gcloud: is it possible to change the default project based on the current folder?

Question

I'm working on several gcloud projects and I'm tired of having to type out --project XYZ every time I need to call a command, or worse having the command execute on the wrong project if I forget to add that in.

Answer 1

Yes, by using gcloud configurations together with direnv.

Create a configuration (this will also activate it):

• gcloud config configurations create <cool_new_config>
• gcloud config set project <project>

Install direnv. Hook it into your shell. With bash I used ~/.bash_profile instead of directed ~/.bashrc.

Navigate to the project folder where you want the switch to occur.

• create a file named .envrc
• add line export CLOUDSDK_ACTIVE_CONFIG_NAME=<cool_new_config>
• whitelist file with direnv allow

Verify functionality:

• open a new terminal window
• active the default/prior configuration
• navigate to folder
• confirm with gcloud config configurations list

Optional: rebuild the rest of the configuration

• view all configurations: gcloud config configurations list
• describe old configuration gcloud config configurations describe <default>
• login: gcloud auth login
• set region: gcloud config set compute/region <us-central1>
• set zone: gcloud config set compute/zone <us-central1-a>
• etc.