google-agents-cli-publish

name: google-agents-cli-publish description: > This skill should be used when the user wants to "publish an agent", "publish my ADK agent", "register an agent with Gemini Enterprise", "publish to Gemini Enterprise", or needs guidance on the agents-cli publish gemini-enterprise command. Also use when the user wants to "manage agents in Agent Registry" or "list/update/delete registered agents". Covers ADK vs A2A registration modes, programmatic and interactive usage, flag reference, auto-detection from deployment metadata, Agent Registry fleet management, and troubleshooting. Part of the Google ADK (Agent Development Kit) skills suite. Do NOT use for deployment (use google-agents-cli-deploy). metadata: author: Google license: Apache-2.0 version: 0.6.0 requires: bins: - agents-cli install: "uv tool install google-agents-cli"

Gemini Enterprise Registration

Requires: A deployed agent. For Agent Runtime, deployment_metadata.json (created by agents-cli deploy) enables auto-detection. For Cloud Run or GKE, provide the agent card URL and flags directly.

Prerequisites

1. Agent must be deployed — the agent must be running and reachable
2. Gemini Enterprise app must exist — Create one in Google Cloud Console → Gemini Enterprise → Apps before registering
3. deployment_metadata.json (Agent Runtime only) — Created automatically by agents-cli deploy; contains the agent runtime ID, deployment target, the A2A flag, and the agent directory

Required Permissions for A2A on Cloud Run

• roles/run.servicesInvoker granted to the Discovery Engine service account (service-<PROJECT_NUMBER>@gcp-sa-discoveryengine.iam.gserviceaccount.com) on the Cloud Run service.

Registration Modes

A2A Registration (default)

Every scaffolded agent serves the Agent-to-Agent protocol, so A2A is the default on every deployment target — Agent Runtime included. Pass the agent card URL and the command fetches the card and registers it; display name and description default to the card's name/description.

# A2A on Agent Runtime (card served through the /api passthrough)
agents-cli publish gemini-enterprise \
  --agent-card-url "https://us-east1-aiplatform.googleapis.com/reasoningEngines/v1/projects/123456/locations/us-east1/reasoningEngines/789/api/a2a/app/.well-known/agent-card.json" \
  --gemini-enterprise-app-id projects/123456/locations/global/collections/default_collection/engines/my-app

# A2A on Cloud Run / GKE
agents-cli publish gemini-enterprise \
  --agent-card-url https://my-service-abc123.us-east1.run.app/a2a/app/.well-known/agent-card.json \
  --gemini-enterprise-app-id projects/123456/locations/global/collections/default_collection/engines/my-app

Pass --display-name / --description to override the card defaults. On Agent Runtime, --agent-card-url can be omitted when deployment_metadata.json is present — see Auto-Detection from Metadata.

OAuth authorization is not supported yet for A2A on Agent Runtime. If your agent needs an OAuth authorization (--authorization-id), register it as ADK instead (--registration-type adk) — Gemini Enterprise invokes it natively via :streamQuery, which does support authorizations.

ADK Registration

Opt in with --registration-type adk for Agent Runtime agents you want Gemini Enterprise to invoke natively via :streamQuery instead of over A2A — also the path to use when the agent needs an OAuth authorization (--authorization-id), which A2A on Agent Runtime does not yet support. The agent is registered directly via its reasoning engine resource name.

agents-cli publish gemini-enterprise \
  --registration-type adk \
  --agent-runtime-id projects/123456/locations/us-east1/reasoningEngines/789 \
  --gemini-enterprise-app-id projects/123456/locations/global/collections/default_collection/engines/my-app \
  --display-name "My Agent" \
  --description "Handles customer queries" \
  --tool-description "Answers questions about products"

Programmatic Mode (CI/CD)

The command is non-interactive by default — pass all required values via flags or environment variables. This makes it safe for CI/CD pipelines.

Via flags

agents-cli publish gemini-enterprise \
  --agent-runtime-id "$AGENT_RUNTIME_ID" \
  --gemini-enterprise-app-id "$GEMINI_ENTERPRISE_APP_ID" \
  --display-name "Production Agent" \
  --registration-type adk

Via environment variables

Most flags have an env var alternative (--metadata-file, --interactive, and --list do not):

export AGENT_RUNTIME_ID="projects/123456/locations/us-east1/reasoningEngines/789"
export GEMINI_ENTERPRISE_APP_ID="projects/123456/locations/global/collections/default_collection/engines/my-app"
export GEMINI_DISPLAY_NAME="Production Agent"
export GEMINI_DESCRIPTION="Handles customer queries"

agents-cli publish gemini-enterprise

Interactive Mode (--interactive)

Pass --interactive (or -i) to be guided through any missing values with interactive prompts. The command will list available Gemini Enterprise apps, offer to auto-detect the agent runtime ID from metadata, and prompt for display name and description.

agents-cli publish gemini-enterprise --interactive

Complete Flag Reference

Auto-Detection from Metadata

When deployment_metadata.json exists, the command automatically:

• Reads the agent runtime ID (remote_agent_runtime_id)
• Determines the registration type: defaults to A2A on every deployment target, since every scaffolded agent serves A2A. Opt into native ADK invocation (:streamQuery) with --registration-type adk on Agent Runtime.
• Constructs the agent card URL for A2A registrations on Agent Runtime. The card is served through the Agent Engine /api passthrough, so the URL is https://{location}-aiplatform.googleapis.com/reasoningEngines/v1/{resource}/api/a2a/{agent_directory}/.well-known/agent-card.json — built from remote_agent_runtime_id and agent_directory in deployment_metadata.json (re-deploy if the metadata predates agent_directory).
• Determines the deployment target for authentication

This means that for the simplest case (an A2A agent on Agent Runtime), you only need to provide the Gemini Enterprise app ID:

agents-cli publish gemini-enterprise \
  --gemini-enterprise-app-id projects/123456/locations/global/collections/default_collection/engines/my-app

SDK Compatibility

Agent Runtime deployments may encounter "Session not found" errors with google-cloud-aiplatform versions <= 1.128.0. In interactive mode (--interactive), the command checks the SDK version from uv.lock and offers to upgrade. In programmatic mode, ensure your SDK is up to date before registering.

Managing Agents in Agent Registry

Agent Registry (Preview) is the Google Cloud fleet-wide record of your agents. Agents deployed to a managed runtime (Agent Runtime on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) are auto-registered — no extra step after agents-cli deploy. Manage them with gcloud (requires roles/agentregistry.editor):

# List / filter
gcloud alpha agent-registry agents list --project PROJECT --location LOCATION
gcloud alpha agent-registry agents list --filter="displayName:my-agent"

# Inspect
gcloud alpha agent-registry agents describe AGENT_NAME

# Update endpoint/metadata — edit the Service resource, not the Agent
gcloud alpha agent-registry services update AGENT_NAME \
  --display-name "..." --description "..." \
  --interfaces "url=ENDPOINT_URL,protocol=HTTP_JSON"

# Remove: delete the underlying runtime agent (auto-registered) OR, for
# manually registered agents, delete the Service resource
gcloud alpha agent-registry services delete AGENT_NAME

Docs: https://docs.cloud.google.com/agent-registry/manage-agents

Troubleshooting

Related Skills

• /google-agents-cli-deploy — Deployment targets, CI/CD pipelines, and production workflows
• /google-agents-cli-workflow — Development workflow, coding guidelines, and operational rules
• /google-agents-cli-scaffold — Project creation and enhancement with agents-cli scaffold create / scaffold enhance