# [Google Compute Engine: Node.js Client](https://github.com/googleapis/nodejs-compute) [](https://cloud.google.com/terms/launch-stages) [](https://circleci.com/gh/googleapis/nodejs-compute) [](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/googleapis/nodejs-compute) [](https://codecov.io/gh/googleapis/nodejs-compute) > Node.js idiomatic client for [Compute Engine][product-docs]. [Compute Engine](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/) lets you create and run virtual machines on Google infrastructure. Compute Engine offers scale, performance, and value that allows you to easily launch large compute clusters on Google's infrastructure. There are no upfront investments and you can run thousands of virtual CPUs on a system that has been designed to be fast, and to offer strong consistency of performance. * [Compute Engine Node.js Client API Reference][client-docs] * [github.com/googleapis/nodejs-compute](https://github.com/googleapis/nodejs-compute) * [Compute Engine Documentation][product-docs] Read more about the client libraries for Cloud APIs, including the older Google APIs Client Libraries, in [Client Libraries Explained][explained]. [explained]: https://cloud.google.com/apis/docs/client-libraries-explained **Table of contents:** * [Quickstart](#quickstart) * [Before you begin](#before-you-begin) * [Installing the client library](#installing-the-client-library) * [Using the client library](#using-the-client-library) * [Samples](#samples) * [Versioning](#versioning) * [Contributing](#contributing) * [License](#license) ## Quickstart ### Before you begin 1. Select or create a Cloud Platform project. [Go to the projects page][projects] 1. Enable billing for your project. [Enable billing][billing] 1. Enable the Google Compute Engine API. [Enable the API][enable_api] 1. [Set up authentication with a service account][auth] so you can access the API from your local workstation. [projects]: https://console.cloud.google.com/project [billing]: https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6293499#enable-billing [enable_api]: https://console.cloud.google.com/flows/enableapi?apiid=compute.googleapis.com [auth]: https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/getting-started ### Installing the client library npm install --save @google-cloud/compute ### Using the client library ```javascript // Imports the Google Cloud client library const Compute = require('@google-cloud/compute'); // Creates a client const compute = new Compute(); // Create a new VM using the latest OS image of your choice. const zone = compute.zone('us-central1-a'); const name = 'ubuntu-http'; zone .createVM(name, {os: 'ubuntu'}, data => { // `operation` lets you check the status of long-running tasks. const vm = data[0]; const operation = data[1]; return operation.promise(); }) .then(() => { // Virtual machine created! }) .catch(err => { console.error('ERROR:', err); });; ``` ## Samples Samples are in the [`samples/`](https://github.com/googleapis/nodejs-compute/tree/master/samples) directory. The samples' `README.md` has instructions for running the samples. | Sample | Source Code | Try it | | --------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------ | | Virtual Machines | [source code](https://github.com/googleapis/nodejs-compute/blob/master/samples/vms.js) | [![Open in Cloud Shell][shell_img]](https://console.cloud.google.com/cloudshell/open?git_repo=https://github.com/googleapis/nodejs-compute&page=editor&open_in_editor=samples/vms.js,samples/README.md) | The [Compute Engine Node.js Client API Reference][client-docs] documentation also contains samples. ## Versioning This library follows [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/). This library is considered to be in **alpha**. This means it is still a work-in-progress and under active development. Any release is subject to backwards-incompatible changes at any time. More Information: [Google Cloud Platform Launch Stages][launch_stages] [launch_stages]: https://cloud.google.com/terms/launch-stages ## Contributing Contributions welcome! See the [Contributing Guide](https://github.com/googleapis/nodejs-compute/blob/master/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md). ## License Apache Version 2.0 See [LICENSE](https://github.com/googleapis/nodejs-compute/blob/master/LICENSE) [client-docs]: https://cloud.google.com/nodejs/docs/reference/compute/latest/ [product-docs]: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/ [shell_img]: http://gstatic.com/cloudssh/images/open-btn.png