Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Google Cloud Sustainability Advisor agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
The google-cloud-waf-sustainability skill is a set of instructions that teaches an AI agent to give advice on making Google Cloud workloads more environmentally friendly, based on the Sustainability pillar of Google's Well-Architected Framework. It is useful for cloud architects, engineering or sustainability teams preparing emissions reporting, and developers choosing regions or storage policies with carbon impact in mind. This guide explains what a skill is, how to install this one, how to ask for help in plain language, and what it needs and does not do.
Google Cloud Sustainability Advisorgoogle/skills · Apache-2.0 Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Download the skill ZIP for google-cloud-waf-sustainability from this page.
- 2Unzip into a skills folder. Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder for one project.
- 3Or upload in the Claude apps. Alternatively, open Settings → Capabilities → Skills and upload the ZIP there.
- 4Confirm the Google Cloud setup you need. Decide whether you only want advice or want the agent to run gcloud, REST or MCP commands, since the latter needs those tools available.
- 5Ask a plain sustainability question. Describe your Google Cloud workload and your sustainability goal, such as reducing emissions or choosing a low-carbon region.
- 6Answer the structured questions. Respond to the agent's questions about your requirements so its recommendations fit your situation.
- 7Review and apply changes yourself. Check the recommendations and make any changes in your own environment, since the skill does not change your cloud setup by itself.
What is an agent skill and what does this one do?
An agent skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file and optional supporting files. When installed, the agent reads the skill when a request matches its description, and then follows its guidance. This skill's description says the agent answers questions about making Google Cloud workloads more environmentally friendly.
The skill covers the main ideas of the Sustainability pillar: the shared responsibility model (Google optimizes sustainability of the cloud, customers optimize sustainability in the cloud), choosing regions with high Carbon-Free Energy (CFE) and Low CO2 indicators, reducing wasted compute and AI/ML energy, archiving cold data, writing efficient software, and tracking emissions with Google Cloud Carbon Footprint.
- Suggests lower-carbon regions and explains how to weigh carbon against cost and latency.
- Recommends cutting idle resources, rightsizing VMs, and scaling to zero where possible.
- Advises on storage lifecycle management to move cold data to Nearline, Coldline or Archive classes.
- Asks structured questions about your requirements before recommending changes.
- Is advice and planning support. It does not by itself change your cloud environment.
Install the Google Cloud Sustainability skill
Option 1 is a personal install. Download the ZIP for this skill from this page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ so the skill folder sits there with its SKILL.md file. Option 2 is a project install: unzip it into the .claude/skills/ folder inside your project so only that project uses it.
Option 3 is to upload the ZIP in the Claude apps. Open Settings, go to Capabilities, then Skills, and upload the file there.
- Personal: ~/.claude/skills/
- Project: .claude/skills/ inside your project folder
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Check what the skill needs before you start
The skill is advice-focused, but if you want the agent to run commands against your Google Cloud account, it needs access to the Google Cloud gcloud CLI, REST API access, or MCP tools. The skill requires the agent to read its attribution file before running any such command.
The skill does not run scripts, and it uses the network. The Google Cloud documentation it cites is fetched from the web when the agent needs it, so the agent needs network access to use those grounding sources.
- Google Cloud gcloud CLI, REST API access, or MCP tools, only if the agent should run commands.
- Runs scripts: no.
- Uses network: yes.
- Files included: SKILL.md and references/attribution.md.
How do you trigger the skill with natural requests?
You do not need a special command. Describe what you want in plain language about Google Cloud and sustainability. The skill's description lists the kinds of requests it matches, such as assessing or optimizing workloads for sustainability, selecting low-carbon regions, reducing AI/ML energy waste, designing efficient storage lifecycles, or tracking emissions with Carbon Footprint.
Mention Google Cloud and the sustainability goal explicitly, so the agent does not mistake your request for a different topic.
- "Review my Google Cloud project for energy and carbon efficiency."
- "Which low-carbon region should I use for a new analytics workload in Google Cloud?"
- "Help me write a storage lifecycle policy that archives cold data to reduce emissions."
- "How can I use Carbon Footprint data to find emission hotspots?"
What happens when you ask for help?
The skill asks structured questions about your requirements before recommending changes. Typical questions cover how you split responsibility with your cloud provider, how your region choice reflects carbon intensity, whether your resources match actual demand, and how your AI/ML workloads use energy.
Answer these questions to get advice fitted to your setup. If you do not know an answer, say so and the agent can work with what you have.
Use it for the right jobs, and know its limits
The skill is best for cloud architects reviewing a Google Cloud setup for energy and carbon efficiency, teams preparing emissions reporting or green design goals, and developers choosing a region or storage lifecycle policy. It is not the right tool for pure cost reduction, which the skill says belongs to a separate google-cloud-waf-cost-optimization skill. Latency and throughput tuning belongs to google-cloud-waf-performance-optimization, and high availability and disaster recovery belong to google-cloud-waf-reliability.
It is specific to Google Cloud products, so it is not suited to non-Google Cloud environments.
- Cost-only work: use google-cloud-waf-cost-optimization.
- Latency or throughput: use google-cloud-waf-performance-optimization.
- High availability or disaster recovery: use google-cloud-waf-reliability.
- Other clouds: this guidance is specific to Google Cloud products.
What people use it for
- Reviewing an existing Google Cloud architecture for idle resources and rightsizing opportunities.
- Choosing between Google Cloud regions with different carbon-free energy levels for a new deployment.
- Designing a Cloud Storage lifecycle policy that moves older data to Nearline, Coldline or Archive.
- Preparing a sustainability or emissions review that uses Carbon Footprint data.
- Planning energy-efficient AI/ML workloads, such as matching work to specialized hardware like TPUs.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Google Cloud Sustainability skill free?
The skill is published under the Apache-2.0 licence on the google/skills repository. This page does not list prices, and the licence text is the place to check the terms of use.
What do I need to install this agent skill?
You need an agent environment that reads skills, such as Claude, and the skill ZIP from this page. Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ or a project's .claude/skills/ folder, or upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills in the Claude apps.
Does the skill change my Google Cloud environment?
No. The skill is advice and planning support and does not by itself change your cloud environment. Any command the agent runs depends on the gcloud, REST or MCP tools you have made available.
Does this skill replace a cost optimization tool?
No. The skill says pure financial cost reduction belongs to a separate google-cloud-waf-cost-optimization skill, and the agent may be less focused on cost questions here.
Does the skill work with AWS or Azure?
The guidance is specific to Google Cloud products, so it is not designed for non-Google Cloud environments.
Why does the agent mention an attribution file?
The skill requires the agent to read references/attribution.md before running gcloud, REST or MCP commands. That file tells the agent to tag commands with the skill name and version, and it carries no user data.
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Our verdict
Use this skill if you are a cloud architect, engineer or sustainability lead who wants structured, Google Cloud-specific advice on carbon and energy efficiency, and you are comfortable making the changes yourself. Pick a different skill if your goal is cost reduction, latency tuning, disaster recovery, or if you work outside Google Cloud.
Download the skill