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GCP Auth Runbook — alai-cli-deployer SA (MC #9522)

GCP Auth Runbook (post-MC #9522)

Status

Active as of 2026-04-26. SA key created, activated, verified. Updated 2026-05-01 (MC #10428 trace): Added ADC bootstrap section — discovered impersonation pipeline (MC #8798) silently fails when ADC token expires/missing. Symptom: gcloud builds list returns "Reauthentication failed. cannot prompt during non-interactive execution."

ADC Bootstrap (REQUIRED — prerequisite for everything below)

The full auth pipeline (impersonation → SA → Cloud Run/Build/SQL) depends on a valid ADC token for the user account [email protected]. Without ADC, alai-auth.sh cannot mint an impersonation token, and EVERY downstream gcloud call fails.

ADC is separate from gcloud auth login. Two different stores:

  • gcloud auth login → CLI session token (used by gcloud CLI itself)
  • gcloud auth application-default login → ADC token at ~/.config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json (used by SDKs + impersonation)

One-time bootstrap (CEO only, ~30s)

gcloud auth application-default login

Browser opens → authorize [email protected] → ADC token persisted → done forever.

After this, ~/system/scripts/alai-auth.sh runs at every shell start (via ~/system/config/alai-auth.zsh) and at every macOS login (via com.alai.gcloud-auth.plist LaunchAgent), automatically activating SA impersonation. No further interactive auth needed.

Verify ADC is active

gcloud auth application-default print-access-token | head -c 10
# Expected: "ya29.c..." with no prompt

When ADC expires

ADC tokens have refresh tokens that last ~6 months unless explicitly revoked. If print-access-token errors with "Reauthentication failed" or "ADC not configured":

  1. Re-run gcloud auth application-default login (one-time, ~30s)
  2. Run bash ~/system/scripts/alai-auth.sh to re-activate impersonation immediately
  3. New shells inherit automatically

Primary auth

  • Service account: [email protected]
  • Key file: ~/.gcloud/alai-cli-deployer.json (mode 0600)
  • Key ID: 3f80565d05d4fad90b33dcd370252ba9454f0bf8
  • Bitwarden item: "GCP Service Account Key — alai-cli-deployer" (ID: 61b83543-31f0-4cd8-9b08-439c07d9b726)
  • Fallback accounts: [email protected], [email protected] (retained, not deleted)

Daily use

No login needed. gcloud commands authenticate via SA key automatically. The SA is set as default account: gcloud config set account alai-cli-deployer@...

Verification at any time:

gcloud auth list   # SA shows ACTIVE (*)
gcloud run services list --project tribal-sign-487920-k0 --region europe-north1

Key rotation (every 90 days — next due 2026-07-26)

# 1. Get existing key IDs
gcloud iam service-accounts keys list \
  --iam-account=alai-cli-deployer@tribal-sign-487920-k0.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
  --project=tribal-sign-487920-k0

# 2. Create new key (requires org policy exception — see below)
gcloud iam service-accounts keys create ~/.gcloud/alai-cli-deployer-new.json \
  --iam-account=alai-cli-deployer@tribal-sign-487920-k0.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
  --project=tribal-sign-487920-k0
chmod 0600 ~/.gcloud/alai-cli-deployer-new.json

# 3. Activate new key
gcloud auth activate-service-account \
  [email protected] \
  --key-file=/Users/makinja/.gcloud/alai-cli-deployer-new.json

# 4. Test it works
gcloud run services list --project tribal-sign-487920-k0 --region europe-north1

# 5. Delete old key (use KEY_ID from step 1)
gcloud iam service-accounts keys delete OLD_KEY_ID \
  --iam-account=alai-cli-deployer@tribal-sign-487920-k0.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
  --project=tribal-sign-487920-k0

# 6. Swap file and update Bitwarden
mv ~/.gcloud/alai-cli-deployer-new.json ~/.gcloud/alai-cli-deployer.json
# Update Bitwarden item with new key content (bw edit item <ID>)

Org policy note (IMPORTANT for key rotation)

The org policy constraints/iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation is enforced org-wide. To create a new key during rotation, temporarily allow at project level:

# 1. Allow (run as [email protected])
gcloud config set account [email protected]
cat > /tmp/policy-allow.yaml << 'YAML'
name: projects/762788903040/policies/iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation
spec:
  rules:
  - enforce: false
YAML
gcloud org-policies set-policy /tmp/policy-allow.yaml

# 2. Wait ~30-90s for propagation, then create key (see rotation steps above)

# 3. Restore restriction after key created
gcloud org-policies delete constraints/iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation \
  --project=tribal-sign-487920-k0

# 4. Switch back to SA account
gcloud config set account [email protected]

Recovery (if key file lost)

  1. CEO Alem: gcloud auth login with [email protected] (one-time interactive)
  2. Retrieve key from Bitwarden: bw get item "GCP Service Account Key — alai-cli-deployer" --session $(cat /tmp/bw-session) | jq -r .notes > ~/.gcloud/alai-cli-deployer.json && chmod 0600 ~/.gcloud/alai-cli-deployer.json
  3. Activate: gcloud auth activate-service-account [email protected] --key-file=/Users/makinja/.gcloud/alai-cli-deployer.json
  4. Set default: gcloud config set account [email protected]
  5. Verify: gcloud run services list --project tribal-sign-487920-k0 --region europe-north1

Recovery (if Bitwarden unavailable — last resort)

If key file AND Bitwarden lost, follow key rotation procedure:

  1. CEO Alem runs gcloud auth login (one-time interactive)
  2. Apply org policy override (see above)
  3. Create new key
  4. Activate, store in Bitwarden, restore policy

Future work

  • cloudflared: Already using API token from Bitwarden — no daily friction
  • Vercel: VERCEL_TOKEN in env — no daily friction
  • AWS CLI (Drop deploy): Consider IAM role + STS or long-lived access key — not yet resolved
  • Workload Identity Federation: If Alem adds additional machines/CI, WIF is preferable over key files (no key rotation needed). Requires SA binding to external identity provider.

Security notes

  • Key file at ~/.gcloud/alai-cli-deployer.json is local convenience copy only
  • Bitwarden is source of truth for key recovery
  • DO NOT commit key file to any git repo (it's in ~/.gcloud, outside all repos)
  • DO NOT share key file over email/Slack — use Bitwarden item share
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