How to Secure AI Agents on Google Cloud Platform

SafeClaw by Authensor enforces deny-by-default action gating for AI agents deployed on Google Cloud Platform. It intercepts every action your Claude or OpenAI-powered agent attempts — file access, shell commands, network requests — and checks it against a YAML policy before execution proceeds. Install with npx @authensor/safeclaw and lock down your GCP agent deployment in minutes.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ in your build environment
• A GCP project with appropriate IAM permissions
• An AI agent using any supported LLM provider

Step 1 — Install SafeClaw

npx @authensor/safeclaw

SafeClaw is MIT-licensed, zero-dependency, and backed by 446 tests. It scaffolds a safeclaw.config.yaml policy and integrates into your agent runtime.

Step 2 — Write a GCP-Tailored Policy

version: 1
defaultAction: deny

rules:
  - action: "file:read"
    path: "/app/**"
    effect: allow

- action: "file:write"
    path: "/tmp/**"
    effect: allow

- action: "network:request"
    host: "storage.googleapis.com"
    effect: allow

- action: "network:request"
    host: "*.googleapis.com"
    method: "GET"
    effect: allow

- action: "network:request"
    host: "*.googleapis.com"
    method: "DELETE"
    effect: deny
    reason: "Agent cannot delete GCP resources"

- action: "env:read"
    key: "GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS"
    effect: deny
    reason: "Agent must not read service account key paths"

- action: "shell:execute"
    command: "gcloud *"
    effect: deny
    reason: "Direct gcloud CLI usage blocked"

Step 3 — Deploy on Cloud Run

Cloud Run is the most common target for containerized agents on GCP. In your Dockerfile:

FROM node:20-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --production
COPY . .
RUN npx @authensor/safeclaw
CMD ["node", "agent.js"]

Deploy with a dedicated service account:

gcloud run deploy ai-agent \
  --image gcr.io/my-project/ai-agent:latest \
  --service-account agent-runner@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
  --no-allow-unauthenticated

SafeClaw gates actions inside the container. The service account gates access to GCP APIs. Together they provide defense-in-depth.

Step 4 — Deploy on GKE

For Kubernetes-based deployments, include SafeClaw in your container image and mount the policy as a ConfigMap:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: safeclaw-policy
data:
  safeclaw.config.yaml: |
    version: 1
    defaultAction: deny
    rules:
      - action: "file:read"
        path: "/app/**"
        effect: allow
      - action: "network:request"
        host: "storage.googleapis.com"
        effect: allow

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: ai-agent
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: agent
          image: gcr.io/my-project/ai-agent:latest
          volumeMounts:
            - name: policy
              mountPath: /app/safeclaw.config.yaml
              subPath: safeclaw.config.yaml
      volumes:
        - name: policy
          configMap:
            name: safeclaw-policy

Use Workload Identity to bind a scoped GCP service account to the Kubernetes service account running your agent pod.

Step 5 — Deploy on Cloud Functions

For event-driven agents triggered by Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage, or HTTP:

import { createSafeClawGate } from "@authensor/safeclaw";

const gate = createSafeClawGate({ policy: "./safeclaw.config.yaml" });

export async function agentHandler(req, res) {
  const agent = buildAgent({ gate });
  const result = await agent.run(req.body);
  res.json(result);
}

Set audit.sink: "stdout" so Cloud Logging automatically captures the hash-chained audit trail.

Step 6 — Deploy on Compute Engine

For VM-based deployments, install SafeClaw as part of your startup script:

#!/bin/bash
cd /opt/agent
npm ci --production
npx @authensor/safeclaw
node agent.js

Attach a service account with minimal IAM roles. SafeClaw blocks the agent from reading the VM metadata server credentials directly:

rules:
  - action: "network:request"
    host: "metadata.google.internal"
    effect: deny
    reason: "Block metadata server credential access"

Step 7 — Verify Audit Integrity

npx @authensor/safeclaw audit verify --last 100

Every action your agent attempted — allowed or denied — is logged in a tamper-proof hash chain. Export the log to Cloud Storage for long-term compliance retention.

Related Pages

• SafeClaw vs. Cloud IAM
• Zero-Trust AI Agent Architecture
• Hash-Chained Audit Logs Deep Dive
• Container Isolation for AI Agents