticate:

# Install Auggie CLI
npm install -g @anthropic/augment-cli

# Login
auggie login

# Install Claude Code
npm install -g @anthropic/claude-code

# Login
claude login

Cloud Agent will transfer your local credentials to the VM.

Verify Setup

Run these commands to verify your setup:

# Check gcloud
gcloud config get project

# Check Terraform
terraform version

# Check SSH key
ls -la ~/.ssh/*.pub

# Check Cloud Agent
ca --help

Next Steps