Google Cloud ADK Application Workflow

Overview

Guide a Google ADK application through its current lifecycle: inspect, scaffold, run, evaluate, deploy, publish, and observe. Prefer Google's actively maintained agents-cli. Agent Starter Pack is in maintenance mode and should be treated as a migration source, not the default for new work.

This skill creates Google-hosted agent applications. It does not create Claude Code subagent definition files; route those requests to agent-creator.

Prerequisites

• Identify whether the target is new, an existing ADK app, or an Agent Starter Pack project that needs migration.
• Confirm the local project path and read its instructions.
• For current-version questions, use WebFetch on official Google documentation or WebSearch restricted to official Google domains.
• For existing code, use Glob, Grep, and Read to establish its actual framework, configuration, tests, and deployment lane before recommending work.
• Do not require Google Cloud for local development; AI Studio credentials may support a local-only workflow. Cloud deployment does require a Google project.

Instructions

1. Classify the request as build, enhance, evaluate, deploy, publish, observe, or migrate. State which lifecycle stage is in scope.

2. Inspect the local repository before proposing changes. Preserve working agent code, evaluation datasets, Terraform, and CI/CD during migrations.

3. Verify current CLI syntax from the installed command or official docs. Start from these maintained entry points:

   uvx google-agents-cli setup
   agents-cli create PROJECT_NAME
   agents-cli scaffold enhance
   agents-cli scaffold upgrade

4. For implementation guidance, define the ADK agent, tools, state, callbacks, error contracts, and tests before selecting infrastructure. Use the detailed lifecycle reference for current command families.

5. Validate locally with the generated project's own commands. Current agents-cli releases expose install, lint, run, and the eval command group. Do not claim success without the actual command receipt.

6. For deployment, distinguish Agent Runtime, Cloud Run, and GKE. Inspect agents-cli deploy --help for the installed version and present project, region, identity, secrets, APIs, quotas, and rollback before any mutation.

7. For Gemini Enterprise registration, use the current publish gemini-enterprise workflow and require a separate approval.

8. For Agent Starter Pack projects, follow Google's migration guide. Do not recreate removed templates or old Makefile commands.

Output

• Lifecycle stage and selected architecture
• Source evidence: inspected files and official documentation version/date
• Exact commands proposed or run
• Tool, state, authentication, and secret contracts
• Verification results from lint, smoke tests, evaluations, and deployment checks
• Remaining risks, costs to verify, and the next approval boundary

Error Handling

Examples

• "Create a new Google ADK support agent." Inspect prerequisites, propose agents-cli create, define the tool and evaluation contract, and wait before scaffolding.
• "Modernize this Agent Starter Pack project." Inventory the project, follow the official migration path, preserve code and infrastructure, then run the upgraded verification lane.
• "Deploy this ADK app." Verify local tests and evals, compare supported runtimes, show the exact deployment plan, and wait for approval.

Resources

• Lifecycle and command reference
• Reference index
• Google agents-cli
• Google agents-cli documentation
• Google ADK documentation
• Agent Starter Pack migration guide