How to run AI coding agents in GCP

AI coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode can run in Google Cloud through Compute Engine VMs, Cloud Run jobs, self-managed GKE platforms, or Northflank Cloud Harnesses deployed through a bring-your-own-cloud model. Hosting agents in a GCP project can provide access to private VPC resources such as Cloud SQL, use IAM service accounts and Cloud Audit Logs for access control and visibility, and bill compute and Vertex AI model usage to the same project. The guide outlines a basic Compute Engine deployment involving a least-privilege service account, a VM, runtime retrieval of Git credentials from Secret Manager, and terminal persistence through tmux, while noting that operating multiple agents increases responsibilities for isolation, patching, credential management, scaling, persistence, and team access. It presents Northflank Cloud Harnesses as a managed alternative that runs isolated microVM workspaces on a GKE cluster within the customer’s GCP project, supports several agent tools, persistent workspaces, web terminal and SSH access, and optional Claude Code integration with Vertex AI. Network access to private services remains dependent on VPC routing and firewall rules, and model-request destinations depend on each agent’s configured model provider.

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