What
When using Claude through Google Vertex, a missing credentials file named by GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS, or its lowercase spelling, now gets its own error. It says which variable named the file and the path that was not found. The "Service account key file not found" error now appears only when the missing file is the configured service account key file. Before, any missing file under service account sign-in gave that message.
Why
The error points you at the setting that is actually wrong.
Names in the bundleGOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
Confirmed since
Anthropic's documentation has since written up GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS, on Claude Code on Google Cloud's Agent Platform.
> Claude Code addresses Google Cloud's Agent Platform requests to the project in `ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_PROJECT_ID`, even when `GCLOUD_PROJECT`, `GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT`, or the credential file referenced by `GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS` carri…google-vertex-ai see the edit
Added since
A small documentation edit on Deploy Claude Desktop on 3P with Google Cloud's Agent Platform touched a line naming GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS after this was published.
At the start of each Cowork session, the app writes an `authorized_user` Application Default Credentials file (the same format produced by `gcloud auth application-default login`) and points `GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS` at it. The Goog…third-party/claude-desktop/vertex see the edit
One source agreesOne thing we can check says the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agrees
A small documentation edit on Deploy Claude Desktop on 3P with Google Cloud's Agent Platform touched a line naming…