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Lesson 2 — GCP Project, Vertex AI API & Credentials

Vertex AI Chatbot Course – Lesson 2: GCP & Credentials


Step A — Create/Select a GCP Project

  1. Go to Google Cloud Console and sign in.
  2. Top navbar → Project dropdown → New Project. Name it e.g. vertex-chat-demo.
  3. Make sure Billing is enabled for the project.

Step B — Enable Required APIs

  1. Left menu → APIs & Services ▸ Library.
  2. Enable Vertex AI API.
  3. Optional (but useful): Cloud Storage API and IAM API.

Step C — Create a Service Account & Key

  1. Left menu → IAM & Admin ▸ Service AccountsCreate Service Account.
  2. Name: vertex-chatbot-sa. Click Continue.
  3. Grant role: Vertex AI User (and for local dev, Vertex AI Admin if needed).
  4. Create → then in the list, click the new SA → Keys tab → Add Key ▸ Create new key → JSON.
  5. Download the JSON file and place it in your project folder (e.g., C:/VertexChatbot/keys/sa.json).
Keep the JSON secret. Do not commit to public repos.

Step D — Install Cloud SDK (for local auth)

  1. Install: Google Cloud SDK.
  2. Open terminal and run:
gcloud init
gcloud auth application-default login

This opens a browser to authenticate. Once done, your local environment can call Vertex AI.

Done! You have a project, Vertex AI is enabled, and you have credentials for local development.