Here is the command list with an additional explanation and its web-development usage:
- Activate the Python virtual environment:
source venv/bin/activate
Description: Activates the project’s isolated Python environment, so Python and pip use project-specific packages.
Web-development usage: Prevents dependencies from differentPython web projects—such as Django, Flask, FastAPI, or ADK—from conflicting.
- Confirm which Python installation is active:
which python
Description: Displays the filesystem path of the Python executable currently being used.
Web-development usage: Confirms that your terminal is using the project’s virtual-environment Python instead of the system Python.
- Check the installed Google ADK version:
adk --version
Description: Prints the installed version of the Google Agent Development Kit command-line tool.
Web-development usage: Helps verify compatibility when developing an AI agent that will connect to a website or web application.
- Display information about the installed ADK package:
pip show google-adk
Description: Shows the package version, installation location, dependencies, and other metadata.
Web-development usage: Useful for debugging missing packages, dependency conflicts, or differences between development and deployment environments.
- Start the ADK web interface from the current project:
adk web .
Description: Starts ADK’s local development server and web interface using the project in the current directory.
Web-development usage: Lets you test and interact with an AI agent through a browser before connecting it to your production website.
- Stop the running ADK server:
Ctrl+C
Description: Sends an interrupt signal to the active terminal process and stops the local server.
Web-development usage: Used to stop a development server before changing configuration, installing packages, or restarting the application.
Ctrl+C stops ADK, but it does not exit the virtual environment.
- Exit the virtual environment:
deactivate
Description: Returns the terminal to the system’s default Python environment.
Web-development usage: Useful when you finish working on one Python web project and want to switch to another environment or project.
- Open the current folder in macOS Finder:
open .
Description: Opens the terminal’s current directory in the macOS Finder application.
Web-development usage: Makes it convenient to inspect, move, or open project files with graphical applications and code editors.
- Display the
.envfile:
cat .env
Description: Prints the contents of the project’s environment-variable file in the terminal.
Web-development usage: Helps inspect configuration values such as database addresses, API endpoints, secret keys, ports, and environment settings.
Be careful: .env may contain API keys and passwords. Never share its output, commit it to Git, or include it in screenshots.
A safer way to list only the variable names is:
sed 's/=.*$/=***HIDDEN***/' .env
- List deployed Cloud Run services:
gcloud run services list
Description: Lists the Cloud Run services available in the active Google Cloud project.
Web-development usage: Helps locate deployed websites, APIs, backends, webhooks, and AI-agent services, along with their regions and URLs.
If necessary, specify the project and region:
gcloud run services list --project=YOUR_PROJECT_ID --region=YOUR_REGION
This is helpful when your local gcloud configuration points to a different project or default region.
- Check whether the Cloud Run API is enabled:
gcloud services list --enabled | grep run.googleapis.com
Description: Lists enabled Google Cloud APIs and filters the results for the Cloud Run API.
Web-development usage: Cloud Run cannot deploy or manage a containerized web application until its required API is enabled.
If nothing is returned, enable it with:
gcloud services enable run.googleapis.com
This prepares the active Google Cloud project to deploy web applications, APIs, and agent services on Cloud Run.