- Home
- Resources
- Integrations
- Google Compute Engine
Claude Google Compute Engine connectorWhat Claude can do in your Google Compute Engine account.
The Claude Google Compute Engine connector exposes 29 tools. 23 read your infrastructure, 6 launch, power, resize or delete VMs, 0 are undocumented. Here: what Claude can inspect, what it can change, and the Google Cloud roles that gate it.
Verified Trustpilot reviews · AI, automation & growth agency
What the Claude Google Compute Engine connector changes for cloud teams
Answering a simple infrastructure question in Google Cloud often means clicking through the console or remembering gcloud flags. With this connector, you ask Claude in plain words: which VMs are running in a zone, which disks sit idle, what a reservation covers. It reads your Compute Engine project itself and, when you ask, can launch, power or delete machines too.
An inventory in one question. A team lead preparing a cost review asks what is running. list_instances returns the VMs of a zone, list_disks shows each disk's last attach time, and Claude points out the ones nobody seems to use.
A quick fix on a stuck machine. An on-call engineer sees a frozen server. reset_instance restarts it, then get_zone_operation confirms the operation reached DONE without error.
Capacity and commitments explained. Before a launch, list_reservations and list_commitments show what capacity is held and when commitments end, so finance and engineering read the same picture.
What it does not do: the sheet exposes no tool that changes disks, snapshots, templates, reservations or commitments; those are read-only here, and the machine type can only change on a stopped VM. Google also notes that calls may be routed through any region. Nothing runs by itself either: Claude acts while it answers you, never on a schedule. Scheduled shutdowns belong to an automation tool, a different job presented on the Integrations hub.
The vocabulary in one minute
Five terms you will see while connecting Compute Engine.
- Connector
- The link you set up once between Claude and an account you already own, so Claude can work in it while it answers you.
- Tool
- One named action a connector gives Claude. Claude picks the ones it needs; the directory sheet lists every one by its exact name.
- Authorization
- Google's own sign-in screen, where you hand Claude the access it will use. Granted once per person, and you can revoke it later.
- Approval
- The confirmation Claude waits for before it goes ahead with something that changes your project, shown in the chat when it matters.
- MCP
- The shared standard connectors are built on: it is what lets an assistant like Claude talk to an outside service such as Google Cloud.
Connect Google Compute Engine to Claude in three steps
- 01
Find the connector
Open Claude's settings, go to Customize then Connectors, and look for Google Compute Engine. On a Team or Enterprise workspace, an Owner or Primary Owner has to enable it for the organization before members can sign in.
- 02
Sign in with Google
Click Connect on its row and sign in with your Google account in the window Google opens. If the connection ever breaks, use Disconnect and connect again.
- 03
Check the scopes you grant
Read Google's authorization screen before you accept. It belongs to Google, not to Claude, and sets what the access covers; Google lists a read-only scope and a read-write one for Compute Engine. You can revoke it later from your Google account.
The 29 tools, sorted by what they do
Google Compute Engine gives Claude 29 tools: 23 that read your account, 6 that change something in it.
Twenty-three tools read, six change your machines. Names stay exactly as Claude shows them.
- 23 read
- 6 write
Tools index
- get_instance_basic_info
- list_instance_attached_disks
- list_instances
- get_instance_group_manager_basic_info
- list_instance_group_managers
- list_managed_instances
- list_instance_templates
- get_instance_template_basic_info
- get_instance_template_properties
- get_disk_basic_info
- get_disk_performance_config
- list_disks
- list_accelerator_types
- list_machine_types
- list_images
- get_zone_operation
- get_reservation_basic_info
- get_reservation_details
- list_reservations
- list_commitments
- get_commitment_basic_info
- list_commitment_reservations
- list_snapshots
What Claude reads (23)
23 toolsTwenty-three tools that look at VMs, groups, templates, disks, reservations, commitments and operations without touching them.
get_instance_basic_info
Pulls the essentials of one VM: name, ID, status, machine type, when it was made and any attached accelerators. Claude uses it to answer a quick question about a single machine.
list_instance_attached_disks
Shows every disk attached to a given VM, with details such as type, mode, boot flag, size, device name and architecture.
list_instances
Returns the VMs of a project in one zone, each with its name, ID, status, machine type and accelerators. It is the usual starting point for an inventory.
get_instance_group_manager_basic_info
Describes a single managed instance group: the template it follows, its base instance name, target sizes for running, stopped and suspended instances, and its current status.
list_instance_group_managers
Lists the managed instance groups of a project in one zone, each with its template, base name, target sizes and status, so Claude can compare them at a glance.
list_managed_instances
Lists the instances inside one managed group, with each one's ID, URL, status and current action, which shows what the group is doing right now.
