Enable or disable MCP servers

To use Google and Google Cloud remote MCP servers with your AI application or agent, you must enable the product API in your project.

Before you begin

  1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

  2. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  3. If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  4. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

    gcloud init

  5. Create or select a Google Cloud project.

    Roles required to select or create a project

    • Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
    • Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

    • Create a Google Cloud project:

      gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.

    • Select the Google Cloud project that you created:

      gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.

  6. If you're using an existing project for this guide, verify that you have the permissions required to complete this guide. If you created a new project, then you already have the required permissions.

  7. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  8. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  9. If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  10. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

    gcloud init

  11. Create or select a Google Cloud project.

    Roles required to select or create a project

    • Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
    • Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

    • Create a Google Cloud project:

      gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.

    • Select the Google Cloud project that you created:

      gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.

  12. If you're using an existing project for this guide, verify that you have the permissions required to complete this guide. If you created a new project, then you already have the required permissions.

  13. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  14. Install the Google Cloud CLI beta component: 
    gcloud components install beta

Enable a supported product

To connect to a supported product through MCP, enable the product API:

Roles required to enable APIs

To enable APIs, you need the Service Usage Admin IAM role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin), which contains the serviceusage.services.enable permission. Learn how to grant roles.

 
gcloud services enable SERVICE_NAME

Replace SERVICE_NAME with the service name of the product you want to use through MCP. For example The BigQuery service name is bigquery.googleapis.com.

Optional security and safety configurations

MCP introduces new security risks and considerations due to the wide variety of actions that can be taken with MCP tools. To minimize and manage these risks, Google Cloud offers defaults and customizable policies to control the use of MCP tools in your Google Cloud organization or project. For more information about MCP security and governance, see AI security and safety.

What's next