Google Cloud OS Login API
Browse all Google APIs38
AI ReadinessNon-Ready (F)38/100
Official vendor OpenAPI document · agent-readyIdentity AuthDirectory Servicesoauth26 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Manage SSH key bindings and POSIX login profiles for Google Cloud users so VM access flows through IAM rather than per-host key files.
Use for: Get the OS Login profile for the authenticated Google user, Import a new SSH public key for a user who is onboarding, Delete an SSH key that has been compromised, Update the expiry of an SSH public key
Not supported: Does not authenticate SSH sessions, manage VM metadata, or create user accounts - use for SSH key bindings and POSIX login profile reads only.
The Cloud OS Login API manages SSH access to Google Compute Engine VMs through IAM identities rather than per-VM key files. It exposes the user's login profile (POSIX username, UID/GID, secondary aliases) and lets administrators import, delete, and update SSH public keys associated with that identity. Use it to centralise SSH access management, remove a former employee's keys across all VMs at once, or build automation that issues short-lived SSH keys to engineers. The spec exposes 6 endpoints.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Cloud OS Login API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Cloud OS Login API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fgoogleapis.com%2Foslogin" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fgoogleapis.com%2Foslogin" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Cloud OS Login API.
Read a user's OS Login profile including POSIX username, UID, and home directory
Import a new SSH public key for an authenticated Google identity
Delete an SSH public key when an employee leaves or rotates credentials
Update an existing SSH public key's expiry or fingerprint metadata
List the SSH public keys currently associated with a user account
Resolve a Google identity to its POSIX login profile across the project's VM fleet
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Cloud OS Login API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Centralised SSH key lifecycle
Replace per-VM SSH key files with IAM-driven access by importing each engineer's public key once via OS Login. The API binds the key to a Google identity, and every VM with OS Login enabled accepts it automatically. Removing a key removes access fleet-wide - a single source of truth for SSH access management.
Import a new SSH public key for user alice@example.com via POST /v1/{+parent}:importSshPublicKey and confirm by listing the keys on her login profile.
Rapid revocation on offboarding
When an engineer leaves, delete their SSH public keys via OS Login to revoke access from every VM that uses OS Login at once. The alternative - pruning authorized_keys files VM by VM - is slow and error-prone. This use case turns access revocation into a single API call instead of an audit project.
List all SSH public keys for user bob@example.com via GET /v1/{+name}/loginProfile and DELETE /v1/{+name} for each fingerprint to revoke fleet access.
Short-lived SSH keys for engineers
Issue short-lived SSH public keys that expire after a defined interval, and let the OS Login API enforce the expiry across the fleet. The expirationTimeUsec field on imported keys means an automation can mint a key valid for a few hours, ship it to the engineer's local agent, and never need to remember to revoke it.
Import an SSH public key for user alice@example.com with expirationTimeUsec set to 4 hours from now via POST /v1/{+parent}:importSshPublicKey.
Agent-driven SSH access management via Jentic
An access agent reacting to a JIT request - for example, an engineer asking for VM access via Slack - can use Jentic to import a key with the correct expiry and reply with the VM hostname. Credentials stay in your Jentic One instance, so the agent runs under scoped admin tokens with audit trail.
Use Jentic to find the import-ssh-key operation, load its schema, and import a public key for the requesting user with a 60-minute expiry.
Key Endpoints
6 endpoints — the cloud os login api manages ssh access to google compute engine vms through iam identities rather than per-vm key files.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/v1/{+name}/loginProfile
Get the user's OS Login profile
POST
/v1/{+parent}:importSshPublicKey
Import an SSH public key
POST
/v1/{+parent}/sshPublicKeys
Create an SSH public key entry
PATCH
/v1/{+name}
Update an SSH public key's metadata
DELETE
/v1/{+name}
Delete an SSH public key
GET
/v1/{+name}/loginProfile
Get the user's OS Login profile
POST
/v1/{+parent}:importSshPublicKey
Import an SSH public key
POST
/v1/{+parent}/sshPublicKeys
Create an SSH public key entry
PATCH
/v1/{+name}
Update an SSH public key's metadata
DELETE
/v1/{+name}
Delete an SSH public key
Jentic AI Readiness Score
This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.
C
Cloud OS Login API
- Non-Ready (F)38/100
59
Foundational Compliance56
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility16
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience94
Agent Usability63
Security69
AI DiscoverabilityPowered by JenticScoring Framework 1.0.0 | Scoring Engine 0.4.0
Show dimension breakdown
59
Foundational Compliance
Base layer of spec validity and structural soundness.
