Cloud Access Setup (Universal Cloud Identity)

Tool availability: the cloud-account tools (create_cloud_account, update_cloud_account, how_to_create_<provider>_cloud_account) and the create_secret_nats_account / create_secret_azure_connector tools live in the `full` profile. create_identity / update_identity and update_workload are `core`. If a full tool isn't advertised, reconnect with ?toolsets=full or use the cpln CLI. Reads and deletes work on every profile via list_resources / get_resource / delete_resource.

A workload reads cloud resources with no embedded keys: a GVC-scoped identity carries a per-provider cloud-access block that federates with the provider's IAM, and Control Plane vends short-lived credentials at runtime. Cloud SDKs (boto3, google-cloud, @azure/sdk) pick them up automatically — no SDK config.

The chain

Order is strict: the cloud account must exist before the identity's cloud block references it.

Key constraints

• Identities are GVC-scoped — one per workload, shareable within a GVC, never across GVCs. Same access in another GVC = recreate the identity there.
• One cloud account per provider per identity — one AWS + one GCP + one Azure + one NGS is fine; two AWS on one identity is not.
• Cloud accounts are org-scoped — always pass org.
• Provider is immutable — to switch providers, delete and recreate the cloud account.

Step 1 — Cloud-side IAM setup

Each provider needs IAM configured on the provider side first so Control Plane can assume a role / impersonate a service account. Run the per-provider how-to to get the org-specific values (Control Plane's AWS account ID + external ID, the GCP service-account email, the Azure Function-App connector steps) — never guess these:

• how_to_create_aws_cloud_account — trust policy, account ID, external ID, the IAM permissions for the cpln-connector policy. Create an IAM role with that trust policy + connector policy + ReadOnlyAccess; note the role ARN.
• how_to_create_gcp_cloud_account — add the shown service account as an IAM principal with Viewer, Project IAM Admin, Service Account Admin, Service Account Token Creator (plus the service Admin role, e.g. roles/storage.admin, for each resource type identities will use); note the project ID.
• how_to_create_azure_cloud_account — create a Function App, deploy the connector, make it subscription Owner, capture the Function URL + iam-broker code into an azure-connector secret.
• how_to_create_ngs_cloud_account — create a nats-account secret holding your NATS account credentials.

CLI fallback: cpln cloudaccount create-<provider> --how --org ORG.

Step 2 — Register the cloud account

create_cloud_account (provider = aws/gcp/azure/ngs), passing the value the provider needs:

status.usable stays false until the cloud-side IAM exists. update_cloud_account edits the data block / tags (provider stays immutable). CLI fallback: cpln cloudaccount create-aws|create-gcp|create-azure|create-ngs.

Step 3 — Identity with a cloud-access block

create_identity (or update_identity on an existing one) accepts the per-provider block directly — pass aws, gcp, azure, or ngs. On update each block replaces wholesale; removeCloudIdentities: ["aws"] detaches one. Every block needs cloudAccountLink: //cloudaccount/NAME. The pattern per provider:

• aws — Control Plane creates a new IAM role with policyRefs (managed = aws::AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess, custom = bare name; chars a-zA-Z0-9/+=,.@_- only — never full ARNs), xor roleName to reuse a role. Optional trustPolicy (only alongside policyRefs).
• gcp — creates a service account with bindings (resource + roles like roles/storage.objectViewer; omit resource = project), xor serviceAccount to reuse one. Optional scopes.
• azure — creates a managed identity with roleAssignments (scope + roles; omit scope = subscription).
• ngs — scoped NATS creds: pub/sub allow/deny subjects (* single, > multi-level), resp.max/resp.ttl, and subs/data/payload limits (-1 = no limit).

spec:
  aws:
    cloudAccountLink: //cloudaccount/my-aws
    policyRefs: ["aws::AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess", "MyCustomPolicy"]

CLI fallback (MCP unavailable / CI-CD): cpln identity get NAME --gvc GVC -o yaml-slim > id.yaml, add the block under spec, cpln apply -f id.yaml. Confirm the exact shape with get_resource_schema (kind identity) before authoring YAML by hand.

Step 4 — Link to the workload and verify

update_workload sets spec.identityLink = //identity/NAME (CLI: cpln workload update NAME --set spec.identityLink=//identity/NAME).

Read the identity back with get_resource (kind identity): status.<provider>.usable must be true; if false, read status.<provider>.lastError. Cloud CLIs are usually absent from production containers, so a missing aws/gcloud/az does not mean access is broken — the SDK path still works.

Private-network resources

Reaching a private VPC / on-prem endpoint is a different mechanism on the same identity: a networkResources (agent/wormhole) or nativeNetworkResources (AWS PrivateLink / GCP PSC) array, not a cloud-access block. For the agent deployment walkthrough use setup-agent; for the comparison, producer-side setup, and the resource schema use native-networking.

Common mistakes

• Cloud block before the cloud account — register the account first; the link won't resolve otherwise.
• Skipping the how-to — the org-specific account/external IDs and SA email are required and can't be guessed.
• Full ARN in AWS `policyRefs` — use the policy name with an optional aws:: prefix, no colons.
• Both `policyRefs` + `roleName` (AWS) or `bindings` + `serviceAccount` (GCP) — exactly one.
• Not checking `status.<provider>.usable` — verify true before linking to the workload.
• Confusing cloud access with secret access — cloud access is the identity's aws/gcp/azure/ngs block; secret access is a reveal policy on a cpln://secret/ reference (see setup-secret).
• Sharing an identity across GVCs — recreate it per GVC.

Quick reference — MCP tools

Related skills

Documentation

• Accessing Cloud Resources
• Create a Cloud Account
• Cloud Account Reference · Identity Reference