GCP Project Bootstrap

Create new Google Cloud projects in a deliberate, least-privilege way.

Workflow

1. Clarify the workload first.

   • Cloud Run app
   • Vertex AI / Gemini / ML workload
   • BigQuery / analytics
   • Cloud Storage / file hosting
   • Firebase app
   • sandbox / experiment / tutorial

2. Collect required inputs before proposing commands.

   • project display name
   • desired project_id
   • org/folder placement if applicable
   • billing account availability
   • primary region or residency requirement
   • services that must work on day one
   • whether CI/CD or runtime service accounts are needed

3. Read references/project-creation-checklist.md and follow it as the default sequence.

4. If billing, API enablement, or service selection is part of the task, read references/billing-and-apis.md.

5. If command examples are needed, read references/common-gcloud-commands.md.

Operating rules

• Do not assume billing is already linked.
• Do not recommend broad roles like roles/owner unless the user explicitly asks and understands the risk.
• Prefer least privilege and workload-specific service accounts.
• Call out when a step requires console-only actions, elevated org permissions, or a human with billing admin access.
• If the user has not chosen a region, explain the tradeoff briefly instead of picking randomly.
• If the project is for production, recommend enabling audit-friendly naming and separating runtime/service identities early.

Output expectations

When helping the user, produce:

• a short summary of the intended project purpose
• the exact inputs still missing
• a safe creation sequence
• API list grouped by workload
• IAM/service-account recommendations only if relevant

Common workload branches

Cloud Run

Focus on:

• Artifact Registry
• Cloud Build
• Cloud Run Admin API
• runtime service account
• region choice close to users/data

Vertex AI

Focus on:

• billing must be active
• Vertex AI API
• region support for the intended model/service
• storage buckets for datasets/artifacts if needed
• service account separation for notebooks/jobs/apps

BigQuery

Focus on:

• dataset region planning
• billing confirmation
• BigQuery API
• least-privilege access for analysts vs pipelines

Firebase

Focus on:

• whether this is primarily a Firebase project with GCP underneath
• required console setup beyond raw gcloud
• auth/hosting/firestore specific downstream decisions