google/skills API Examples: Complete Guide with Code Samples for Google Cloud Services

Yes, the google/skills repository provides extensive practical examples for working with Google Cloud APIs, organized as markdown-based Skill definitions with reference implementations in Python, Java, Go, REST, and Terraform.

The google/skills repository serves as a curated knowledge base where each Skill contains working code samples, authentication patterns, and Infrastructure-as-Code templates. Every Skill follows a consistent structure: a central SKILL.md file explaining concepts and prerequisites, plus language-specific reference files in references/*.md containing copy-paste-ready snippets.

What the google/skills API Provides

Each Skill in the repository represents a complete learning path for a Google Cloud service. According to the source code analysis, the repository covers Ads, Analytics, Spanner, Workload Manager, Cloud Storage, and other products.

The core components include:

• Skill definitions (SKILL.md) — High-level documentation listing concepts, OAuth scopes, and step-by-step workflows. Located at paths like skills/ads/google-ads-api-quickstart/SKILL.md.

• Reference implementations (references/*.md) — Concrete code snippets organized by language or usage style (REST, Terraform, CLI).

• Authentication patterns — Standardized examples using gcloud auth application-default login or service-account keys.

• Infrastructure-as-Code — Terraform modules for provisioning required resources.

Google Ads API Examples

Creating a Campaign via REST

The REST reference file at skills/ads/google-ads-api-quickstart/references/rest.md demonstrates direct HTTP calls using cURL:

curl -X POST "https://googleads.googleapis.com/v13/customers/INSERT_CUSTOMER_ID/campaigns:mutate" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
           "operations": [{
             "create": {
               "name": "Example Campaign",
               "advertisingChannelType": "SEARCH",
               "status": "PAUSED",
               "campaignBudget": "customers/INSERT_CUSTOMER_ID/campaignBudgets/INSERT_BUDGET_ID"
             }
           }]
         }'

Listing Campaigns with Python

The Python client library example in skills/ads/google-ads-api-quickstart/references/python.md uses the official google-ads package:

from google.ads.googleads.client import GoogleAdsClient

client = GoogleAdsClient.load_from_storage()
service = client.get_service("GoogleAdsService")

query = """
    SELECT campaign.id, campaign.name
    FROM campaign
    ORDER BY campaign.id
"""

response = service.search(customer_id="INSERT_CUSTOMER_ID", query=query)
for row in response:
    print(f"Campaign {row.campaign.id}: {row.campaign.name}")

Cloud Spanner API Examples

Provisioning with Terraform

The skills/cloud/spanner-basics/references/terraform-usage.md file contains complete Infrastructure-as-Code for creating instances and databases:

resource "google_spanner_instance" "example" {
  name         = "example-instance"
  config       = "regional-us-central1"
  display_name = "Example Spanner Instance"
  node_count   = 1
}

resource "google_spanner_database" "example" {
  name     = "example-database"
  instance = google_spanner_instance.example.name
  ddl = [
    "CREATE TABLE Users (UserId STRING(36) NOT NULL, Name STRING(100)) PRIMARY KEY (UserId)"
  ]
}

Google Analytics Data API Examples

Running Reports in Python

Located in skills/analytics/google-analytics-data-api-basics/references/python.md, this example demonstrates the BetaAnalyticsDataClient:

from google.analytics.data_v1beta import BetaAnalyticsDataClient
from google.analytics.data_v1beta.types import RunReportRequest

client = BetaAnalyticsDataClient()
request = RunReportRequest(
    property="properties/INSERT_PROPERTY_ID",
    dimensions=[{"name": "city"}],
    metrics=[{"name": "activeUsers"}],
    date_ranges=[{"start_date": "2024-01-01", "end_date": "2024-01-31"}],
)

response = client.run_report(request)
for row in response.rows:
    print(f"{row.dimension_values[0].value}: {row.metric_values[0].value}")

Cloud Storage API Examples

Direct HTTP Access with cURL

The skills/cloud/google-cloud-storage-basics/references/cli-api-usage.md file shows how to handle nextPageToken for pagination and includes this list-objects example:

curl -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  "https://storage.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b/PROJECT_ID/o?prefix=example-folder/"

Key Source Files in the google/skills Repository

File Path	Purpose
skills/ads/google-ads-api-quickstart/SKILL.md	Google Ads API quickstart guide with OAuth scopes and developer token instructions
skills/ads/google-ads-api-quickstart/references/rest.md	cURL examples for campaigns, budgets, and mutations
skills/ads/google-ads-api-quickstart/references/python.md	Python client library samples for resource management
skills/analytics/google-analytics-data-api-basics/SKILL.md	Analytics Data API overview with metrics and dimensions reference
skills/analytics/google-analytics-data-api-basics/references/python.md	BetaAnalyticsDataClient usage and report parsing
skills/cloud/spanner-basics/SKILL.md	Spanner schema design and best practices
skills/cloud/spanner-basics/references/terraform-usage.md	google_spanner_instance and google_spanner_database resources
skills/cloud/google-cloud-storage-basics/references/cli-api-usage.md	HTTP API calls with pagination handling

Authentication Pattern Across All Examples

Every google/skills API example follows the same authentication model:

1. For local development: Run gcloud auth application-default login to generate access tokens automatically via $(gcloud auth print-access-token).

2. For production: Use service-account keys with GoogleCredentials.get_application_default() as shown in the Analytics Data API Python snippet.

3. For REST calls: Pass the Bearer token in the Authorization header explicitly.

Summary

• The google/skills API organizes examples as Skills with SKILL.md concept guides and references/*.md implementation files.
• Google Ads API examples cover REST/cURL mutations and Python client library queries.
• Cloud Spanner provides Terraform modules for complete infrastructure provisioning.
• Analytics Data API demonstrates BetaAnalyticsDataClient for metric reporting.
• Cloud Storage includes pagination-aware HTTP examples.
• All examples use consistent OAuth 2.0 authentication patterns via Application Default Credentials.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find the right example for a specific Google Cloud service?

Navigate to the skills/ directory and locate the service folder—examples are grouped by product area (ads, analytics, cloud) with descriptive names like google-ads-api-quickstart or spanner-basics. Each folder contains a SKILL.md that links to all language-specific reference files.

Are the google/skills examples production-ready?

The examples demonstrate core API patterns with proper authentication and error-handling structures. For production, review the pagination loops in cli-api-usage.md and add your own retry logic, monitoring, and credential management beyond the sample code provided.

What languages does the google/skills API support?

Reference files exist for Python, Java, Go, .NET, PHP, Ruby, Node.js, plus REST/cURL for direct HTTP access and Terraform for infrastructure provisioning. Not every Skill includes every language; check the references/ folder contents for your target service.

How do I authenticate the examples without hardcoding credentials?

All examples expect Application Default Credentials. Run gcloud auth application-default login before executing Python samples, or use $(gcloud auth print-access-token) in shell commands to inject short-lived tokens automatically.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instagit": {
      "command": "npx",
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    }
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}