What it needs, and what it does when something it wants is not there.
13 Ventura or later. One universal binary covers Apple silicon and Intel.
GCloud-Dot-x.y.z.dmg10 version 1809 or later, 64 bit. Installs per user, with no administrator rights.
GCloud-Dot-x.y.z-setup.exeglibc 2.31 or later, Ubuntu 20.04 and anything newer. x86-64 and aarch64.
gcloud-dot_x.y.z_amd64.debGCloud Dot monitors gcloud; it does not install or replace it.
It looks in every standard install location and, on macOS and Linux, asks
your login shell as a fallback, which matters because an app started by
launchd or a desktop session inherits almost none of your PATH.
If gcloud is not installed, the app still runs and shows a grey dot saying so. It keeps watching, so installing the SDK later is noticed without a restart.
You can point it at a specific binary with the
GCLOUD_DOT_GCLOUD environment variable.
None, on any platform. No Accessibility, no Screen Recording, no administrator or root, no elevated installer. The app reads gcloud's own configuration directory, runs the gcloud binary, and draws an icon. There is no operating system permission covering any of that, which is why you are never asked for one.
The tray needs a StatusNotifier host. Most desktops have one built in, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, Budgie, XFCE, and the common tiling setups with a bar such as Waybar or Polybar.
GNOME has shipped no system tray since 3.26. Without the AppIndicator support extension there is nowhere for the dot to go. GCloud Dot detects this at startup and tells you, rather than launching into an invisible tray and appearing broken.
Packages depend on libgtk-3, libwebkit2gtk-4.1, libxdo3,
and libdbus-1 for the tray and the details window, and only recommend
libayatana-appindicator3. The recommendation is deliberate:
without it the dot cannot appear, but gcloud-dot the command
still works perfectly, and on a headless machine that command is the whole
interface.
Install only the command:
GCloud Dotcurl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nicglazkov/gcloud-dot/main/install/install.sh | sh -s -- --no-guiThe command links against nothing graphical, which continuous integration checks on every commit by building it on a machine with no desktop libraries installed at all.