---
title_tag: Before You Begin | Google Cloud
meta_desc: This page provides an overview on how to get started with Pulumi and Google Cloud.
title: Before you begin
h1: "Pulumi & Google Cloud: Before you begin"
weight: 2
menu:
  clouds:
    parent: google-cloud-get-started
    identifier: gcp-begin

aliases:
- /docs/quickstart/gcp/begin/
- /docs/quickstart/gcp/install-pulumi/
- /docs/quickstart/gcp/install-language-runtime/
- /docs/quickstart/gcp/configure/
- /docs/get-started/gcp/install-pulumi/
- /docs/get-started/gcp/install-language-runtime/
- /docs/get-started/gcp/configure
- /docs/get-started/gcp/begin/
---

Before you get started using Pulumi, let's run through a few quick steps to ensure your environment is set up correctly.

### Install Pulumi

{{< install-pulumi >}}
{{% notes "info" %}}
All Windows examples in this tutorial assume you are running in PowerShell.
{{% /notes %}}
{{< /install-pulumi >}}

Next, install the required language runtime, if you have not already.

### Install Language Runtime

#### Choose Your Language

{{< chooser language "javascript,typescript,python,go,csharp,java,yaml" / >}}

{{% choosable language "javascript,typescript" %}}
{{< install-node >}}
{{% /choosable %}}

{{% choosable language python %}}
{{< install-python >}}
{{% /choosable %}}

{{% choosable language go %}}
{{< install-go >}}
{{% /choosable %}}

{{% choosable language "csharp,fsharp,visualbasic" %}}
{{< install-dotnet >}}
{{% /choosable %}}

{{% choosable language java %}}
{{< install-java >}}
{{% /choosable %}}

{{% choosable language yaml %}}
{{< install-yaml >}}
{{% /choosable %}}

Finally, configure Pulumi with Google Cloud.

### Configure Pulumi to access your Google Cloud account

Pulumi requires cloud credentials to manage and provision resources. You must use an IAM user or service account that has **Programmatic access** with rights to deploy and manage your Google Cloud resources.

In this guide, you will need an IAM user account with permissions that can create and populate a Cloud Storage bucket, such as those in the predefined Storage Admin (`roles/storage.admin`) or the Storage Legacy Bucket Owner (`roles/storage.legacyBucketOwner`) roles.

When developing locally, we recommend that you install the [Google Cloud SDK](https://cloud.google.com/sdk/install) and then [authorize access with a user account](https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/authorizing#authorizing_with_a_user_account).

If `gcloud` is not configured to interact with your Google Cloud project, set it with the `config` command using the project's ID:

```bash
gcloud config set project <YOUR_GCP_PROJECT_ID>
```

Next, Pulumi requires default application credentials to interact with your Google Cloud resources, so run `auth application-default login` command to obtain those credentials.

```bash
gcloud auth application-default login
```

For additional information on setting and using Google Cloud credentials, see [Google Cloud Setup](/registry/packages/gcp/installation-configuration/).

Next, you'll create a new Pulumi project.

{{< get-started-stepper >}}