Cloud CLI Patterns Skill

Cloud CLI Patterns

Credentials are pre-configured. Use --help or Context7 for syntax.

BigQuery

# Always estimate cost first
bq query --dry_run --use_legacy_sql=false 'SELECT ...'

# Run query
bq query --use_legacy_sql=false --format=json 'SELECT ...'

# List tables
bq ls project:dataset

# Get table schema
bq show --schema --format=json project:dataset.table

Cost awareness: Charged per bytes scanned. Use --dry_run, partition tables, specify columns.

GCP (gcloud)

# List resources
gcloud compute instances list --format=json

# Describe resource
gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE --zone=ZONE --format=json

# Create with explicit project
gcloud compute instances create NAME --project=PROJECT --zone=ZONE

# Use --quiet for automation
gcloud compute instances delete NAME --quiet

AWS

# List resources
aws ec2 describe-instances --output json

# With JMESPath filtering
aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].InstanceId' --output text

# Explicit region
aws s3 ls s3://bucket --region us-west-2

# Dry run where available
aws ec2 run-instances --dry-run ...

Error Handling & Recovery

Authentication Failures

GCP auth issues:

# Check current auth status
gcloud auth list

# Re-authenticate user
gcloud auth login

# Re-authenticate application default credentials
gcloud auth application-default login

# For service accounts
gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=key.json

AWS auth issues:

# Check current identity
aws sts get-caller-identity

# Verify credentials file
cat ~/.aws/credentials

# Use specific profile
aws s3 ls --profile production

# Refresh SSO credentials
aws sso login --profile my-sso-profile

Common auth errors:

| Error | Cause | Fix | | ---------------------- | ----------------- | ----------------------- | | UNAUTHENTICATED | No credentials | Run gcloud auth login | | AccessDenied | Wrong permissions | Check IAM roles | | ExpiredToken | Session expired | Re-authenticate | | InvalidClientTokenId | Bad AWS key | Verify credentials file |

Rate Limiting

Symptoms:

429 Too Many Requests
RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED
Throttling errors

Mitigation:

# Add delays between operations
for bucket in $(aws s3 ls | awk '{print $3}'); do
  aws s3 ls "s3://$bucket" --summarize
  sleep 1  # Prevent throttling
done

# Use pagination instead of large requests
aws ec2 describe-instances --max-items 100 --starting-token "$TOKEN"

# For BigQuery: Use batch queries, avoid rapid-fire
bq query --batch 'SELECT ...'  # Lower priority, less throttling

API quotas:

Check quotas: gcloud compute project-info describe --project=PROJECT
Request increase: Console → IAM → Quotas

Common Error Patterns

Resource not found:

# Verify resource exists first
gcloud compute instances describe NAME --zone=ZONE 2>/dev/null || echo "Not found"

# List available resources
gcloud compute zones list --filter="region:us-central1"

Permission denied:

# Check your roles
gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT --flatten="bindings[].members" \
  --filter="bindings.members:$(gcloud config get-value account)"

# For AWS
aws iam get-user
aws iam list-attached-user-policies --user-name USERNAME

Region/zone mismatch:

# Always specify explicitly
gcloud compute instances create NAME --zone=us-central1-a  # Not just region!
aws ec2 run-instances --region us-west-2 ...

Retry Patterns

# Simple retry with backoff
retry_cmd() {
  local max_attempts=3
  local delay=2
  local attempt=1

  while [ $attempt -le $max_attempts ]; do
    if "$@"; then return 0; fi
    echo "Attempt $attempt failed, retrying in ${delay}s..."
    sleep $delay
    delay=$((delay * 2))
    attempt=$((attempt + 1))
  done
  return 1
}

retry_cmd gcloud compute instances start my-instance --zone=us-central1-a

References

GCP.md - GCP service patterns and common commands
AWS.md - AWS service patterns and common commands
scripts/ - Helper scripts for common operations

Agent Skills: Cloud CLI Patterns

Skill Files