GKE "gke-gcloud-auth-plugin ... not found" in CI

By Daniel Zoghalchali·Latchkey

Recent kubectl no longer ships the in-tree gcp auth provider. GKE kubeconfigs reference an external gke-gcloud-auth-plugin binary, and if it is not installed on the runner, kubectl cannot authenticate to the cluster.

What this error means

kubectl against a GKE cluster fails with "gke-gcloud-auth-plugin ... not found" or "no Auth Provider found for name \"gcp\"" right after get-credentials succeeds.

Unable to connect to the server: getting credentials: exec: executable
gke-gcloud-auth-plugin not found

It looks like you are trying to use a client-go credential plugin that is not installed.

Common causes

The auth plugin component is not installed

The runner has gcloud and kubectl but not the gke-gcloud-auth-plugin component, which newer kubeconfigs require.

The plugin is installed but not on PATH

It was installed to a gcloud directory that the kubectl step does not have on PATH, so the exec lookup fails.

How to fix it

Install the auth plugin component

1. Install gke-gcloud-auth-plugin via the gcloud components or the package.
2. Re-run get-credentials so the kubeconfig references the installed plugin.
3. Confirm kubectl can reach the cluster.

gcloud components install gke-gcloud-auth-plugin
gcloud container clusters get-credentials my-cluster --region us-central1

Install via apt on Debian/Ubuntu runners

On apt-based runners the plugin ships as its own package.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y google-cloud-cli-gke-gcloud-auth-plugin

How to prevent it

• Install gke-gcloud-auth-plugin in the runner image or a setup step.
• Use the official setup-gcloud action with the auth plugin component enabled.
• Ensure the gcloud bin directory is on PATH for kubectl steps.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• Terraform documentation
• GitHub Actions documentation