list_instance_templates
Brings back a project's instance templates with name, ID, description, machine type and region, giving Claude the full catalogue of blueprints your teams rely on.
get_instance_template_basic_info
Gives the short version of one instance template: name, ID, description, machine type and region. Enough for Claude to confirm what a template is meant for.
get_instance_template_properties
Opens the full instance properties of a template: tags, machine type, network interfaces, disks, metadata, service accounts, scheduling options, labels, accelerators, reservation affinity and shielded or confidential settings.
get_disk_basic_info
Reports one disk's name, ID, description, size, type, status, and the last moments it was attached or detached from a machine.
get_disk_performance_config
Reads the performance profile of a disk: type, size, provisioned IOPS and throughput, physical block size, storage pool and access mode.
list_disks
Returns all disks of a project in one zone, each with size, type, status and last attach or detach time, so Claude can spot the idle ones.
list_accelerator_types
Lists the accelerator types offered in a zone, including whether each is deprecated and the maximum number of cards per instance.
list_machine_types
Returns the machine types available in a zone with their guest CPUs, memory, accelerators and architecture. It needs a project and a zone to answer.
list_images
Shows a project's images with name, ID, status and family, which tells Claude which operating system images your teams have on hand to boot from.
get_zone_operation
Reads the state of a zone operation: status, errors, warnings and HTTP error details. Google's reference tells Claude to use it to confirm that a VM action finished with status DONE.
get_reservation_basic_info
Gives the basics of one capacity reservation: its zone, its status, whether a specific reservation is required to use it, and the commitments linked to it.
get_reservation_details
Returns the detailed view of a reservation: machine type, accelerators and local SSDs it covers, aggregate properties such as VM family, sharing settings and resource status.
list_reservations
Lists the reservations of a project in one zone with status, required-reservation flag and linked commitments, which gives Claude a quick overview of held capacity.
list_commitments
Returns the committed-use contracts of a project in one region, with their status, plan, type, the resources they cover and their begin and end dates.
get_commitment_basic_info
Summarizes a single commitment: status, plan, type, the resources it covers and the dates that frame it. Claude can then explain what was committed, and until when.
list_commitment_reservations
Shows which reservations sit under a given commitment, with the machine type, accelerators, local SSDs, sharing settings and resource status of each one.
list_snapshots
Gathers the snapshots of a project with status, disk size, storage bytes and source disk, so Claude can tell what is backed up and from which disk.
What Claude changes (6)
6 toolsSix tools that launch, power, resize or delete virtual machines. No source describes a confirmation specific to any of them, so the general rule below applies.
create_instance
Approval: see the ruleSpins up a new virtual machine from a project, a zone and a name. Without further detail, Google says it defaults to the e2-medium machine type and a Debian image.
delete_instance
Approval: see the ruleDeletes a virtual machine from a project and zone. Google tags this tool as destructive in its reference.
start_instance
Approval: see the ruleStarts a stopped virtual machine, identified by project, zone and name, and returns an operation to follow.
stop_instance
Approval: see the ruleStops a running virtual machine. It is also the step that must come before a machine-type change.
reset_instance
Approval: see the ruleResets a virtual machine and hands back an operation to check.
set_instance_machine_type
Approval: see the ruleSwitches a stopped VM to another machine type, for more or fewer CPUs and memory.
What Claude asks before it acts
By default, Claude stops and asks for your go-ahead before any action it carries out on an account for you. That covers the six VM tools here, since no source sets a different rule for them, delete_instance included, which Google flags as destructive.
On Team and Enterprise, workspace owners decide whether members may let some actions through without being asked each time, and they can limit what a connector may do for the whole organization. On the Google Cloud side, IAM allow and deny policies can block tools by principal, by tool name or by their read-only attribute. Claude works with your Google Cloud permissions and nothing more: what you cannot do in the console, it cannot do either.
Which plans it is available on
None of the 819 sheets in the official directory shows plan availability. Connector by connector, that answer is published nowhere: a real gap in the catalogue.
The general rule is published: remote connectors are open to all users on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop and mobile. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner enables a connector for the organization before members connect. For the up-to-date status of this one, check the Google Compute Engine sheet in the official directory. On Google's side, the right IAM roles on the project are required.
Where the Claude Google Compute Engine connector stops
A connector is not an automation. Claude calls these tools while it answers you; no VM shuts down on its own at night because of this connector.
Only Google documents this connector; Claude's help center has no article on it. A tool list is an observed floor, not a promise, and the partner badge is not a security audit: Anthropic says on every sheet that it neither chooses the tools a publisher exposes nor guarantees their behaviour. Connect it only if you trust the publisher, here Google. Google adds that the service is switched on when the Compute Engine API is enabled on the project.
Need help connecting Google Compute Engine to Claude?
A person reads every message.