Grade: C+Signals: 4
86%
Lint Results
Aggregated quality score from linter diagnostics, weighted by severity.
100%
Resolution Completeness
Percentage of `$ref` references that resolve successfully.
0%
Specification Validity
Checks whether the API description parses successfully and conforms to its declared specification (e.g., OpenAPI).
50%
Structural Integrity
Structural correctness score based on schema issues using logarithmic dampening.
56
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility
Clarity, completeness, and ingestion readiness for developers and tooling.
Grade: CSignals: 4
0%
Example Density
How richly the API is illustrated with examples.
100%
Example Validity
Percentage of examples that conform to their schemas.
25%
Response Coverage
Percentage of operations with complete response definitions (success, client error, server error).
100%
Tooling Readiness
Health of API ingestion, bundling, and resolution within Jentic pipelines.
16
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience
Semantic breadth, depth, and agent comprehension for AI systems.
Grade: FSignals: 4
64%
Description Coverage
Coverage of descriptions across API elements.
0%
Error Standardization
Coverage of RFC 9457 Problem Details for error responses.
0%
OperationId Quality
Coverage, uniqueness, and casing consistency of operationIds for AI inference.
0%
Summary Coverage
Coverage of summaries across operations/tags/info.
94
Agent Usability
Functional utility, complexity comfort, and AI orchestration readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
94%
Complexity Comfort
Agent comfort level based on API operational and structural complexity.
63
Security
Trust, risk posture, and security compliance.
Grade: B-Signals: 1
62%
Authentication Strength
Average quality of security schemes based on authentication method strength (weakest link for OAuth2).
69
AI Discoverability
Findability, semantic richness, and reasoning readiness.
Grade: B+Signals: 1
69%
Descriptive Richness
Clarity and depth of descriptions across API elements.
Score it yourself
Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring the Cloud OS Login API by hand means configuring Google OAuth 2.0 from a service account, minting scoped tokens, and managing SSH key and login-profile resource paths against oslogin.googleapis.com yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the Cloud OS Login API from the API Directory, store the OAuth credential once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
The Cloud OS Login API puts the profile and SSH key in the URL path (/v1/{+name}/loginProfile, /v1/{+parent}:importSshPublicKey), so a rule can pin your agent to one login profile: it can read the profile and import SSH keys there and nothing else. You choose the operations it may call, so destructive ones like SSH key deletion are not included unless you add them.
Credential isolation
Your Google OAuth credential for the Cloud OS Login API is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'import an SSH key' or 'read a POSIX login profile', and Jentic returns the matching OS Login operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Cloud OS Login API through Jentic.
What authentication does the Cloud OS Login API use?
The API uses Google OAuth 2.0 with the cloud-platform or compute scope, plus the relevant OS Login admin or self-management role. Through Jentic, tokens come from a service account in your Jentic One instance.
Can I delete an SSH key for a user who has left?
Yes. List the user's keys via GET /v1/{+name}/loginProfile, then DELETE /v1/{+name} for each public key fingerprint. The change propagates to every VM that uses OS Login.
What are the rate limits for the OS Login API?
Google Cloud meters profile reads and key writes under per-project quotas. Bulk imports should batch and back off; treat key propagation to VMs as eventually consistent in the order of seconds.
How do I import an SSH key through Jentic?
Search Jentic for import ssh public key, load the schema for POST /v1/{+parent}:importSshPublicKey, and execute it with the public key and an optional expirationTimeUsec. Jentic returns the resulting profile so the agent can confirm the binding.
Does this API authenticate the SSH session itself?
No - actual SSH authentication happens on each VM by the OS Login PAM module, which validates the inbound key against this API's bindings. This API only stores the bindings and profile data.
How do I find a user's POSIX username?
Call GET /v1/{+name}/loginProfile with the user resource name and read the posixAccounts field; each entry includes the username and UID assigned for OS Login.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Cloud OS Login API?
Yes. Because Jentic One is self-hosted, your own rules decide which operations and credentials the agent may use, and the Cloud OS Login API carries the profile and key in the URL path, so you can pin the agent to a single login profile and let it read that profile and import SSH keys there and nothing else. You choose the operations it may call, so destructive ones such as deleting an SSH public key stay out of reach unless you explicitly add them. The Google OAuth credential is stored once by your own instance and injected at execution time, never entering the agent's prompt or logs.
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